SAN JOSE, Calif. — Steve Kerr, coach of the team that broke basketball as we know it, sat just behind Arizona’s bench during last week’s Sweet 16, watching his Wildcats … mostly ignore the 3-point line. It was a strange sight, to say the least.
Kerr is in his 12th season coaching the Golden State Warriors, who have revolutionized the pro game over the past decade-plus. Behind sharpshooters Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson, Golden State became known for launching from long distance, which helped the Warriors win three NBA titles in four years. Curry, a favorite of nearly every college kid playing today, owns six of the top 10 single-season records for made 3s. His influence is stamped all over the game, as the Warriors’ style — and pace — trickled down to every level of basketball.
But in an era of advanced analytics when there’s been an emphasis on “3 or key,” high-value and high-efficiency shots taken from beyond the arc or at the rim, Arizona bucks the trend.
And Kerr, the NBA’s all-time leader in career 3-point percentage (45.4 percent), loves it.
“It’s old-school basketball, and I appreciate it so much,” Kerr, who played at Arizona from 1983 to 1988, told The Athletic. “I love the purpose of every possession. … In the NBA, we’ve become so fast-paced and so 3-oriented that it’s become a little bit of a pickup game. But with Arizona, the execution, the attention to detail, it’s beautiful.”
Consider: The other Final Four teams take a 3 at least 40 percent of the time. Michigan, Arizona’s semifinal opponent Saturday night, shoots them 41.9 percent of the time, UConn 40.3 percent of the time, and Illinois a whopping 49.8 percent of the time.
Then you’ve got Arizona, shooting from long range a mere 26.4 percent of the time, which ranks No. 363 out of 365 Division I teams.
That’s by design.
“Their inside game offensively is like having a great offensive line in football,” said ESPN analyst Fran Fraschilla, referencing the Wildcats’ bigs.
Arizona starts 6-foot-8, 235-pound freshman Koa Peat and 7-2, 260-pound junior Motiejus Krivas. Tobe Awaka, a 6-8, 250-pound senior, comes off the bench. Peat and Awaka are built like NFL defensive linemen. (Kerr joked that all he could think sitting so close to the bench was, “This team is bigger than the Warriors! We don’t have anyone who looks like this!”) Krivas is the latest in a long line of international big men blossoming under coach Tommy Lloyd.
“They wanna pulverize you,” Fraschilla said. “They just wanna pound you in the paint.”
For good reason, too. Not only do the Wildcats know how to score inside, but they also draw fouls on their way to the rim. Arizona ranks No. 3 in the country in free-throw attempts per game, averaging 26.8. Of the four teams left in the tournament, Michigan is next, ranking No. 68 nationally and averaging 22.9. (For comparison’s sake, Illinois is No. 187 nationally with 20.4 free-throw attempts per game, while UConn comes in at No. 308, with 17.6.)
Arizona shoots a respectable 36.7 percent from beyond the arc, close to Michigan (36.9 percent) for best among Final Four teams (UConn connects on 34.6 percent of its attempts, while Illinois hits 34.8 percent). But why rely on an outside shot when you’ve got so many inside options?
Lloyd, in his fifth season, came to Arizona after 22 years as an assistant at Gonzaga, where he helped head coach Mark Few build the Zags into a national power. A big part of their success — literally — came from years of recruiting highly skilled international bigs.
“This is part of the DNA he brought with him,” Fraschilla said. “You have to remember, Tommy is the originator of international recruiting in Europe, and we can rattle off the names of all the great bigs they had at Gonzaga pretty easily: Przemek Karnowski, Domantas Sabonis, Killian Tillie, etc., etc. — the list goes on and on.
“Now they have three of the best bigs in the country all on one team (at Arizona). And they’re all great scorers and great screeners; that’s one of the most underrated things that they do, screen and seal. They just want to grind you into the ground and bludgeon you.”
Lloyd doesn’t dislike 3s. He just put together a roster with other strengths.
“I’m playing a brand of basketball that I think is effective for how our team’s built,” Lloyd said after Arizona’s 21-point Sweet 16 win over Arkansas in which the Wildcats attempted only eight treys. “What’s cool about coaching and cool about the game of basketball is there are so many different ways to play. I don’t look down on any style of play.
“I didn’t at one time today tell our guys, ‘Don’t shoot 3s.’ When I look up there and I see the bonus, I’m like, OK, we could drive the basketball. We can go inside and put foul pressure on people.”
That could be particularly important in Arizona’s semifinal against Michigan. The Wolverines also have significant size, starting 7-3, 255-pound center Aday Mara, 6-9, 250-pound forward Morez Johnson Jr. and 6-9, 240-pound forward Yaxel Lendeborg, an All-American. Get any of them in foul trouble and force them to the bench, and it won’t matter how many 3s Arizona shoots, because the lane will be wide open.
Arizona freshman guard Brayden Burries acknowledged during the West Regional that when he arrived in Tucson, “I actually didn’t know too much about the style. … I found that (Lloyd) likes to play inside-out.” He was on board.
And should the Wildcats need their own game-winning 3, à la UConn’s Braylon Mullins, they can turn to the star rookie, as Burries leads the team with 169 3-point attempts, shooting a 40.2 percent clip from deep.
Lloyd has harped all season on passing up a good shot for a great one. It just so happens that for Arizona, a lot of those looks come from the forwards in the paint.
It’s true the lack of 3s Arizona attempts can be a little startling, especially for basketball junkies who are used to watching teams regularly pull up from deep.
Luke Walton played on the 2001 Arizona team, the last Wildcats group to reach a Final Four. After a 10-year NBA career, Walton transitioned to coaching, just in time to watch Curry and company change the game. Now an assistant with the Detroit Pistons, Walton loves this Arizona squad and watches it any chance he gets. He’s not necessarily surprised — and certainly not worried — about the lack of 3s they attempt.
“The game is always evolving. In the NBA, shooting a lot of 3s is still the hot trend, but with the Pistons, we shoot the 29th-most, we don’t shoot a great percentage from 3, and we’ve got the best record in the East,” Walton said. “You’ve got to play to your strengths. Arizona does an unbelievable job of that.”
In talking about how he’s swimming against the current tide of basketball, Lloyd insisted he doesn’t follow trends.
“I read this in a book,” Lloyd said during one of his West Regional news conferences. “What was the best candy bar in 1946?”
Someone in the sea of reporters called out an answer: Snickers. Lloyd nodded.
“And what’s the best, the most popular candy bar today?”
Also Snickers.
“I haven’t flinched,” Lloyd said. “I’m playing the exact same style we learned at Gonzaga that I brought to Arizona. I’m doubling down on it. What do I think is the most effective way for my team to play, and what are my strengths as a coach?
“That’s 100 percent how I think (about it). Call me crazy.”
Some people might. But it’s hard to argue with the Wildcats’ results.