Through the first three games of the season, it looked like Michigan State basketball was on track to become a historically-bad 3-point shooting team.
Michigan State was just 13-for-60 from deep through the first three games, and then it shot 11-for-22 against Kentucky to gain some confidence back. After that Kentucky game, Michigan State had one more poor showing from deep, going just 8-for-27 against a mediocre Detroit Mercy team.
The Spartans then cut their attempts down, shooting only 10 against North Carolina and 12 against Iowa. Then they put up 22 attempts against Duke, making eight.
Since that Duke game, Michigan State has been letting it fly.
And the results aren’t too shabby.
Michigan State is starting to light it up from 3
With the exception of the Oakland game in which Michigan State was just 6-for-22 from deep, the Spartans have been lighting up the scoreboard from the perimeter.
Even when you count that off-game against Oakland, Michigan State is shooting 43 percent from 3-point land over the past four games. The Spartans are making teams look silly for trying to run a zone and Tom Izzo even said it himself in the post-game presser: he’s finally learning how to coach against a zone.
This team has found its stroke from deep, now shooting a fraction under 37 percent on the season, and several guys are starting to look like legitimate 3-point specialists.
Just take a look at these 3-point numbers:
Jesse McCulloch — 60%
Divine Ugochukwu — 50%
Jaxon Kohler — 46.7%
Kur Teng — 38.3%
Jeremy Fears Jr. — 35.3%
With Trey Fort coming on more lately and Jordan Scott finding his stroke, Michigan State has 6-7 players who can step out and hit threes regularly.
And, if you’re wondering about the gawdy numbers of McCulloch, Ugochukwu, and Kohler, no, they’re not shooting like 1-for-2 or 3-for-5 from deep on the season, they’ve actually shot a decent amount.
McCulloch — 6-for-10
Ugochukwu — 13-for-26
Kohler — 21-for-45
Teng — 18-for-47
Fears — 12-for-34
Fort is also just 13-for-44 on the season, but he’s made three of his last eight, and that confidence seems to be building.
Gone are the days of teams daring Michigan State to shoot. This team has figured it out.