Arizona State basketball is ditching midrange shots
Dec 18, 2017, 2:08 PM | Updated: Dec 19, 2017, 11:55 am
Vanderbilt's shot-chart (left) and ASU's shotchart (right) from the Sun Devils' 76-64 win on Sunday. (Screenshot from ESPN.com)
(Screenshot from ESPN.com)
As if James Harden and Mike D’Antoni are wielding power on the decision-making by the No. 3 Arizona State Sun Devils, Bobby Hurley’s team is trending right with the most efficient basketball offenses in the world.
One user on the college basketball reddit forum discovered that ASU didn’t attempt a single midrange shot in a 76-64 win over Vanderbilt on Sunday. Well, unless you count one missed Kodi Justice shot just outside the paint as the midrange.
It appears that 20 of 20 two-point makes by the Sun Devils were all right at the rim.
Throw in 28 trips to the foul line, including 21 makes, and even a poor 5-of-23 figure from three-point range, and it was enough for a win. It wasn’t an anomaly against a 3-7 Vanderbilt team, either.
ASU has been doing this all year long, including games against top-50 teams in Kansas (below) and St. John’s.
Hurley deserves credit for pushing ASU toward offensive efficiency, and it starts by the Sun Devils taking the right shots. Moreyball, which in basketball slang refers to the concept of taking only open threes and open layups, was named after Rockets GM Daryl Morey.
Morey’s ideas have been taken to another level in Houston thanks to Harden, the former Sun Devil, and D’Antoni, the former Suns coach. The theories behind the philosophy can be easily explained by math — and Mike’s brother Dan, who went an extraordinary rant on a related concept just a year ago.
With those ideas likely in mind, the Sun Devils through 10 games have put up a top-5 offensive rating, per Sports-Reference.com.
Much of that is thanks to a three-point shooting threat ranking 26th in the nation at 40.7 percent.
Just as telling, Arizona State’s dribble-drive game with its guard-heavy lineups has gotten opponents’ heads spinning. Hurley’s team leads the nation in free throw attempt rate — free throws per field goal attempted — a sign that the players are getting to the rim with defenders in poor position to stop them.
Put it together, execute it with skilled guards able to cause problems off the bounce, and even a defense that allows somewhat Moreyball-like tendencies to opponents can’t stop the Sun Devils.
Not in their first 10 games, at least.
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