RCW: Sport Spotlight 4.17 (Men's Basketball)
Back-to-back dunks from Udoka Azubuike! #KUbball pic.twitter.com/D8L4fIzmhJ
— Kansas Basketball (@KUHoops) January 10, 2018
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A post shared by Kansas Basketball (@kuhoops) on Jan 9, 2018 at 6:08pm PST
Kansas is one of the best 3-point shooting teams in the country. As a team, the Jayhawks average 11.1 3-point field goals made per game and shoot 41.4 percent from beyond the arc. Both of those stats lead the Big 12 Conference and rank in the top 15 nationally among the 351 NCAA Division I men’s basketball programs. Kansas is vying to become only the third team in the 21-year history of the Big 12 to lead the conference in both 3-point field goals made per game and 3-point field goal percentage. Oklahoma turned the feat in 2015-16 and Iowa State in 2012-13.
Historically, the 2017-18 Jayhawks are on pace to surpass the school single-season 3-point field goals made per game record, a feat that has been short-lived as of late. Last season, KU set the school 3-point record, making 318 from beyond the arc for 8.8 per game. That mark beat the previous record of 304 threes made, 8.0 per game, by the 2015-16 Jayhawks.
KU seniors Devonte’ Graham and Sviatoslav Mykhailiuk have been major players in the 3-point trend the last three seasons. Already this year, the two Jayhawk guards have combined for 108 of KU’s 177 3-pointers, which is 61.0 percent. The prolific outside shooting from these two is nothing new as they continue to move up the all-time KU 3-point charts. Last year Graham’s 94 3-pointers were fourth on the KU single-season list. His 237 career threes are third most in KU history. Mykhailiuk is 10th on the KU career list with 179 threes.
Since the advent of the 3-point line prior to the 1986-87 season, only two other Kansas duos have tallied more threes over a three-year stretch than the 384 that Graham and Mykhailiuk have combined for since the 2015-16 season. That mark is the third most for a duo in a three-year stretch. Jeff Boschee and Kirk Hinrich are the most prolific 3-point shooting duo in school history as they netted 405 treys while they played together from 2000-02. Brandon Rush and Mario Chalmers are next, making 385 threes from 2006-08. Graham is also one half of another sharp-shooting pair after he and Frank Mason III combined for the fourth-most threes (353) among KU duos during the last three seasons (2015-17).
