How much better is this year’s KU basketball team at 3s? Opposing coach answers
As somebody who played for Kansas in the 2002 Final Four and earned an NCAA title ring as a member of Bill Self’s KU men’s basketball administrative staff in 2008, Brett Ballard follows the Jayhawks closely from his head coach’s office on the campus of Washburn University in Topeka.
He’s well aware that the Jayhawks, who went a sizzling 15-of-33 (45.5%) from 3 in an 84-53 exhibition rout of the Ichabods on Tuesday night at Allen Fieldhouse, struggled to hit just 33.2% of their long-distance tries en route to a 23-11 record a year ago.
“I am a Kansas guy, so I am excited about it,” eighth-year Ichabod coach Ballard said after the game, one that featured five 3-point makes from David “Diggy” Coit and four apiece from Zeke Mayo and Rylan Griffen.
“I didn’t necessarily want them to do it against us, but I think they didn’t make shots against Arkansas. They got some decent ones (but) didn’t make them. You could see that was a little bit of an issue last year. They probably didn’t have as much shooting as they wanted. It looks like they’ve got some guys in here now that can knock down a shot,” Ballard added.
The Jayhawks were coming off Friday’s exhibition game at Arkansas in which KU went 7-of-23 (30.4%) from 3 in an 85-69 defeat.
“What that’s probably going to do,” Ballard said of expected improved 3-point marksmanship this season, “is you get Hunter (Dickinson) in there and it will open more space for him to go to work in the middle. They are going to be dangerous offensively.
“They’ve got a lot of pieces. ... They’ve still got to figure out how they are going to use all those guys. They did shoot it well. Some of it is our defense has got to be a little better, but give them a lot of credit. I thought they generated a lot of those looks.”
Mayo was 2-for-5 from 3 and Coit 0-for-4 versus Arkansas. Mayo cashed 4 of 6 and Coit 5 of 10 3’s against Washburn.
Dickinson, a 7-foot-2 center who is Big 12 preseason player of the year, did not play against either Arkansas or Washburn because of a foot sprain, but is expected to play in Monday’s season-opener against Howard (7 p.m., Allen Fieldhouse).
“KU came out and I thought they made shots early,” Ballard said. “We track paint touches. They made a lot of non-paint-touch 3’s. A lot of times we’re going to live with (that), but obviously Coit and Griffen can really shoot the ball. KU made shots early, then their pressure bothered us at times. Their length and athleticism really showed tonight. They certainly showed flashes of why they are ranked No. 1 (in preseason AP poll).”
KU, which committed 17 turnovers against Arkansas, had 16 on Tuesday, same total as the Ichabods. KU hit nine more 3s than Washburn, which was 6-of-20 for 30%.
“The percentage of 3s we need to shoot probably don’t need to be 55% but over 40%,” Self said after his team took 33 3’s to 26 2’s on Tuesday. That calculates to 55.9% of the total shots being from beyond the arc.
“Last year we were 30%,” Self added.
For the entire 2023-24 season, just 29.8% of KU’s shots were 3’s.
“Seeing it go in the hole with people in the stands, I think it helps,” Self said of his players gaining confidence in the long-distance shot.
Self said the Ichabods, who were led by former Topeka Washburn Rural guard Jack Bachelor (13 points) and ex-Linwood guard Tyson Rudd (10 points), figure to have a good season on the Div. II level. He visited with Ballard both before and after the game.
“They are well coached. They did some things we had not gone against one time,” Self said. “We hadn’t gone against ball-screen traps all year long. He did some things to keep us off balance. I think he’s going to have a really good team, I do.”
Of the 44-year-old Ballard, Self said: “He was a darn good player. He was eighth man on a team that arguably was as good as any team in the country when they went to the Final Four his senior year. … He’s great, His family is great. We’re happy for all the success he’s had and will continue to have and we’re good friends.”
Ballard returned the compliments.
“What I learned from him, how he treated me, how he prepared me to have this job … I would not be here and I don’t think we would have had the success we’ve had without his mentorship,” Ballard said. “Now he’s a friend more than anything. I think he’s the best coach in college basketball. Kansas fans ... we’ve been spoiled going from Larry Brown to Roy Williams to Bill Self. And I’m a Kansas guy, but to have those three coaches back-to-back-to-back and nobody’s as good as coach Self is pretty amazing.”
