After last weekend's loss to No. 17 Wake Forest, the Virginia men's basketball team was faced with a number more dismal than the 91-78 final score. The Cavaliers were 0-12 from three-point land.
The inability to sink a basket from behind the arc Saturday in Winston-Salem prevented the Cavaliers from competing with the Demon Deacons, but the issue of three-point shooting has plauged a young Virginia squad throughout the season.
Virginia currently ranks last in the ACC in three-point field goal percentage, yet the Cavaliers are fifth in the conference in three-pointers attempted. Florida State, Duke and Georgia Tech, three schools ahead of Virginia in three-pointers taken, ranked one, two and three, respectively, in percentage of threes made. Virginia's failure to sink the three-pointers they take has kept the Cavaliers out of games that were potentially winnable.
"We kept scratching and clawing," coach Pete Gillen said following the Wake Forest game. "We wanted to chip away; it's a 40-minute game. We needed to hit some threes, and we didn't hit a three all game."
This mindset may be the root of the problem. In the Florida State game Jan. 18, the Cavaliers put up a season-high 31 three pointers, making a respectable 13 for a .419 shooting percentage. But the key statistic surrounding this game was that those 31 tries outnumbered the number of shots taken from inside the three point arc that afternoon.
An excessive number of three-point shots can mean victory, as the Cavaliers won against Florida State. In fact, Virginia is 5-3 in games in which they take at least 20 three-point shots, leading critics to claim that the Cavaliers are overly dependant on perimeter shooting.
The fact remains that Elton Brown, the team's leading scorer, has not made a three-pointer all year. Yet in Virginia's two ACC victories against Florida State and Clemson, Brown totaled only nine points in over 40 minutes. In those same two games, the Cavaliers went 18-49 (.367) from behind the arc, well above their .320 average for the year.
That percentage stands in contrast to a .258 three-point percentage in the Cavaliers' five conference losses and demonstrates how wins and losses can be determined based on three-point shooting on a given night.
"0-12?" sophomore Derrick Byars said after the Wake Forest game. "Man, that's hard to believe."
The kind of perimeter shooting that shocked Byars and contributed to the loss to Wake Forest reflects the degree to which Virginia's offense relies up on the three-point shot. The Cavaliers will aim to improve their success from long range as they host the Maryland Terrapins Wednesday night.
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