Santoro: Alford, the original 3-point man, turns Pack shooters loose

Current Nevada head coach Steve Alford hit seven three-pointers for Indiana in the 1987 national championship game against Syracuse. The Hoosiers, led by Alford’s 23 points, won the title with a 74-73 decision. No other Indiana player hit a 3-pointer in the game.

Current Nevada head coach Steve Alford hit seven three-pointers for Indiana in the 1987 national championship game against Syracuse. The Hoosiers, led by Alford’s 23 points, won the title with a 74-73 decision. No other Indiana player hit a 3-pointer in the game.
AP file

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Sports Fodder:

Good things are definitely coming in threes this season for the Nevada Wolf Pack men's basketball team. Steve Alford's dream of coaching a team that can sizzle the nets on demand from beyond the arc when needed has finally arrived in his sixth season as head coach at Nevada.

The Wolf Pack, 8-3 this season with its Mountain West opener on Saturday against Colorado State at Lawlor Events Center, is the best 3-point shooting team in the Mountain West and one of the best in the nation among the 355 Division I schools. The Pack, 95-of-217 on threes, leads the Mountain West and is tied for fifth in the country with a .419 success rate.

This, so far, is Alford's best 3-point shooting team he's had since coming to Northern Nevada for the 2019-20 season. His first Pack team was his most confident, bold, aggressive and active beyond the arc, draining 309-of-806 threes (.383). That team was led by four holdovers from the Eric Musselman era: Jalen Harris (67-of-185, .362), Jazz Johnson (91-of-228, .417), Lindsey Drew (45-of-113, .398) and Nisre Zouzoua (53-of-125, .416).

The next four Pack teams were certainly competent on threes, with a success rate of .333 (2021-22) to .363 (last season). Those four seasons were led beyond the arc by players such as Grant Sherfield, Dez Cambridge, Will Baker, Jared Lucas and Darrion Williams. Lucas, an Oregon State transfer, was the best of the lot and the most consistent, connecting on 159-of-412 the last two seasons combined (.386) as the Pack went to the NCAA Tournament twice.

This year's Wolf Pack have taken the art of shooting the three to another level, as we saw last Saturday night when they made a school-record 18 threes (on 36 attempts) in a 105-73 win over Texas Southern at Lawlor Events Center. Xavier DuSell, who is second in the Mountain West with a ,444 3-point percentage and tied for second with 28 threes, was 7-of-14 beyond the arc against Texas Southern.

The Pack, to be sure, is not obsessed with shooting the three. This is not a team that simply launches from long distance every chance it gets. The Pack, despite its proficiency on threes, is just eighth in the Mountain West with 227 3-point attempts. Nevada is also just 277th in the nation with 20.6 3-point attempts per game.

This is clearly a well-coached team that passes the ball, is well-spaced on the floor and only takes threes when it is the best shot available. That's how you make over 40 percent of your threes.

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How important is the 3-point shot to the Wolf Pack's success this year?

The Wolf Pack has lost just three games this season, with its two worst 3-point shooting performances (4-of-20 against Washington State and 5-of-20 against Loyola Marymount) resulting in two of the losses just five days apart after the Thanksgiving holiday. The other loss came against Vanderbilt in the first game of a three-game tournament in South Carolina when the Pack was a solid 6-of-15 on threes (.400). That .400 percentage, though impressive, was still tied for the fifth-worst this season for the Pack. The six total threes were the fourth-fewest.

So, yes, this Pack team can't be afraid to shoot the three if it wants to go to the NCAA Tournament for the third year in a row. The Pack can generate points in other ways (it is shooting a torrid .557 inside the arc this year) but it has also been inconsistent from the free-throw line (.698). The efficiency on threes helps make up for the inconsistencies from the line and also helps open up things inside. Everything the Pack does on offense, therefore, is seeming based on the 3-pointer.

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This Wolf Pack team, of course, comes by proficiency beyond the arc honestly because of Alford.

Alford was one of the best shooters in the history of college basketball when he played for Bobby Knight at Indiana from 1983-87. The 3-point shot only arrived in the sport for his final year (1986-87) and all he did was lead the Big Ten by going 107-of-202 (.530) on threes.

