As the 2008-09 men’s basketball campaign gets underway, there is one question that coaches, players, fans and media alike are trying to answer: What is the effect of the new 3-point line?
The rule change to move the line back was passed in the spring of 2007 to take effect starting this season; the line now sits 20 feet, 9 inches from the basket, one foot further than the previous line of 19 feet, 9 inches.
With the three-ball turning into a short jump shot in recent years as big men expanded their games to the perimeter and as players became more athletic and versatile on the whole, basketball has clearly become a perimeter-based game; in 1986-87, Division I games averaged 9.1 3-point attempts per game, an number that has climbed steadily to an all-time high of 19.07 3-point attempts per game last season.
“I think [the 19-foot-9 line] gave almost everybody a license to think that they were shooters when they weren’t,” Virginia coach Dave Leitao said. “Now maybe players and coaches have more of a proven ground to see if you can do it or can’t do it based on their percentages.”
In the Cavaliers’ first regular-season game with the new line, their 107-97 win against VMI Sunday, they shot three of 16 from 3-point range and appeared to leave many 3-point shots short, particularly in the opening minutes. Given that the Cavaliers sank 42.1 percent of their 3-point shots in their exhibition against Shepherd, however, the low shooting percentage was likely influenced more by other factors.
The new line “really hasn’t [had an effect on the low shooting percentage] in the preseason, practices and games and things like that — the scrimmage game and exhibition game,” Leitao said, noting that against full-throttle VMI, “I think that the threes that we were trying to take were from full-court action, which sometimes aren’t the best.”
When asked about the new line during the preseason, players around the ACC agreed: A foot doesn’t change their mindset all that much.
“I don’t think it’s a big difference at all,” North Carolina junior guard Wayne Ellington said. “As you start to play with it, you don’t even notice any difference.”
VMI led the nation with 11.6 3-point shots made per game last year, and coach Duggar Baucom agreed that the new line will not have a big effect on his game plan.
“We’re still going to shoot them,” he said.
More important differences, Leitao noted in the preseason, occur with how the players view the new line.
“You take [the 19-foot-9 line] — guys typically would shoot not really at [it], they’d shoot a foot, foot and a half behind it,” Leitao said. “You move that line back, they move back. They’re not toeing the line; they’re attempting longer shots than the line requires them to.”
Leitao added that this reaction was unexpected.
“I thought that they would just take the normal shots that they had been taking all along, which is well within the range that they can shoot,” he said.
Even beyond the 3-point shot itself, Leitao and other coaches have noted the differences in floor spacing — just as shooters expand their range, defenses are forced to stretch themselves to cover the extra space.
“It’s more room that the defense has to have to chase you around — in the post, and recovering, close-outs, things like that,” Leitao said. “If you can become a good ball-movement team, then maybe you can take advantage of that spacing.”
Virginia Tech coach Seth Greenberg disagreed with the Virginia coach’s assessment preseason.
“I think the biggest thing you’re going to see this year is that the new 3-point line is going to shrink the court,” Greenberg said. “Not everyone is going to be closed out to that line. I think certain guys are going to be gapped off the ball because [from 19 feet 9 inches] it’s a two, not a three. I think it’s going to take away driving lanes because people are not going to have to extend as far out.”
In addition, whereas Leitao said his players have been backing too far off the line, Greenberg said the biggest adjustment for his players is getting behind it.
“We’ve shot a lot of two-pluses,” Greenberg said. “That’s the worst shot you can take.”
Then, there’s the added factor of the line simply being confusing. The women still shoot from the old line that coincides with the top of the key; both players and referees now have to keep track of which line they are standing behind.
Leitao said there were proposals to fix this problem, but none passed the scrutiny of the NCAA Rules Committee.
“We talked about making it one thick line ... The men’s team would just shoot behind a different color, because it was one thick band,” Leitao said. “But, that didn’t pass, so what we settled on is something that aesthetically doesn’t look very pretty, and is a little confusing at the same time, and will cause stoppages in action.”
Greenberg even suggested moving both the men’s and women’s lines to the Olympic line, which lies 20 feet, 6 inches from the basket.
“I think we need to go to the Olympic line so we can have some uniformity,” he said. “I think the women need to do it also, so we can have one stinkin’ line on the court.”
With all of the added dimensions that the new 3-point line adds, Leitao noted the importance of keeping practice conditions consistent with the new game setting.
“Even in our practice gym we have both [the men’s and women’s lines],” Leitao said. “You don’t want to be in one gym and have two lines, and another gym being one line — there’s a little bit too much confusion, and you don’t have enough uniformity to promote that consistency that would hopefully make the play consistent.”
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