ACC Three Point Shooting Leaders

Let threedom ring!

Now that we’re past Thanksgiving, the experimental part of ACC basketball schedules is winding down. Holiday tournaments and made-for-TV extravaganzas are dwindling quickly as teams prepare for conference play.

Having faced seasoned heavyweights like Arizona, Kansas and Auburn, those around the Duke men’s team will have a better idea of the Blue Devils’ strengths and weaknesses, individual and collective. They have a good idea of how the Devils mesh or sputter in different circumstances, and you can be certain coaches are working to share lessons and hone player skills, crafting an ever more powerful, flexible unit.

The Devils soon get a chance to throttle back a notch when they face low-profile UIW, which is not the United Auto Workers but rather the University of the Incarnate Word, the largest Catholic school in Texas. The San Antonio university is a member of the Southland Conference, as are Texas A&M Corpus Christi and Houston Christian.

UIW will be the second straight flock of Cardinals to cross Duke’s path.

All but two ACC teams, Duke and Louisville, taste league competition on Dec. 7. The Devils and UL Cards open their 20-game ACC odyssey at Louisville the next day. UIW comes to Cameron on Dec. 10, only to fly back to San Antonio to face crosstown rival Our Lady of the Lake. Duke hosts George Mason on Dec. 17, then goes two months before a last venture outside the league to face Illinois in New York.

Among the characteristics to watch at Durham and elsewhere around the ACC will be how 3-point shots are employed, and who shoulders the load in taking them.

Which players try the most threes, which teams employ the shot most liberally? Who’s best at letting fly from the bonusphere, in gross terms, in effectiveness, and as a portion of field goals overall? Then we can look back as the season unfolds and get a measure of how the supposed rise in use of the 3-pointer is playing out in the ACC.

It’s worth noting that, through Nov. 28, 8 of 18 ACC squads converted threes at below a breakeven rate (.333). Also, not surprisingly based on past practice, Pat Kelsey’s much-improved Louisville Cardinals had tried more than half their shots from beyond the arc, led by College of Charleston transfer Reyne Smith with 9.5 per game.