How far is the college 3-point line compared to the NBA line?

Those who tuned into the first night of March Madness got to witness one of the greatest shooting performances in college basketball history with Oakland University's Jack Gohlke knocking down 10 three-pointers to lead the Golden Grizzlies to an improbable upset victory over No. 3 Kentucky.

Gohlke is the definition of a three-point sniper, as all 20 of his field goal attempts on Thursday came from behind the arc. He nailed 10 of his 20 three-point attempts off the bench to lead Oakland to their biggest win in school history.

With Gohlke having as good of a night as he did from distance, it's fair to wonder just how far the college three-point line is in comparison to the NBA three-point line. If Gohlke can shoot it as well as he did on Thursday from NBA-range, he might have a better shot at being an NBA player than he thinks.

How far is the college 3-point line compared to the NBA line?

The NCAA recently moved the three-point line back in 2019 to the International line. The new college three-point line is 22 feet and 1 3/4 inches away from the center of the basket, and 21 feet and 7 7/8 inches from the corners. Compare that to the NBA three-point line, which is 23 feet and 9 inches from the center of the basket and 22 feet from the corners.

Diagrams and actual distances can be seen here.

While most players shoot from right behind the line to get as close to the basket as possible, the truly good shooters, like Gohlke, take a step or two back and shoot from NBA-range fairly often. We see Stephen Curry take steps back to create more space and shoot from 30+ feet routinely.

The 3-point shot is easily the most valuable in both the NBA and college nowadays. Perhaps with how important it is, we'll see the NCAA move it back even further to get even closer to the NBA. For now, they're just the same as International rules.

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