ISU Shooting 75% From 3

That is some good shooting by ISU. Some of it was poor defense by KU but 75% is good shooting. We are still up 10 at the half.

But how's our free throw defense?

RC

Fools Gold seemed to work pretty good for both teams tonight.

Would love to see Self put the old school big man thing on ice going forward, and build a shooting team that plays tough defense.

Wow. We have a great shooting night so self throws out the fools gold comment again. Come on coach. You’re one of the best. Embrace the new era.

Defense carries the day, but so does 90 points.

I think the "fools gold" thing is somewhat misunderstood. I don't think Self has a problem with taking 3's as long as they're good shots, and the "fools gold" thing is more about when a team overly relies on the 3 and gets suckered into thinking it's successful when they're getting lucky and ill-advised shots are going in.

I interpret Self as saying that unless/until you're running the WHOLE offense correctly, chucking up 3's isn't necessarily a good plan. If, however, the offense is running as designed, and an open 3 presents itself, you should take it. Case in point, the commentators last night mentioned that Dok has gotten very good at recognizing when he's double or triple teamed ("One, two, three....hey, I'm triple teamed" ) and kicking it out to an open shooter. We did this a few times last night and it was great. Additionally, there were a few times last night where we had EXCELLENT ball movement...one or two extra passes resulting in GREAT looks. Even when those shots didn't fall, I'm sure Self was happy that crisp passing and movement was creating opportunities. Not all shots are going to go in, but making the extra pass to find a guy all alone IS good ball.

ISU on the other hand realized that they were going to need some things to go their way in order to get lucky and pull off a win. So I'm sure that out of the box, their shooters had the green light to pull the trigger at will. We helped them by being lazy on defense, but even if we hadn't stepped up, it's unlikely that a 75% rate of return is going to continue. In the end, people revert back to their percentages, and just because Garrett lit it up the other night, or Dotson caught fire last night doesn't mean that they're going to have that kind of success all the time. Nevertheless, when the offense is doing what it's supposed to do, they're going to have more opportunities and the odds of them making those shots increases.

It seems to me that HCBS is talking about how there is more variance the higher percentage of three point shots that a team takes compared to high percentage two point shots like lay ups, dunks and facing the basket shots in the paint.

In the long run 40% of your threes is the same as 60% of your twos. But in a smaller sample of 60 to 80 attempts the chance to depart from 1.2 points per shot is greater the more of the 40% shots taken. There are a few math wizards on this board that can show this far more effectively that I can. But, the takeaway I get is that when he has the best talent HCBS prefers not to randomize the outcome more than necessary.