For the past four seasons, a consistent weakness for Indiana has been the three-point line on both offense and defense.
"There’s no doubt about it," Archie Miller said in his press conference Wednesday. "The inconsistency from the three-point line is something that frustrates you.”
On offense, the Hoosiers struggle to create clean looks from deep, resulting in phenomenally low efficiency. Miller has never coached an Indiana team that shot greater than 33 percent from three, and this year is no different. The Hoosiers are currently shooting at a 32.4 percent clip from that range.
"The quality of shot we’re getting is something the staff is always mindful of" Miller noted. "Our shooting has just been inconsistent because most of the time from a percentage standpoint … we don’t have knock-down lights-out shooters.
"We have been able to have some shooting nights where we have made more than our fair share. And we have had nights where are shooting has been off. And that is how this team will."
On the other side of the ball, teams have traditionally had a field day shooting the ball from deep against Miller’s team. This season has taken that tradition up a notch. The Hoosiers are currently allowing Big Ten opponents to shoot 40.4 percent from three -- the worst mark in the conference.
"If you just look at our 3-point field goal percentage defense in conference alone, you are not going to be able to be successful when you are giving up the amount of threes and at the percentage we have given up," Miller added.
Miller’s pack-line defense plays into this number. A fundamental of the pack-line defense is to take away drives to the rim by packing the paint, resulting in a lot of catch and shoot opportunities. We saw Virginia fall to UMBC in the NCAA Tournament for this very reason.
