Indiana’s Poor 3-Point Shooting Against Winthrop Nothing New

Sunday’s 1-for-20 3-point shooting day might be Indiana’s worst under coach Mike Woodson, but there have been similar performances.

Indiana's Luke Goode (10) shoots against Winthrop a Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall. / Rich Janzaruk/Herald-Times / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – Indiana’s 1-for-20 3-point shooting Sunday against Winthrop may be a shock when looking at the final box score of the 77-68 win.

But over the last four seasons under coach Mike Woodson, it’s not particularly rare. 

There have been two games during the Woodson era in which the Hoosiers have missed more. Just two games ago, they missed 27 3-point attempts in their 85-68 loss at Nebraska, though they also made eight shots beyond the arc, good for 22.9%. The other game with more misses was Woodson’s debut coaching his alma mater, when Indiana made just 4-of-24 3-point attempts in a 68-62 win over Eastern Michigan on Nov. 9, 2021.

In two additional games under Woodson, Indiana missed 19 3-point attempts like it did Sunday. That first happened in a 63-48 loss at Rutgers on Dec. 3, 2022, when Indiana made 6-of-25 3-pointers. Rutgers stifled the Hoosiers from long range again the following season as the Hoosiers made 7-of-26 shots in their 66-57 loss on Jan. 9, 2024.

There have also been two other games with just one made 3 pointer. Both occurred last season: A 1-for-11 3-point shooting day during Indiana’s 74-66 win over Louisville at Madison Square Garden in November 2023, and a 1-for-8 performance in a 63-45 win over Wisconsin in January 2024. 

The only game under Woodson in which the Hoosiers missed every 3-point attempt was on Jan. 27, 2024, when Indiana finished 0-for-9 from beyond the arc in a 70-62 loss at Illinois. Prior to that loss, Indiana’s last game without a 3-point field goal made was a Feb. 25, 2010, loss to Wisconsin, when the Hoosiers went 0-for-5.

But an argument could be made that Sunday’s performance was the worst of all under Woodson. Indiana attempted more threes Sunday than it did in the aforementioned games with zero or one made 3-pointers. And it shot a worse percentage Sunday than previous games with as many or more misses. 

Woodson was asked postgame if missing shots can be contagious for a team. 

“I don't know. You know, shooting, it's a funny thing, man,” Woodson said. “They were all good looks. So I can't sit here and complain that they were bad shots. They have just got to keep working, and eventually they will fall. That's how I think as a coach, the threes and the free throws. Because I thought the free throws beat us in the butt tonight. But the positive behind tonight's game is that when they cut the lead to one, we didn't fold. We made the play that we had to make. We went on a 7-0 run, and those are the things that I look at.”

Indiana's Mackenzie Mgbako (21) shoots against Winthrop at Assembly Hall. / Rich Janzaruk/Herald-Times / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

After Luke Goode made Indiana’s first 3-point attempt of the game at the 17:04 mark of the first half, the Hoosiers went on to miss the next 19 3-point shots. Five Hoosiers attempted at least one 3-pointer Sunday, including Goode (1-for-9), Mackenzie Mgbako (0-for-5), Myles Rice (0-for-3), Trey Galloway (0-for-2) and Kannan Carlyle (0-for-1).

Indiana led Winthrop for over 37 minutes, but it didn’t push the lead to nine points until the final minutes. It never had a double-digit advantage. The Hoosiers led by eight points several times throughout the game, but Winthrop hung around and even made it a one-point game with 3:16 to play.

Indiana could have secured a more comfortable win had it converted more threes, but Rice thought the offense still generated the kind of shots it wanted.

“The threes that we got were really good looks,” Rice said. “I think over 75, 80 percent of them were really good looks. But I mean, yeah, as a player when you see one go in, I think it's the same way. Like you see one go in, you feel good. But we've just got to get over that mental hurdle and keep shooting. Because like I said we’re getting good shots, and I feel comfortable with everybody who took threes tonight. And like I said, it was really good shots. We've just got to hit them.”

Indiana entered the Winthrop game shooting 32.9% from 3-point range, which ranked 224th in the nation. It also continues to attempt far fewer than the national average, with just 6.2 3-pointers made per game, which ranks 325th nationally, and 18.8 attempts per game, 335th.

This has been a problem area for Indiana during most of Woodson’s tenure, which ranked 255th nationally in 3-point percentage 2023-24 and 200th in 2021-22. The Hoosiers were a good outside shooting team in 2022-23, finishing 39th at 36.8%, but they were not able to maintain that standard.

Sunday’s shooting woes dropped Goode’s percentage to 30.3% through 13 games, though Mgbako is still shooting 41.1%. Carlyle is down to 23% and Rice fell to 31.4%, but Galloway is still at 41.3%. Those five account for 210 of Indiana’s 245 3-point attempts this season.

Woodson said 3-point shooting is always a concern, but he thinks he has the roster to make them moving forward.

“You're always concerned about them,” Woodson said. “We're shooting them, and again, if they were bad threes, then I would really sit here and complain. But they were good threes, and I feel good about the guys that are shooting them. So again, eventually, they are going to make them. That's how I think.”

Related stories on Indiana basketball

• INDIANA GETS BY WINTHROP: Game story from Indiana's 77-68 victory over Winthrop. CLICK HERE.

• WHAT WOODSON SAID: Mike Woodson's comments to the media after Indiana improved to 10-3 on the season. CLICK HERE.

• LIVE BLOG: Follow the Indiana-Winthrop game as it happened with the Hoosiers On SI live blog. CLICK HERE.