[NU Sports] 77-44

[Joe Thiegs]

That's good to hear (I didn't actually see the game).  I was only theorizing
about how we can win convincingly against a presumably good team on one
night and have such miserable losses or close wins against teams we should
blow out other nights.  Without the benefit of any real study, I get the
sense that there is a pretty strong correlation between our three-point
shooting percentage and winning (I'm sure that's true of most teams, but
maybe more so with us).  Also, I'm guessing that hitting the threes
contributed to success in other aspects of the offense.  Making threes
forces opposing defenses to guard the perimeter more closely, which opens up
the driving and passing lanes, short jumpers and layup opportunities.  If we
weren't hitting anything from behind the arc, they could lay off there and
tighten up in the interior.  We don't have a lot of big bangers down low.
Hence, "live by the three, die by the three."  I know that Gonzaga used to
be a lot like that, at least in the late '90s, early 2000s--they relied
heavily on good outside shooters.  If those guys had a bad night it could
get ugly, but as long as the guards shot well they were hard to beat.
Again, I didn't see the NU game but that's just the sense I get from having
looked at a few of our box scores.

-Joe

-----Original Message-----
From: nwu-sports-bounces at tssi.com [mailto:nwu-sports-bounces at tssi.com] On
Behalf Of s.fridley at comcast.net
Sent: Thursday, December 21, 2006 3:07 PM
To: nwu-sports at tssi.com
Subject: RE: [NU Sports] 77-44

Actually, that's a mischaracterization of the game.  We shot threes
extremely well but we also ran the offense extremely well.  We scored 33
points from the arc, and 32 points in the paint.  We'd have tied the game
without hitting a single trey...


 -------------- Original message ----------------------
From: "Joe Thiegs" <thiegs at umn.edu>
> Live by the three, die by the three . . . .  -Joe
> 
> 

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