Examining the cause of South Carolina's three-point shooting troubles

When Lamont Paris deconstructed and rebuilt his roster this offseason, he did so with one clear intention in mind. He’s said it since the beginning: South Carolina will be a team that shoots a lot of three-pointers.

It made sense when he first said it when addressing fans at Garnet and Black Madness in mid-October. The Gamecocks only shot 31.6 percent from deep as a team last year. So improvements had to be made as he brought in new players who not only fit his system but could also shoot well from beyond the arc.

Everything was going according to plan at the start, with South Carolina knocking down 30 threes within its first two games this season. That’s what Paris signed up for, but he’s quickly learned of the drawbacks when the outside shots aren’t going in.

Through the first 11 games, the Gamecocks have been worse than last year as a three-point shooting team, only making 29.9 percent of their shots. It turns out they’ve actually been one of the lowest-rated teams at 296th of 365 Division 1 teams in three-point percentage.

So what gives? Why haven’t the shots been falling for a team specifically built to make those shots? Well, the answer to that isn’t particularly clear, at least not according to Paris and players.

“That’s a good question. I don’t know. We’re going to try and get to the bottom of it,” Paris said after Tuesday’s 68-61 loss to Clemson. “Our team was constructed, in a way, with that part. I mean, that’s what basketball is today. … Our team was constructed in a way where we thought that we would be able to withstand off shooting nights just on the volume of guys that are capable of shooting.”

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The problem isn’t the volume of three-point shots they’re taking. They’re averaging 28.6 attempts per game, which is roughly seven more than last year. The problem is the amount that they’re missing, which has been alarming as of late.

While this could be subjective, a good three-point percentage is about 35 percent or above. Anything beyond that is considered to be really good, especially when hovering around the 40 percent mark.

So when looking at things through that lens, South Carolina has shot less than 30 percent in seven of its last eight games, four of which have resulted in losses. Coincidence? Probably not.

“It’s tough, man. It’s tough,” Meechie Johnson said. “You’re going through some scoring droughts where you’re getting good looks and stuff like that, and then you come into a game where you feel like you should win. I feel like all our games have been within seven to five-point losses. So it’s just kind of tough when you’re missing some open ones and good looks.”

Some of that stems from players who have taken big steps back after having better success in previous years. Four players are shooting worse than they did last season, whether at South Carolina or another school. Two of them are transfers: Kobe Knox (24.2 percent) and Elijah Strong (24.3 percent).

Here’s another factor to possibly consider. How much of these struggles are mental? It’s not as if all of these shots have been contested — South Carolina’s gotten a lot of open looks and simply hasn’t made them.

“Guys just got to make shots. We know we’ve got good shooters,” Knox said. “… We’re all division one athletes. So we got great shooters on our team. It probably is a little mental, but guys will get back in the gym and keep working at it. The shots are gonna fall, I’m pretty confident in that.”

With SEC play starting in under three weeks, the Gamecocks only have two non-conference games left to try to get out of this funk. Luckily, they’ll be facing two of KenPom’s lowest-rated teams in SC State (No. 363) and Albany (No. 319). That may be what they need to get themselves right before the competition significantly ramps up.

But that’s easier said than done. South Carolina hasn’t always shot well against mid-major teams this year, which could pop up again over the next two games. So how does it plan to ensure that doesn’t happen? Paris put it bluntly: “Figure it out.”

“They have to have a good relationship when their shot. If they need to tweak, or some guys are overdoing it at the level of how many shots they get up,” he said. “I mean, that’s a real thing. We got a couple of guys that are probably overdoing it in terms of how many shots they are getting up in order to try to shake off a little shooting rust.”

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