Former Boston Celtics guard Chris Ford made the first three pointer in NBA history. Ford is now the head coach at Brandeis. Brandeis is the school that Tufts guard Mike McGlynn transferred from this year. McGlynn is part of a three-guard backcourt that will be shooting a lot of three pointers this year.
Talk about your three degrees of separation.
Along with McGlynn, who two years ago was Brandeis' second leading scorer, sophomore point guard Phil Barlow and junior shooting guard Brian Shapiro make up one of the best shooting backcourts in the NESCAC. Not only are they sharp shooters, they're frequent shooters, and that's just fine with coach Bob Sheldon.
"I would like our team to take 25-30 three pointers a game," Sheldon said. His squad offered up an average of 22.8 per contest last season, and that seemed like a lot, which means this year's games will look like the NBA Long Distance Shootout.
But without an inside presence, Sheldon is forced to rely on his long range shooters to provide the bulk of the scoring. Which means McGlynn, Barlow, and Shapiro will get a lot of looks from beyond the arc.
"Our strength this year is definitely going to be our backcourt," Barlow said. "We can really shoot the ball this year and are going to be very hard to cover. I think the strategy of shooting 25-30 plus threes a game will be beneficial for the team we have right now."
Not only are the three guards going to shoot more from downtown, but power forward, junior Kyle Van Natta will take his fair share of three pointers. As more of a natural swingman, he will likely be faster and more athletic than his opponents, which means he should see a lot of open three-point attempts.
"Some nights, he might lead the team in three point attempts," assistant coach Chris Millet said. "He's also going to be able to head fake and drive a lot."
But Van Natta is going to be hard-pressed to get up more three point attempts than the trio of shooters in the backcourt. Not only do these guys like shooting the three, they don't mind shooting from deep. Though the three point line is 19'9" from the basket, the coaching staff has no problem with the three guards shooting from as deep as 24 or 25 feet.
"We'll get more mad if they don't shoot an open shot, even if it's deep," Millet said. "There's not a lot of schools like that."
Last year, Shapiro attempted 157 three pointers, 30 percent of the team's total long balls. He connected on a third of them, ten percent lower than the three-point clip Barlow shot at last season. The point guard hit 39 of 89 three pointers for a 43 percent mark, tops on the team for players with more than 20 attempts.
As a team, the Jumbos shot 33.9 percent from downtown. At that rate, the Jumbos should make around ten of the 30 three pointers they attempt to shoot in a given night. That only accounts for 30 points, which means they will have to draw points from a different well.
A scary notion is if the three guards are off on a given night. What happens then?
"That happened in our scrimmage on Saturday," Millet said. "We have plays to get them lay-ups so they can get their confidence back. I don't want to jinx anything, but we think that's pretty unlikely."
Barlow, a point guard that will be counted on to score as well as distribute, has supreme confidence in this year's strategy of long distance bombardment.
"Shooting threes this year is really just playing to our strengths," Barlow said. "I think we're deep enough that if one guy is off other kids can pick him up."
Is there such a thing as a bad shot? The coaches are saying that any open shot, within reason, is worth taking. So don't be surprised if you see some shots this year from places on the court where you would normally need a cutoff man to get the ball to the hoop. And don't expect too many three point attempts from some of the big men.
"We have 18 guys on the team," Millet said. "No one has the red light, but about four guys probably won't be shooting any."
For the rest, though, it's bombs away. Remember, they get in trouble if they pass on an open three, which means 30 attempts might be a minimum.
But with three shooters who Millet considers amongst the top ten in the league, who do you go to for a last second shot?
"It depends on the night," Millet said. "We'll see who's hot that night. But at the beginning of each game, all three are major threats."
