Cal Basketball: Matt Bradley Adjusting to the New 3-Point Distance

The Pac-12's most efficient 3-point shooter now will hoist them from the international distance of 22 feet, 1 inch

Matt Bradley is one of those rare basketball players who seems to shoot better the farther he is from the basket. He led the Pac-12 Conference last season with a .472 mark from 3-point distance, although he only made .369 from inside the arc. 

That's potentially good new for the 6-foot-4 sophomore from San Bernardino because the college 3-point arc has been extended 16 inches this season, from 20 feet, 9 inches to the international distance of 22-1.

"It's gotten easier over time," said Bradley, who has had the entire offseason to get comfortable with the new 3-point distance. "At first it was a mental struggle. I was a little frustrated.

"But things got better and it's natural."

Bradley said he thinks the change will be good because it creates more space for perimeter shooters and opens up the interior as defenders are forced to extend further to deal with shooters.

"It became part of the flow and it's better now because there's more space they have to cover to actually guard you from three now."

Bradley certainly wasn't a prolific 3-point shooters, but he made 50 of 106 attempts to sit atop the Pac-12 stats at .472.

The rest of the Cal team shot just .323 from deep, and Cal's other five returning players converted just .276 from beyond the arc a year ago. None of the Bears' other veteran players made as many as 10 3-point baskets last season.

The Bears hope that newcomers such as freshmen guards Joel Brown and Demitrios Klonaras and Texas A&M-Corpus Christi graduate transfer Kareem South can provide Bradley with some capable fellow 3-point marksmen.