After watching players in the past two men’s NCAA tournaments miss 3-pointers at a higher rate than in previous years, the conventional wisdom was loud and clear last week: It’s the ball.
“Bring back the other basketballs,” former Villanova star Collin Gillespie tweeted.
Gonzaga coach Mark Few told Stadium’s Jeff Goodman that the “brand-new slick basketballs” need to be “inflated less.”
“My star point guard just said he hates them,” one 2023 postseason team’s staffer told ESPN.
An assistant at a different program said the only player on the roster who liked the ball had already used it in high school.
One staffer for a team that reached the Elite Eight told ESPN that in the tournament “the balls are always too fresh and aired up.”
“Contributed to the terrible 3-point shooting you’re seeing in the tournament,” an assistant for still another NCAA tournament team volunteered.
“Terrible” shooting? That will of course be in the eye of the beholder.
Through the first 64 games of the 2023 men’s NCAA tournament, teams have shot 31.9% on their 3s. That is similar to the 31.8% figure recorded over the whole tournament last year but is down appreciably from the 33.7% success rate teams posted in 2021. Attempt rates have remained relatively steady across all three years.
Meanwhile, in this year’s NIT, players are shooting 30.5% from outside with three games still to be played. While that’s roughly the same as the 30.8% success rate the field posted a year ago, it’s down considerably from the 35.6% shooting displayed in 2021.
Finally, in the 2023 women’s NCAA tournament teams to this point have converted 30.4% of their 3-point attempts. This number is virtually identical to last year’s mark (30.6%) and again a good deal lower than 2021’s figure (33.6%).
As for the basketball itself, the Wilson Evo NXT was rolled out for the first time for all three postseason NCAA events starting in 2022.
Cause and effect or coincidence?
“Anyone know the deal?”
Within the prominent Division I college basketball postseason landscape, the ball is far from the only object of furtive speculation. When Iowa State recorded one of the lowest shooting percentages in men’s NCAA tournament history against Pitt in this year’s round of 64, for example, the center of attention was the…
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