For his team to be able to maximize its capabilities, Matt McCall has spent the past few days coaching his University of Tennessee at Chattanooga Mocs on basketball fundamentals.
More specifically, those that extend to the 3-point line.
The Mocs (10-2) enter tonight’s game at Lipscomb (4-11) with hopes of continuing their best start in a decade. They won this matchup a year ago in Chattanooga, 78-60, and did a good job of stopping the Bison’s 3-point-happy offense.
UTC’s Tre’ McLean passes Radford’s YaYa Anderson Tuesday, December 22, 2015 at McKenzie Arena.The Bison score 42 percent of their points on 3-pointers, which ranks seventh in the country. They shoot 38.4 percent from that distance, so the Mocs have been drilling a lot on getting better in stopping the 3s, as they expect to see a number of them tonight.
“We don’t really allow a lot of 3-pointers, but when teams do shoot them, they shoot them well,” junior Tre’ McLean said. “Our big thing is we know we can’t hold another team scoreless – there’s never been a shutout in basketball – so we have to do what we do, which is contest every 3. At the end of the day, we’ll see what happens.”
McCall calls UTC’s 3-point defense “one of the worst in the country.” The stats back him up on that, as his defense gives up an average of 38.6 percent from the 3-point line, which ranks 311th in the country according to Ken Pomeroy’s advanced stats rankings. That ranks well above the national average of 34.3.
“Going into the season, I had concerns about us offensively,” McCall said Monday. “Would we be unselfish? Would we share the ball? Would we get good shots? That hasn’t been the problem.”
The Mocs rank near the top in most offensive categories.
“The problem is there has been some slippage with us defensively,” the coach said. “It starts with the 3-point line; our 3-point field-goal percentage needs to get better. We don’t give up a lot of 3s, but teams shoot a high percentage, which goes back to the fundamentals.”
Over the break, the UTC coaching staff broke down every made 3-pointer against the Mocs – all 79 of them. The trend was that most of those attempts came in transition, with the others sprinkled throughout a number of different variables, such as short closeouts or blown assignments on pick-and-rolls.
It’s the little things in December that could make a difference come March. McCall and his staff are trying to ensure that those problems are handled before it’s too late.
“It’s easy to get wrapped up in the season and continue to focus on every opponent and scouting, but we can discount our fundamentals,” McCall said. “I felt we’ve done that, and we have to get back to doing a better job there.”
Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress.com. Follow him at twitter.com/genehenleytfp.