Illinois Basketball: 3 areas of improvement entering the 2021-22 season
2. Three Pointers Attempted Per Game
The game of basketball is starting to be played more from the outside in. While the Illinois basketball team has the in part down, their quantity of outside shots is something to work on this season.
I know the number of outside shots is skewed based on having Kofi Cockburn in the paint. When you have a big man of his caliber, you should go to him frequently. The more you find Kofi in the paint, the fewer shots from outside. That doesn’t always have to be the case, though.
When Andre Curbelo, or whoever has the ball on the perimeter, dumps it down to Kofi, the ball doesn’t have to stop there. Kofi needs to know when the double or even triple team comes so he can pass the ball back out for an open three-point shot. There has to be a man open.
Just this past season alone, Illinois was only attempting 17.6 three-point shots per game, which ranked No. 310 in the country. If we were a bad three-point shooting team, I would understand not taking as many deep shots, but that wasn’t the case at all. The Illini were hitting 37.2% of their three-point shots, which ranked No. 30 in the nation.
Illinois should improve on their three-point shooting heading into the 2021-22 campaign as well. They lost Adam Miller who took the most three-point shots on the team and only shot 34-percent from deep. We are returning Trent Frazier, Da’Monte Williams, and Jacob Grandison who all shot at least 36.2-percent from three-point range.
I know Kofi is a dominant big man, but we need to increase our three-point attempts. Illinois has the firepower to put more points on the board, and the three-point arc is the way to accomplish that goal.