If you've been reading here for a while, you know I like to track each possession in conference play in Division I's top 11 leagues. One good thing about having all those possessions on my laptop is the light they shed not only on how well teams play but also on how they play.
For example, one rule of thumb that I've adopted is that teams that shoot a lot of 3s have coaches who are open to shooting a lot of 3s. That sounds commonsensical enough, but "coaches who are open to shooting a lot of 3s" actually describes a fairly small subset of Division I coaches. And in any given season, it will not be the case, of course, that 100 percent of that subset will choose to shoot a lot of 3s with their latest team.
Take Rick Pitino. Clearly he's open to shooting 3s. He practically invented the practice, with Billy Donovan burying deep shots for the Providence team that Pitino took to the 1987 Final Four. Pitino's perimeter bona fides are impeccable, but the coach knows more than one way to play. We haven't seen a Louisville team shoot a lot of 3s (defined here as ranking in the top 50 nationally in 3-FGA/FGA) in three seasons.
For a team to show a perimeter orientation, the right coach has to be paired with (what he thinks is) the right personnel. And that figures to be the case this season with the teams listed below.
These all ranked in the top 50 nationally last season in terms of perimeter orientation. They return most of their key contributors and project to shoot a ton of 3s again in 2014-15.
If you like the long ball, these are the teams to watch this season.
The team that devoted the largest share of its attempts to tries from beyond the arc in Big East play last season was not Creighton (43.2 percent). In a photo finish, it was in fact Villanova (43.5).