Volume of Threes, Shot Selection Aren't an Issue for Mizzou Despite Inefficiencies

Even after two poor games from the perimeter, the Tigers want to continue to shoot outside shots.

Michael Stamps | Nov 9, 2024

Nov 8, 2024; Columbia, Missouri, USA; Missouri Tigers guard Tamar Bates (2) controls the ball as Howard Bison guard Bryce Harris (34) defends during the second half at Mizzou Arena. Mandatory Credit: Denny Medley-Imagn Images / Denny Medley-Imagn Images

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Missouri Tigers

Despite its 77-62 victory over Howard, the Missouri Tigers struggled mightily from the perimeter, going 3-for-22 on the game.

All night, the Tigers got good looks from the perimeter. The high-quality shots the Tigers continued to take from the outside made it more intriguing to continue to shoot them. Despite head coach Dennis Gates' wishes to score elsewhere, the looks were just too enticing.

"The three-pointer was so tempting for most of them, they couldn't resist,” Gates said. “They could not resist it.”

Luckily for Gates and his team, they were able to score in other ways. The free-throw line became the Tigers' best option, making 31 trips to the charity stripe and capitalizing on 26 of them. Outside of that, the Tigers, including guard Tamar Bates, did a good job getting to the rim and scoring in transition.

“We just got to be able to rely on something else to be able to win ball games at the end of the day,” Bates said. “Like our shots not going to always fall.”

Despite the high volume of threes and the number of misses, Gates still wants the Tigers to attempt a higher volume of triples. The offense Gates runs, highlighted by dribble drives, allows for plenty of wide-open looks. Don't anticipate the Tigers slowing down with shots from the perimeter.

“I want to shoot more threes. I want guys from every position to shoot threes,” Gates said. “But it wasn't the night for that and I'm okay with that.”

Bates was the Tigers' best perimeter shooter against Howard, drilling all three of the team's makes and going 3-for-7 on the night. Bates finished with 17 on the night and per usual, got to the rim and found his spots in the mid-range. The Tigers also found points in transition off forced turnovers on the defensive side of the ball.

“You're not always going to win games behind the arc, but we did other things like Tamar said and we defended,” Gates said.

Missouri has plenty of talented scorers on its roster and will have to utilize them in a variety of ways if outside shots are not falling. At the end of the game, when Howard closed the gap to just four points, Bates' name was called to deliver a big-time shot. Running a set play to get open presented as the most efficient method of getting a high-quality shot.

“We got guys that can come off of a ball screen and create something,” Bates said. “But at that point in the game when we need a basket, we just got to run something that we know works.”

Bates and the Tigers might be able to get away with shooting 13% from the perimeter against Howard, but as the season progresses, that stat will need to be cleaned up in order to beat better teams. Missouri only shot 29% from three against Memphis, so a small trend of poor perimeter shooting is beginning to grow. A confidence-building perimeter shooting night will need to come for the Tigers in order to gain that confidence back.

“They'll fall. We're not a 13% three-point shooting team,” Gates said. “So for me, I want our guys to play with confidence.”

The Tigers were a 31.9% three-point shooting team last season, an area in which improvement was necessary for Missouri to grow. There have been few indicators early on that signal an improvement in that area and that will have to change if the Tigers want to win more games than the season prior.

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