Alford also drained seven threes in Indiana's 74-73 victory over Syracuse in the NCAA Tournament title game on March 30 in New Orleans. Everyone else in the game, stars such as Sherman Douglas, Derrick Coleman, Rony Seikaly, Greg Monroe, Daryl Thomas and Keith Smart, only combined to go 4-of-11 on threes. Knight wouldn't even allow anyone but Alford on his team to throw up a three in the game. Smart took the only other three for the Hoosiers, and he missed.

The methodical, slow-paced Hoosiers likely get blown out without Alford's seven threes. But hardly anyone remembers Alford's seven threes or his game-high 23 points against Syracuse because Smart hit the game-winning shot with four seconds left. But you can be sure, it was Alford that showed on a national stage and opened everyone's eyes on what the 3-pointer can do for the sport.

Alford has never gotten enough credit for teaching the 3-point shot in his career. He turned his son, Bryce Alford, into one of the best 3-point shooters in Pac-12 history at UCLA from 2013-17. Bryce was 329-of-829 on threes, for a .397 success rate. He led the Pac-12 in 2014-15 (.391) and 2016-17 (.430) in 3-point percentage and is 12th in Pac-12 history. He is also third in Pac-12 history with 329 career threes and was in the Top 10 all four of his seasons.

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Alford, ever since his first Division I head coaching job at Missouri State in 1995-96, has relied heavily on the 3-point shot. His Missouri State teams (1995-96 through 1998-99) were led by Josh Holtz, Coleco Buie and Kevin Ault, who each had seasons of making 40 percent or more of their threes (75 or more attempts). Luke Recker led Alford's early Iowa teams while Jeff Horner set the tone for his later Hawkeye teams.

Alford's best 3-point shooting teams (before this season at Nevada) were at New Mexico in 2007-08 and at UCLA in 2016-17. Those were the only two teams Alford has coached that shot better than .400 on threes for the entire season, a feat the current Pack team is on pace to also accomplish. New Mexico in 2007-08 was a ridiculous .420 on threes. The Lobos that season were led in threes by Chad Toppert (85-of-177, .480) and Jamaal Smith (38-of-78, .487). Toppert led the Mountain West in 3-point percentage in 2007-08. Alford's Bruins of 2016-17, which finished 31-5, shot .406 on threes and were led by Bryce Alford (116-270, .430), Lonzo Ball (80-194, .412), Aaron Holiday (53-129, .411) and T.J. Leaf (27-58, .466).

Alford's Missouri State, Iowa, New Mexico, UCLA and Nevada players have combined for 27 seasons of shooting .400 or better on 75 or more three attempts. The only Wolf Pack players to do it so far for a full season have been Jazz Johnson (91-218, .417) and Nisre Zouzoua (52-125, .416) in 2019-20 and Hunter McIntosh (44-98, .449) last year. Jarod Lucas (80-203, .394) came close last year as did Lindsey Drew (45-113, .398) in 2019-20.

The Pack this year has five players (Kobe Sanders, Nick Davidson, Xavier Dusell, Tyler Rolison and Justin McBride) shooting threes at .400 or better so far. Rolison and McBride, though, will likely struggle to reach 75 attempts, since they currently come off the bench.

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Alford is, without question, the driving force at Nevada behind the importance placed on the 3-pointer. None of Alford's six New Mexico teams shot below .346 on threes. None of his five UCLA teams shot below .363. None of his four Southwest Missouri State teams shot below .365. None of his six Nevada teams has been worse than .333 (Alford's worst year at Nevada in 2021-22).

Alford's eight Iowa teams also were, for the most part, a solid 3-point team. Just two of those eight teams shot below .346. One (2005-06) was a respectable .335 but his 2002-03 team, his worst 3-point team of his Division I career, was a wretched .209. Luke Recker, a transfer from Indiana, played two seasons for Alford at Iowa in 2000-01 and 2001-02, shooting a combined 139-of-332 (.419). Recker, though, left after the 2001-02 season, leaving Alford's 2002-03 Hawkeyes with a group that was among the worst in the nation beyond the arc (.290). Alford two most active 3-point shooters that year (Brody Boyd and Jeff Horner) were a combined 96-of-326 (.294).

