The Worst Three Point Shooting Teams Lately In The ACC

In the modern game, you almost have to hit threes at a respectable rate.

It’s difficult to know how to regard expert pronouncements that just aren’t true. An entire political career can be built on half-truths. Still, faced with faux facts, an analytical pause is warranted: half-true declarations are only half-false, too.

If you haven’t heard it yet, you’ll inevitably be told over the course of the season that so-and-so just set an all-time record in a category that wasn’t even tracked until relatively recently. But at that point “all-time” loses its meaning.

And not all of us are content with ‘almost’ when it comes to giving credit where it was due, but not given.

Take blocked shots, steals, assists, or turnovers. None was officially tracked before 1976. Or take 3-point production, allowed experimentally in 1982-83 and the source of some ACC records. The bonus shot became permanent in 1986-87. And over time the distance of the arc from the basket changed twice, most recently for the 2019-20 season (22’1.75”).

We’re only in the sixth year with the longer attempt, but so far this season several ACC teams seemingly can’t make the shot with any consistency. In fact, three are faring more poorly than any ACC squad since 10-17 Miami in 2021.

Considering that bonusphere scoring has become increasingly valued as part of a modern scoring diet, a team failing to make at least a breakeven portion of a team’s threes is burdened with a wasteful handicap. Sad to say, then, as winter settles in eight of 18 ACC teams are converting less than a third of their 3-point tries.

Worth noting: Syracuse and Louisville, among the least accurate league teams from beyond the arc also rank among the ACC’s top offensive rebounding units. Good job cleaning up their misses.