The discourse around Hadaway's shooting volume led me to do a quick look around the conference. There are 39 players in the conference this year who have attempted 75 or more 3s. Of those 39 high-volume shooters, here are the top 3 and bottom 3 in shooting percentage:
1. Jahari Williamson (Kent St.) - 45.3% on 117 3PA
2. K'Jei Parker (UMASS) - 44.6% on 130 3PA
3. Eian Elmer (Miami) - 44.2% on 104 3PA
...
37. Juwan Maxey (Ball St.) - 26.6% on 94 3PA
38. Aidan Hadaway (Ohio) - 25.7% on 109 3PA
39. Elmore James (Ball St.) - 25% on 80 3PA
The only player worse is one we are all very familiar with.
To be fair to Aidan, it also has to be pointed out just how great he is close to the rim. Of the 34 players who have shot from inside the paint at least 80 times, Hadaway ranks:
Inside the Paint: 5th/34 (70.3% on 118 attempts)
Overall 2P%: 7th/34 (61.6% on 177 attempts)
I don't think this will surprise anyone who has watched them all year, but smarter teams are figuring out that all they have to do is let Hadaway have space from 3 and he'll take the bait. Why deal with the threat of his hyper-efficient inside game when you can simply bait him into taking a shot he makes 25% of the time?
The math is simple. His expected points per shot (PPS) looks like this:
Inside the Paint: 1.4 PPS
Overall 2: 1.2 PPS
3: 0.77 PPS
Even if his shooting returns to the 33-34% form he showed the prior 2 years, that is still only 1.0 PPS. That is a shot he should never be taking instead of attacking the rim.
Welcome and well said. I have been tooting this horn for 4 years now, and a very similar story with Clayton as well. The coaching staff's failure to lean into this data and adjust approach accordingly has been the most frustrating aspect of the program to me the last few years.
I also love the humor of the only worse high volume shooter being a guy that left us. We sure now how to create overconfidence from behind the arc.
Indeed.
I'm sick to death of even showing the stats every game, and I think it's a coaching failure. A failure to sit guys, even if they're your best guys, to say this isn't acceptable. This isn't how I want to run things.
We're one of the worst shooting three point teams in the country, but still launch 20 a game. It's so bizarre that its become hilarious. Our 2 point % is quite high. Yet absolutely no one will wait for those FG's to open up, no one will swing the ball around, no one will pass up their opportunity to jack one up from 35 feet and hope it draws rim. How on earth did this happen - and better yet - WHY DOES IT CONTINUE
But circling back to Hadway, he was my dark horse for MAC PoY. *facepalm*