This new-age philosophy that if you don’t shoot a ton of 3-pointers you’re doomed to fail rubs me so wrong that I decided to look at the past 16 Final Four teams in four different categories listed on Kenpom.com, the first two dealing with the volume of 3-pointers taken, another with 3-point accuracy and a fourth with the size of teams.
Size turned out to be the most common thread for Final Four squads, only slightly ahead of 3-point accuracy, and the two least important factors are 3-point frequency.
So the idea that teams that don’t chuck 3-pointers don’t cut it anymore is hogwash. A look at Final Four teams from the past four NCAA tournaments:
| Final Four Team | Pct. of points on 3-pointers (National rank) |
3-pt. FG/FGA (National rank) |
3-pt FG pct. (National rank) |
Avg. inches per player (National rank) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 Duke* | 27.5 (205) | 33.4 (198) | 38.7 (26) | 77.5 (57) |
| 2015 Wisconsin | 29.8 (139) | 37.4 (89) | 36.5 (79) | 79.2 (2) |
| 2015 Michigan State | 31.8 (88) | 35 (153) | 38.5 (29) | 76.2 (240) |
| 2015 Kentucky | 21.0 (326) | 27.1 (325) | 34.9 (143) | 79.3 (1) |
| 2016 Villanova* | 33.4 (71) | 42.7 (31) | 36.2 (105) | 77.3 (93) |
| 2016 North Carolina | 20.3 (342) | 26.7 (338) | 32.7 (259) | 77.8 (59) |
| 2016 Oklahoma | 38.9 (14) | 40.7 (59) | 42.2 (2) | 77 (122) |
| 2016 Syracuse | 36.5 (27) | 42.1 (41) | 36 (114) | 78.6 (11) |
| 2017 North Carolina* | 25.3 (294) | 30.3 (306) | 35.5 (148) | 77.9 (35) |
| 2017 Gonzaga | 26.6 (270) | 32.8 (258) | 38.2 (42) | 78.5 (8) |
| 2017 Oregon | 32.8 (111) | 38.9 (112) | 38 (47) | 77.4 (91) |
| 2017 South Carolina | 27.3 (254) | 33.5 (247) | 33.4 (245) | 77.1 (127) |
| 2018 Villanova* | 40.2 (15) | 47.5 (12) | 40.1 (11) | 77.3 (96) |
| 2018 Michigan | 35.6 (81) | 43.2 (59) | 35.2 (156) | 77.8 (50) |
| 2018 Kansas | 37 (50) | 41.2 (84) | 40.1 (10) | 77.7 (55) |
| 2018 Loyola-Chicago | 30.4 (189) | 35.4 (229) | 39.8 (17) | 76.5 (229) |
| Source: Kenpom.com *National champion |
Color key: | Top third | Middle third | Bottom third |
