What Has Been the Key to UCLA's 3-Point Shooting Success

UCLA men's basketball shot 42% from deep last month.

Dec 28, 2024; Inglewood, California, USA; UCLA Bruins head coach Mick Cronin yells at referees during the first half against the Gonzaga Bulldogs at Intuit Dome. Mandatory Credit: Robert Hanashiro-Imagn Images / Robert Hanashiro-Imagn Images

No. 15 UCLA started off the season struggling from beyond the arc.

It wasn't anything out of the norm, of course -- you're doing something very right if you shoot well early on in the season, and even some of the very best teams don't.

But the Bruins started to find success from deep in December. In the month, the team shot 42% from 3-point land.

"Which I told you in November was going to happen," said UCLA coach Mick Cronin when he addressed the media on Thursday. "I said most teams shoot around 35; better shooting teams shoot around 37 or [3]8."

UCLA senior guard Lazar Stefanovic said that "passing is the key for good shooting."

"[I]f you got good passing, good passers, you create an advantage and you got guys wide open, your percentage is going to go up," he said. "You just got to give them the ball at the right time and the right place."

Cronin agreed.

"No question, it's always been passing," he said. "If you look at the best offensive teams in the NBA, their ball movement is tremendous, so you got to get to that point, but you still have to shoot it in. So, you have to have guys who can shoot the ball. The advantage we have is, in our starting lineup, everybody can shoot.

"So, I used to say this: there was times where I made the NCAA Tournament as a coach with certain teams that we were really playing two- or three-on-five offensively. It's hard to do. When you're playing five-on-five offensively, you're harder to defend, much harder to defend because, not to give you a geometry lesson, but you got to guard the whole court. When you can pass -- so, if somebody's open on that side, and you're not guarding that side, and you can find him and he can shoot.

"But it's a lot easier to play defense against teams that have somebody you don't have to guard."

UCLA will look to keep its 3-point shooting success going when it takes on Nebraska on Saturday. That game is set for 11 a.m. PST, 2 p.m. EST.

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