The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
3-point defense keeping Jackets afloat
It was the opening pos- session of the second half of Georgia Tech’s game against then-No. 9 Virginia Tech last Wednesday at McCamish Pavilion. On the left wing, Virginia Tech guard Nickeil Alexander-Walker drib- bled once toward the basket, drawing forward Kha- lid Moore out of the Yellow Jackets’ zone to confront him while forward James Banks ranged out from the paint as an additional barrier.
Stopped, Alexander-Walker kicked the ball to the corner to guard Ahmed Hill, who had his hands ready to receive the pass and quickly released a 3-pointer from the cor- ner. Banks took one step and leapt, extending both arms straight up.
Hill, who entered the game tied for 13th nationally with a 3-point field-goal percentage of 46.8 percent, got the shot off, but it bounced long off the rim. The Hokies, who began the game as the second-most accurate 3-point shooting team in the country (44.2 percent), retained possession and got the ball to guard Ty Outlaw, who had made 51.6 percent of his 3-point tries before the Georgia Tech game.
He had a clear look from the top of the 3-point arc but also missed, over a late chal- lenge from guard Michael Devoe. The misses produced another stop in what proved to be arguably the Hokies’ least efficient offensive game of the season.
Virginia Tech was 5 for 27 from 3-point range, a season-low 18.5 percent, and escaped with a 52-49 win over the Jackets. Hill was 2 for 8. Outlaw was 0 for 3.
“I thought our path to breaking (Tech’s zone) was good,” Hokies coach Buzz Williams said after the game. “Obviously, we didn’t make the shots we typically make, but that’s a credit to them.”
It is a common refrain against Tech opponents.
“We did make some shots late, but I felt we had some opportunities to make some early and, unfortunately, they didn’t go in,” Wake For- est coach Danny Manning said of his team’s shooting
in a 92-79 loss at McCamish on Jan. 5.
Following Tech’s 73-59 road upset of Syracuse on Saturday, in which the Orange were 7 for 33 from 3-point range, coach Jim Boehiem said “I thought we got good 3-point looks, but when you’re not making them, it’s not very pretty.”
It happens a lot. Going into its tonight’s road game at Clemson, the Jackets ranked fourth nationally in 3-point field-goal defense at 26.9 percent. It’s a complete turnaround from last season, when the Jackets were 320th (37.9 percent) and an improvement on the standards of coach Josh Pastner’s first season, when Tech was 73rd at 33 percent. Given that 3-point tries have constituted 37 percent of Tech opponent’s shots from the field, the Jackets’ abil- ity to defend the arc is no small part of their modest success this season.
“I would say, certainly, it’s pretty hard to keep people from getting any open shots, but I think they do a very good job of limiting the quality of 3’s that you get,” Clemson coach Brad Brownell said.
The Virginia Tech and Syracuse games bore that out. It wasn’t as though the Hokies and Orange were barely getting shots off. But, typically, the Jackets were clos- ing down the space, charging at shooters with hands up. Pastner stresses what he calls “multiple-effort plays,” in essence going full out for the duration of the shot clock.
For a team of limited offensive means, that may be difference-making.
Brownell proposed that perhaps the consistency of the challenged shots bears influence on the open shots enabled by breakdowns.
“While I don’t think you get as many (open looks) against the really good defensive teams, then when you get one, you feel like you need to make it,” he said. “Sometimes you don’t.”