UK Basketball: John Calipari excited to have improved 3-point shooting for next season

What is John Calipari going to do differently from now on?

One thing is making sure isn’t an issue again is his team’s shooting from deep.

“This has become a hit or miss league: If you make it you win, if you miss it you lose.”

That’s what John Calipari told Jon Hale at the Courier Journal regarding Kentucky’s three-pointing shooting.

Last season, Kentucky snapped the incredible 1,047-game three-point streak that had been intact since November 26, 1988. The streak seemed to be in jeopardy several times last season as the team didn’t have a go to three-point shooter.

While the team shrugged off snapping the streak, citing the fact that they still got the victory over Davidson in the second round of the NCAA Tournament, Calipari apparently did not and he isn’t expecting to see it happen again.

In the article, Calipari said that not only did three-point shooting hurt the team last year, but he believes they would have won the National Championship in 2010 with John Wall, DeMarcus Cousins, Eric Bledsoe, and Patrick Patterson. That team went 4 for 32 in an Elite Eight loss to West Virginia.

Calipari’s teams have never historically relied on three-point shooting. They simply haven’t needed to. In fact, only two of his teams have averaged more than seven made threes per game. But he knows that shooting is becoming more important in today’s game, in both the NBA and college basketball.

It becomes hard when defenses are able to play off a guy because they know he can’t shoot. It can clog the middle and make it more difficult to get the ball to the basket.

Luckily, three-point shooting won’t be a problem next season with a lineup that features elite shooters Tyler Herro and Jemarl Baker, as well as Quade Green, who shot 37.6% from three last season, and Immanuel Quickley, who shot 41% from three on the Adidas Circuit last summer.

And let’s just say Calipari is pretty excited about it.

“You’re talking all our guys, (including) our big guys,” Calipari said. “… So yeah, I’m excited about this team in that regard.”

Next season is going to be fun.