The 3 Is Key

Are you in or out? Or, when it comes to the three-point shot—"the most dangerous part of the game," says Florida coach Billy Donovan—are you somewhere in between? On the eve of the NCAA tournament, every hoophead in the land wants to know: What's your three-point stance? Do you pound the ball inside and opt for rare (but deadly efficient) threes, like Midwest No. 1 seed Kansas, or do you unleash them rapid-fire, like Duke, the top seed in the South? Do you live and die by the three, like new-look Indiana, or do you ration your triples on a one-per-Knight basis, like old-school Texas Tech?

Whatever your preference, one thing is clear: The three-pointer has revolutionized college hoops, particularly in the postseason. Since the three's debut in the 1986-87 season, its frequency has skyrocketed from one out of every 6.4 field goal attempts to one of every 3.1 this year. During the tournament, teams attempt more three-pointers (a combined 37.1 per game last year, compared with 35.4 during the regular season), but they make fewer of them (11.9, down from 12.2). For every champion that has used the three-point line as its Arc de Triomphe—who can forget the three treys in 45 seconds by the Blue Devils' Mike Dunleavy that put the whammy on Arizona last year?—the field is littered with carcasses of teams that have shot themselves out of the tournament with the trey.

The three has an added kick, too. "It used to be that the dunk was the play that got the crowd into the game," says Clark Kellogg, the former Ohio State star who's now an analyst for CBS. "That's not the case anymore. It's the three-point shot. It can invigorate your team if you're knocking it down, and it can demoralize the other team."

And so, after a season in which teams jacked up more threes than ever (36.8 per game, according to the latest NCAA stats), we ask: Are you in or out?

It's certainly on the mind of Kent State coach Stan Heath. His first order of business when he scouts an opponent is to suss out how well—and how often—it fires the trey. "If a team is shooting a high percentage, I want to know how it gets those threes," Heath says. "Is it spotting up in transition? Does it have a guard who penetrates off the dribble and then kicks the ball out? Does it throw the ball into the post and then kick it out? There are a lot of different ways to get good three-point shooting."

Take Duke and Kansas. Both run with abandon, score in bunches (the Jayhawks' offense leads the nation; the Blue Devils' is second) and employ flytrap man-to-man defenses, but Duke puts up more threes—23.7 a game—than any team in the field of 65 other than Valparaiso. The Blue Devils' objective? Spacing. Much like a football team that uses the pass to set up the run, Duke launches threes in all manner of situations, especially in transition, after offensive rebounds and off kick-outs. The Blue Devils' better-than-average accuracy (35.9%), in turn, draws defenders away from the basket, making it difficult for them to help as Duke's four perimeter players penetrate with the ball and cut to the basket without it. "The three-pointer keeps the floor spread for drives, and it keeps the middle open for post-ups," says assistant coach Chris Collins. "It has changed the face of college basketball. You look at old tapes, and teams were running their offenses in the 15- to 17-foot range. Now teams are running them out to 22 feet."

That extra space is tailor-made for the Blue Devils' Kurt Warner-type quarterback, player of the year Jason Williams, who can make split-second reads—shoot, pass or drive?—in the half-court offense. Duke has no set plays; instead it runs what its coaches call "quick hitters," brief sequences that give the whip-smart Blue Devils a multitude of options. Take " L.A.," Duke's favorite quick hitter, one version of which has Dunleavy and center Carlos Boozer set a double-screen for Williams at the top of the key. Williams dribbles by the screen, which picks off the man guarding him, whereupon Dunleavy breaks to the wing and Boozer barrels down to the post.

At this point Williams can 1) turn the corner and beat his defender to the basket; 2) kick it out to Dunleavy for a three; 3) feed Boozer in the post; 4) penetrate and dish to a teammate in the corner, usually Chris Duhon or Dahntay Jones; or 5) pull up and pop his own three-pointer. Option number 5 is exactly what Williams took at the end of last year's title game, when he drilled the trey that coach Mike Krzyzewski would call "the shot that sealed it for us." (Watch out for option number 4, though: A year ago seniors Shane Battier and Nate James were more reliable three-point threats than Duhon and Jones, whom wise defenses have dared to shoot, often with successful results.)

If the Blue Devils use the Dirty Harry approach—shoot first, ask questions later—then Kansas' more judicious three-point strategy is the perfect foil. Only two teams in the tournament have used the three-pointer more sparingly than the Jayhawks (treys make up only 21.4% of their shots), who nevertheless are the field's second-most-accurate three-point-shooting team at 42.3%. "Balance is important, but if I have to choose, I'll take the inside shot every time," says coach Roy Williams. "We have two very good inside scoring threats with Drew Gooden and Nick Collison, and when you go inside, you have a better chance of making the shot and getting the other team in foul trouble. I want us to shoot threes, but I want the right people taking them." For Kansas that means guards Jeff Boschee (a 46.5% three-point marksman) and Kirk Hinrich (also 46.5%), who can be merciless when defenses sag on Gooden and Collison.

Likewise, only 10 tournament teams shoot a smaller proportion of their field goal attempts from three-point range than the 25.8% taken by Maryland, the East's No. 1 seed. Still, the Terrapins had the second highest three-point success rate in the ACC (37.0%). "Our game plan is always to try to go inside first," says assistant coach Dave Dickerson, whose Terps funnel the ball to solid big men Lonny Baxter and Chris Wilcox. In fact, the majority of Maryland's three-point attempts come from kickouts, usually to All-America guard Juan Dixon, a 37.0% shooter from long range. "When we get the ball inside first and then pop it back outside," Dickerson says, "we have better looks at the basket."