Securing the Perimeter

(St. Louis, MO) – “He who secures the perimeter wins the war.” Battles are won, businesses built and basketball teams prevail based on what happens on the perimeter.

Five Missouri Valley Conference teams have winning records after the first four league games have been played. All five of them have made more three-point baskets than their opponents and three of the five have made a greater percentage of those shots than the teams they’ve played.

Since teams tend to fire more threes when they trail, those numbers explode off the page. All three of the teams with losing conference records (Bradley, Drake and Loyola) have connected on fewer shots from distance than they’ve made.

Wichita State is the working model of this perimeter issue. The defending champions (10-5, 4-0) have had an interesting season involving injuries, most notably to all-American guard Fred VanVleet. Head Coach Gregg Marshall contends that VanVleet affects the Shocker defense at least as much as he impacts the offense.

In WSU’s 10 wins they have either made more threes or a greater percentage of those attempts in eight of those contests. The opposite has taken place in three of the Shockers’ five losses. Since VanVleet returned Wichita has won five straight and eight of their last nine games and the Shockers have outperformed their opposition at the three-point line in seven of those nine contests.

The Shockers are shooting 40.2 % from long rang in MVC games after converting on just 32.7 % in non-conference action. They have allowed 36.7 % three-point conversions outside of MVC play and are allowing a stingy 29.2 % in Valley activity.

The three-point line has changed college basketball and while there are other determining factors in a winning formula, perimeter play has become one of the most important.

Wichita State was challenged this week by the teams with the MVC’s best non-conference records. Evansville and Southern Illinois entered the week with identical 13-2 records. They both lost to Wichita and were successful on a combined seven of 27 shots from distance. Wichita State converted on 19 of 32. Game over.

Those five teams with winning MVC records occupy five of the league’s top six spots in 3-point defense percentage. Defending the perimeter is a paramount issue in the Valley.

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