BANG! Rutgers leads the country in 3-point percentage after two games
If play-by-play sports commentator Mike Breen called the first two Rutgers men’s basketball games of the season, you would have heard his iconic “BANG!” plenty of times.
Through the first two games for the Scarlet Knights and for games nationally through Tuesday, they lead the country in 3-point shooting percentage at 56.5 percent (26-for-46). It’s a tremendous step up after finishing 347th out of 351 team in 2017-18.
They've certainly made a "Garden Statement".
"The only thing I can tell you is that every day I’m in practice, we’re a much better three-point shooting team," head coach Steve Pikiell said on Wednesday afternoon. "I don’t know where that lies at the end of the year in the national rankings. But, I mean, Issa (Thiam) can make threes and Peter Kiss can make threes and Montez Mathis can make threes and Ron Harper can make threes and Geo Baker can make threes and Eugene (Omoruyi) is now making threes. We didn’t have that many choices last year. I know we’re better shooting the ball from three but where it’ll end up, I don’t know.”
On the year, Thiam has made 7-of-10 threes, Omoruyi is 6-of-7, Kiss is 4-of-5, Baker is 4-for-8, and Mathis and Harper Jr. have made three and two shots respectively from behind the arc.
"It makes it hard for teams to defend us," Baker said on the number of weapons Rutgers has in its arsenal. "It's not just one guy that you really have to focus on."
Shooting from deep isn’t the only thing that is up from a year ago. Assists numbers have also improved thus far. Last season, Rutgers was ironically again 347th in the nation with 9.8 assists per game. This year, the Scarlet Knights are 24th with an astounding 20.5
Pikiell credits the passing for giving shooters the ball right in the pocket which has helped the 3-point shots and shooting in general.
“I think what’s changed for us is I think we have a lot better passers. The passing has changed the shooting,” Pikiell said. “But these guys are in the gym. (Tuesday) night, everyone was in the gym. They got a little different mentality and they get up more shots. They enjoy it. The passing has helped the shooting percentages a great deal.”
Baker, the point guard, leads the team with 13 assists and is tied for second with 15.0 points per contest. Rutgers scored over 90 points in both games of the season and he credits the chemistry as well as the passing for getting the job done.
“We like to share the ball, and I think that’s something that is new here,” Baker said. “As long as we keep that up, I think we’ll keep making shots. But, we have to improve our defense too because they’ll be nice where we don’t make our shots.”
But as good as Rutgers has been good from long range in the small sample size of games, it has been bad from the free-throw line. The Scarlet Knights are shooting just 53.5 percent (23-of-43) which is lower than what they are shooting from 3-point land. That is good (or bad) for 335th. Rutgers ended up 341st at 64 percent a year ago.
In the practices that have been open to the media, Rutgers has worked on free throws. Pikiell sends them to the line after high-intensity drills which simulates going hard in games.
And while the percentages remain down, Pikiell isn’t worried.
"We’re going to continue to do what we’ve been doing. I think the right guys have gotten to the free-throw line but haven’t made shots. I’m really not worried because I think we’ve got real good foul shooters,” Pikiell said. “There’s a lot of things that worry me a lot more than that right now. On the list of things, that’s something that I see every day and I know we’re much improved at, so I think over the course of time, it’ll play out that we’re a much improved free throw shooting team."