But, as we've seen during Alford's six seasons at Nevada, Alford is not a coach that would dare tell his shooters to stop firing up threes even if they are not going in. That Iowa team kept shooting threes and Alford somehow found a way to win 17-of-31 games in 2002-03. Alford, it also must be noted, turned Horner (a freshman in 2002-03) into one of the best 3-point shooters in the nation by the time he left Iowa after 2005-06. Horner shot .391 on threes (221-of-565) over his final three seasons.

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We've seen Alford's never-ending patience with his shooters at Nevada time after time. The shooters he believes in, players over the last six years such as Jalen Harris, Jazz Johnson, Jarod Lucas, Will Baker, Darrion Williams, Dez Cambridge, Grant Sherfield and now, Xavier DuSell, can shoot threes from the opening tip-off to the final buzzer as far as Alford is concerned, whether or not the shots are going in on a given night or not.

It is the confidence Bobby Knight showed Alford in the 1980s when the 3-point shot was born and it is the confidence all fearless shooters (Alford knows as well as anyone) need from their head coach. Alford, who rarely even mentions a bad shooting night by one of his shooters after games, has been patient with some Pack shooters who have battled through some awful 3-point seasons and, for the most part, he has been rewarded for that patience.

Tre Coleman, a defensive standout, was a brutal 3-point shooter as a sophomore, shooting just .257 (18-of-70). He started the season going 7-of-45 (.156) on threes over the first 19 games. Most coaches would have quietly forbid Coleman to shoot threes the rest of the year. Not Alford.

Yes, the Pack was an underachieving, bad basketball team that season in 2021-22 on its way to a 13-18 season and had nothing to lose. But Alford, staying true to his coaching philosophy, also stayed true to Coleman. Coleman somehow regained his shooting touch in the middle of that season to go 11-of-25 (.440) on threes over the final 12 games of the year. He has been solid ever since, shooting .358, .370 and .341 (this year) on threes the last three seasons.

Alford's loyalty to his shooters, on the rare occasion, doesn't always work out. Kenan Blackshear was not a good 3-point shooter his first two years at Florida Atlantic, going 23-of-87 (.264) combined. But Alford let him shoot his first year at Nevada (in 2021-22) and was rewarded with Blackshear going 28-of-82 on threes (.341). That success rate, however, didn't last as Blackshear was a combined 23-of-92 (.250) on threes his last two seasons at Nevada, ending with a cover-your-eyes performance last year (5-of-28 in 32 games).

But Alford's confidence in his players' shooting abilities almost always does work out. That's because Alford doesn't recruit bad shooters to Nevada. Nick Davidson was a dreadful 26-of-89 on threes last year (.292) but this year has rebounded to shoot 16-of-35 (.457) on threes. Xavier DuSell went 1-for-8 on threes this year in a loss to Washington State. That unfortunate night, though, did nothing to quell DuSell's confidence or the confidence Alford has in DuSell. The veteran shooter has gone 11-of-21 on threes since that night over three games.

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Alford knows a 3-point shooter when he sees one, recruiting solid long-distance shooters such as Jarod Lucas, Will Baker, Nick Davidson, Grant Sherfield, Dez Cambridge, Hunter McIntosh, Zane Meeks, Tyler Rolison and Kane Milling to the Pack in past seasons. Xavier DuSell, Kobe Sanders and Justin McBride arrived this season to more than help replace the loss of Lucas and McIntosh off last year's team.

DuSell was a steal for Alford. The veteran Mountain West player (three years at Wyoming and one at Fresno State) was always one of the hidden gems in the conference from beyond the arc. He led the Mountain West with 88 threes and a .395 3-point percentage last year at Fresno State. And that was after three years at Wyoming, when he was a combined 173-of-437 (.396) on threes. How he ended up at Nevada and not some big-time basketball factory in the Midwest, South or East was one of the biggest surprises of the past off-season.

DuSell's .400 career percentage on threes is ninth in Mountain West history (Chad Toppert, who played for Alford at New Mexico, is second at .438). DuSell's 289 career threes is also fourth in Mountain West history behind just Justinian Jessup (325 for Boise State from 2017-20), Sam Merrill (319 for Utah State from 2017-20) and Jimmer Fredette (296 from 2008-11) for BYU.

Expect DuSell to set the Mountain West record for career threes this season sometime in late January or early February.  Alford will certainly give him the chance.