Dick Vitale complains about college three-point line after Villanova’s showing
After Villanova’s record-setting performance from the beyond the arc on Saturday, and overall this season from three-point range, Dick Vitale is calling for some changes.
On their way to a second national title game in three years, the Villanova Wildcats have set a record for three-pointers in a single NCAA Tournament with 66. They’ve also set the all-time single-season college record for three-pointers, as Jay Wright’s squad has taken a page from the NBA’s Golden State Warriors.
Through the growth of college basketball led by ESPN, Dick Vitale became and still is one of the most recognizable voices in the sport. After Villanova went 18-for-40 from beyond the arc in their 95-79 Final Four win over Kansas Saturday night, Vitale called for changes to the dimensions of the floor in college basketball wherever had the opportunity.
The quality of play on the men’s side of college basketball has deteriorated as a whole recently, due to multiple factors. So let’s widen the lane and make the three-point shot longer, right?
The time has come to push the 3-point line back to the international distance and widen the lane. The game is becoming dominated too much by the 3-point shot.
— Dick Vitale (@DickieV) April 1, 2018
Villanova went just 4-for-24 from three-point range in a 71-59 win over Texas Tech in the Elite Eight. But they took care of the ball pretty well (12 turnovers), won the rebounding battle decisively (51-33) and made their free throws (29-for-35). The Wildcats are simply a very good team, who moved toward smaller lineups originally out of necessity but has made it work at a rare level.
All four teams in this year’s Final Four are examples of largely positionless and interchangeable basketball, with no less than four guys on the floor who can shoot and make plays for others at any time. The NBA game has moved toward a perimeter in recent years, in part driven by analytics exposing the inefficiency of long two-point jump shots when a few more feet is worth an extra point.
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So it was only a matter of time before college basketball offense started to shift toward the three-point line too, with players who are watching the NBA and modeling themselves after the Stephen Currys of the world.
Vitale may have a point, if you really drill down to what he’s trying to say. But “the game is becoming dominated too much by the three-point shot”? Thanks for pointing that out Dickie V, with the sentiment of “too much” at least up for debate but easily left out, we hadn’t noticed.