{"id":226064,"date":"2026-03-18T23:52:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-18T23:52:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/226064\/"},"modified":"2026-03-18T23:52:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-18T23:52:08","slug":"3-point-attempts-are-rising-heading-into-2026-march-madness-nbc-los-angeles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/226064\/","title":{"rendered":"3-point attempts are rising heading into 2026 March Madness \u2013 NBC Los Angeles"},"content":{"rendered":"

No team has made more 3-pointers, nor launched more, than Alabama in the past four seasons. And nothing will shake coach Nate Oats from believing they’re at the core of building a winner in modern basketball<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Teams might struggle to match the Crimson Tide\u2019s sheer volume heading into\u00a0March Madness<\/a>, but they\u2019re leaning into those long-distance shots, too.<\/p>\n

\u201cFinding efficient shots is at the top of what we do,\u201d Oats said recently. \u201cIt\u2019s at the top of what everybody in the NBA is looking at is generating efficient shots. And if you\u2019re not thinking about how to get open catch-and-shoot 3s, I don\u2019t think you\u2019re thinking about creating efficient shots.\u201d<\/p>\n

This marks the 40th season with the 3-pointer fully integrated into college basketball, an advancement that\u00a0has transformed the sport\u00a0since its 1986-87 introduction. Years of pounding the ball inside to bigs have given way to skilled players stretching defenses to create space for shooters to take those matchup-tilting shots.<\/p>\n

In the\u00a0NCAA Tournament<\/a>, the 3 is an equalizer capable of igniting seismic upsets like Middle Tennessee’s takedown of Michigan State in 2016 or the first-ever 16-vs-1 win with UMBC beating Virginia in 2018. Going cold can just as easily mean an abrupt end to the season. So the question remains: How much should a team rely on the 3 in March?<\/p>\n

Division I teams fittingly have taken nearly 40% of their shots from behind the arc in this 40th season of the 3, yet a fraction of Final Four teams and NCAA champions in the 3-point era have utilized it to this year’s levels with their seasons on the line.<\/p>\n

Higher volume<\/p>\n

At its core, the 3-pointer is a volatile bet.<\/p>\n

The reward can be\u00a0far-reaching offensive efficiency\u00a0beyond simply the 50% added value compared to a traditional field goal. But it boasts a tougher conversion rate as officials have moved the arc back multiple times \u2014 from 19 feet, 9 inches to 20 feet, 9 inches in 2008-09, then to\u00a022 feet, 1 3\/4 inches to match the international distance for 2019-20.<\/p>\n

As a result, the 3-point shooting percentage has barely moved. Division I teams have bounced from around 33-35% shooting on 3s going back to the 2002-03 season, with this year at 34.1% entering the week.<\/p>\n

Yet 3s have gone from accounting for 32.1% of all shot attempts in 2002-03 to a 24-season high of 39.5% this year, according to SportRadar. And 3s account for 29.8% of all made shots in Division I, up from around 25% in 2002-03.<\/p>\n

Those are thresholds rarely reached by teams that have pushed all the way to the sport’s final weekend:<\/p>\n

\u2014 Only 28 of 152 (18.4%) teams to reach the Final Four in the 3-point era have had 3s account for this year’s percentage of their made shots;<\/p>\n

\u2014 Only 21 of those Final Four teams (13.8%) had 3s account for this year’s percentage of shot attempts;<\/p>\n

\u2014 And seven of 38 champions (18.4%) have had 3s account for more than 39% of their shot attempts, including the past three winners in UConn (2023-24) and Florida (2025).<\/p>\n

Villanova’s two championships under Jay Wright remain outliers. Notably,\u00a0his 2018 winner that blew through six tournament games\u00a0to win it all behind eventual NBA players Jalen Brunson, Mikal Bridges and Donte DiVincenzo held the all-time highest marks among the champs; 3s accounted for 38% of the Wildcats’ made shots and 47.5% of their attempts.<\/p>\n

His other champion, in 2016, won\u00a0on a buzzer-beating 3-pointer by Kris Jenkins.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019ve got to be able to shoot the 3 to go deep in the tournament,\u201d the retired Wildcats coach said. \u201cNot just because 3s are more valuable than 2s, but now the way teams play defense, if you can\u2019t shoot 3s, they\u2019re going to load up on your 3-point shooters and take them away. And they\u2019re gonna force you to make non-shooters make plays.\u201d<\/p>\n

