With Pat Kelsey’s emphasis on shooting, expect Louisville basketball to rain 3s

Louisville men’s basketball head coach Pat Kelsey has described his offensive philosophy as being rooted in randomness.

His up-tempo teams have had a calling card over the years, however; and it’s very much by design.

They’ve liked to shoot 3-pointers — a lot of them. That’s not going to change anytime soon.

In a video the Cardinals posted to X, formerly Twitter, on July 6, assistant coach Michael Cassidy — who serves as Kelsey’s offensive coordinator — identified three “key priorities” for the team heading into its two-game exhibition tour of the Bahamas at the end of the month. They were skill development, system development and shooting.

“My mentor used to say to me, ‘Shooting makes up for a multitude of sins,'” Kelsey told Bob Valvano last month, during an appearance on WHBE 680 AM. “It’s something we value in recruiting. It’s something that we cultivate and develop every single day.”

Prioritizing 3s is hardly an original concept these days. Kelsey acknowledged as much during the aforementioned interview with Valvano.

Every team that reached the Elite Eight of last season’s NCAA Tournament, for example, attempted 20 or more shots from beyond the arc per game and had a conversion rate of 34% or better.

U of L was, for many reasons, as far as a program can get from March Madness during former coach Kenny Payne’s 12-52 tenure. Two of its most glaring issues during the 2022-23 and 2023-24 seasons were its lack of shooters and its inability to guard opposing marksmen.

The Cardinals went 375 for 1,179 (31.8%) from 3 during the Payne era; which equates to 5.9 makes on 18.4 attempts per game. Opponents went 535 for 1,478 (36.2%); which equates to 8.4 makes on 23.1 attempts per game.

Kelsey’s final two Charleston teams were even more trigger happy, going 716 for 2,123 (33.7%) between 2022-24; which equates to 10.2 makes on 30.3 attempts per game. Both squads would have broken Louisville’s single-season record for 3-point tries (906) en route to back-to-back conference titles and…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/pat-kelseys-emphasis-shooting-expect-091604651.html

Author : The Courier Journal

Publish date : 2024-07-11 09:16:04

Copyright for syndicated content belongs to the linked Source.