Comparing UMaine’s 2 basketball teams 3 point shooting percentages!

Seeing that both the UMaine basketball teams have a tendency of “living and dying by the 3 point shot” let’s compare the women with  record of 17-8 and the men at 6-20 3 point percentages.

The women are shooting 33.3% in their 25 games and the men are shooting 29.7% in their 26 games.

The women are averaging 8.1 3 pointers a game out of 24.3 3 attempts per game. The men are averaging 7.2 3’s per game out of 24.2 3 point attempts per game.

The men are taking 41% of their field goal attempt as 3 point attempts and the women 40.8%.

Now let’s take a look at their 3 pt.% in their wins and losses.

In their 17 wins the women are shooting 36.4% and the men in their 6 wins are shooting 42%.

The women took 38.9% of their FGA’s as 3′ in their 17 wins while the men took  42.1% of their FGA’s as 3’s in their 6 wins.

In their 8 losses the women are shooting 26.6% the men in their 20 losses are shooting just 27.3%.

The women took 46.1% of their FGA’s as 3 attempts in their 8 losses. and the men took 41.8% of their FGA’s as 3 attempts in their 20 losses.

Compare the 3 point percentages for both teams in their wins and losses and then compare the percentages of the number or percentage of FGA’s they took as 3’s. It is very interesting and revealing.

The women have been more successful as “living (winning record) and dying by the threes” illustrated by their 17-8 record to the men’s 6-20 mark of “living and dying (losing record) by the 3’s”. The women have made an average of 8.1 threes out of 24.3 3 attempts for 33.3% while the men have gone 7.2 of 24.2 for 29.7%. So the three results are fairly close statistically.

It has been the women’s overall defense of giving up just 54.5ppg (ranked 10th in the nation of 349 D-1 teams) to the men’s 75ppg and the women’s defense against the 3 of 27.9% per game and the men’s have allowed 33.3% that has made the difference between the two teams Wins and Losses. The women are averaging 64.5 ppg offensively and the men are averaging 66.9 ppg offensively.

This also compares “the living by the 3 (the wins) and the dying by the 3 (the Losses)”.

This should be a concern for both head coaches as they get ready for the conference tournament in just a month’s time. To win the tournaments the teams are going to have to win 3 games in a row. To win a single elimination, one and done, or win or go home tournament a team is probably going to have to survive a poor shooting game especially from the 3 point lines.

If they have a bad night 3 point shooting percentage wise from beyond the ARC-tic line on a cold 3 point shooting night like it shows in their losses so far this season, so unless they cut back on their percentage of 3’s taken of the FGA’s it is going to be a BIG GAMBLE IF YOU ARE GOING “TO LIVE AND DIE BY THE THREE” IN THE TOURNAMENT.

Even though their won-lost records are not close their 3 point percentages in all of the 3 point catogories offensively are fairly close. Could it be that because the women’s basketball is 8 1/2 inches in diameter to the men’s ball at 9 inches in diameter could that 1/2 inch difference in diameter make or be the difference when things are so close? Just wonderin”.

Neither team is built to survive the cold shooting night when their shooting prayers attempted are not answered. Neither team has an effective inside game, an inside-outside game or dribble penetration game to get the needed higher percentage shots and to get more wide open 3 looks.

So it looks like that ” if their hot their hot (win) if their not their not (lose)”.

Certainly wouldn’t bet on any Maine high school or college team at any level that relies on the 3 as much as both UMaine teams do to win a 3 game single elimination tournament.

There are very few teams in Maine, that I have seen this year at either the high school or college level that are built to survive those 3 point shooting nights when they are as “cold as a referee’s heart” in their 3 point shooting from behind the ARC-tic 3 point line.

There always seems to be a little more pressure in elimination tournaments as the ball seems to get bigger and the rim seems to get smaller for the 3 point shots.