The right looks<\/p>\n

That’s Oats’ focus, too.<\/p>\n

The Crimson Tide’s 4,436 attempted 3s are 339 more than the next closest Division I team, according to SportRadar. Alabama has shot 35.5% behind the arc in that span, with 3s accounting for 48.3% of Alabama’s shot attempts.<\/p>\n

The approach helped make Alabama\u00a0the No. 1 overall seed in 2023\u00a0and powered\u00a0a Final Four run in 2024\u00a0and last year’s trip to the Elite Eight after\u00a0hitting a tournament-record 25 3s in a Sweet 16 romp against BYU.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe math part of it is how can you create the most efficient offense, and how can you try to keep the other team from running the efficient offense?” said Oats, whose team is the Midwest Region\u2019s 4-seed. “Well if you\u2019re all in on getting the most efficient shots you can, the 3-point line and taking 3s has to be a part of that. It just does.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yet two of those runs ended when the Tide couldn’t hit from outside. That 2023 team led by eventual No. 2 overall NBA pick Brandon Miller went 3 for 27 (11.1%) on 3s\u00a0in a Sweet 16 loss to San Diego State. The Tide went 8 for 32 (25%)\u00a0in last year’s regional-final loss to Duke.<\/p>\n

Hall of Fame coach Rick Pitino, now at St. John\u2019s, has never shied from the 3, going back to Providence\u2019s unexpected Final Four in the first season of the 3-pointer to cutting down the nets at Kentucky in 1996, followed by Louisville in 2013 in a later-vacated title push.<\/p>\n

Can a team win it all firing off all these 3s?<\/p>\n

\u201c100% \u2013 if you defend the 3. That\u2019s the key,\u201d said Pitino, whose Big East champion is the East Region’s 5-seed. \u201cIt all comes down to defense. It\u2019s not how many you make, how many you take, but how many you stop. So, if everybody is shooting the 3, the team that\u2019s gonna win it is the team that defends the 3.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gravity’s pull<\/p>\n

Duke coach Jon Scheyer is only in his fourth season as successor to retired Hall of Famer Mike Krzyzewski, so he’s been willing to\u00a0adjust his approach\u00a0in these early years of his tenure. That’s included an uptick in 3-point usage.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor me, it’s actually not even the fact of shooting more 3s,” Scheyer said. \u201cIt\u2019s about having the threat to shoot the 3. And I think that\u2019s the biggest key, is spacing. … Because that\u2019s what opens up drives. That\u2019s what open up free throws. That\u2019s what opens second-chance points. So I think naturally by having really good spacing, you do end up shooting more 3s.”<\/p>\n

Duke’s first two teams took 36.4% of their shots from 3-point range, with 3s accounting for 28% of their made baskets. Last year, those numbers jumped to 44.6% and 34.9%; it made sense considering Duke was led by No. 1 overall NBA draft pick Cooper Flagg and No. 4 pick Kon Knueppel \u2014 who has set\u00a0an NBA rookie single-season 3-point record\u00a0and has a league-best 238.<\/p>\n

This year’s team uses what Scheyer has likened more to\u00a0a \u201csmashmouth\u201d approach with a big frontline\u00a0led by\u00a0freshman NBA prospect\u00a0and\u00a0Associated Press first-team All-American Cameron Boozer. And yet, even as the No. 1 overall tournament seed has routinely pummeled teams in the paint and on the glass, the 3-pointer accounts for a similar percentage of Duke’s attempted shots (44.4%) and made baskets (31.8%).<\/p>\n

Scheyer figures it’s about finding the right balance in shot selection, along with a good shooter’s “gravity” in pulling defenders from the paint.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can still establish yourself inside while you still shoot 3s,\u201d Scheyer said. \u201cNow if you\u2019re shooting other shots and just living on the perimeter, well yeah, I think it\u2019s tough to win that way, because the best shot you can get is a layup or a dunk or get to the free-throw line. But if you\u2019re shooting 3s, you better be really good at it.\u201d<\/p>\n

AP Sports Writers Mike Fitzpatrick in New York and Dan Gelston in Philadelphia and AP freelance writer Kennington Lloyd Smith III in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, contributed to this report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"No team has made more 3-pointers, nor launched more, than Alabama in the past four seasons. And nothing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":226065,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[48,52,51,47,50,49,20730,9591,23857,15435],"class_list":["post-226064","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-la","tag-la-headlines","tag-la-news","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-headlines","tag-los-angeles-news","tag-march-madness","tag-ncaa","tag-ncaa-basketball","tag-ncaa-tournament"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/226064","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=226064"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/226064\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/226065"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=226064"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=226064"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=226064"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}