Colorado's three-ball is unlocking the offense

BOULDER — Colorado was down 22-8 when Tyler Bey fought under the basket to find space to lay the ball in. He found his window, elevated then drained a layup off the glass. USC forward Ethan Anderson hit him on the way up and Bey went to the line, where he made a free throw.

The crowd erupted.

Then, on the next possession, the ball found its way into the hands of Eli Parquet. The sophomore knocked down a 3-pointer.

The crowd got louder.

Then, on the next possession, Tyler Bey made a 3-pointer of his own and the crowd lost its mind.

USC made a bucket in this stretch, but it didn’t matter because three points are worth more than two and the Buffs were chipping away at a double-digit deficit despite having no answer for the Trojans’ size in the paint. USC beat Colorado 42-24 in the paint but Colorado outscored the Trojans 33-6 from deep.

That’s what we’ve come to expect from the Buffs.

Colorado was 10th in the Pac-12 in 3-point shooting percentage in the 2018-19 season. It was 11th in 3-pointers taken.

This season, Colorado has jumped up to second in 3-point shooting percentage and the Buffs are now sixth in 3-point attempts. The resurgence has been buoyed by remarkably consistent shooting over the second half of this season.

Take a look at Colorado’s 3-point percentage by game this season:

While we’re doing graphs, I might as well mention that Colorado is second in the Pac-12 in free-throw percentage despite a couple of scary performances early.

What’s made Colorado’s shooting so consistent is the variety of different sources it can come from. Thursday night, star point guard McKinley Wright IV went 0-for-4 from three but his tough shooting night was counteracted by a trio of Buffs — Shane Gatling, Lucas Siewert and D’Shawn Schwartz — each making three 3-pointers.

Gatling said that after a 1-for-2 effort in the first half, his teammates told him to keep shooting.

“I just had to come out and be more confident, be more aggressive,” he said.

Siewert, made all three of his 3-pointers in a six-minute span.

“The shots were there,” he said. “I was working before the game on the shot a lot. So, even though the first two didn’t go in, if the shot is there I’m not going to stop taking them.”

Notice a theme there?

It doesn’t matter if who is hot or cold, every one of the Buffs’ shooters has the green light to launch the ball from deep if he gets a look. Wright was cold but he still took four 3-pointers. Tyler Bey found himself open a couple of times and drained a 3-pointer, despite that not being the strength of his game. Forward Evan Battey has been taking some shots from deep over the last few games, and they’re falling for him.

Even Dallas Walton, a 7-footer who isn’t known for his shot, took a three on Thursday and it was fairly early in the shot clock.

But nobody is forcing shots, either.

The problem with Colorado’s offense in the first half, head coach Tad Boyle said, was that it wasn’t finding the open man. The Buffs were playing with their heads down and weren’t moving the ball to whoever was left open when the ball-handler was double-teamed. That changed in the second half, and Colorado notched 12 assists in the game’s final 20 minutes.

Where does that shift come from?

“Trust,” Boyle said. “That is trusting your teammates that you don’t have to take the first one that is there. You know the ball is going to come back to you.”

Colorado’s improvement from three stems from plenty of different reasons, but the biggest is that the offense is generating open looks from beyond the arc. These aren’t the league’s best shooters anchoring this offensive attack, it’s the best penetrating offense kicking the ball out to good shooters who are wide open. That combination is tough to stop.

USC head coach Andy Enfield explained why his team gave up 11 3-pointers, after the game.

“Mental mistakes take over,” Enfield said. “You have to be focused for forty minutes.”

Those minor lapses allowed Colorado to take open shots. The Buffs took advantage.

In their last 15 games, the Buffs have only been held under 30% from beyond the arc once, a home win over Cal. In that same timeframe, they’ve shot over 50% twice.

If the Buffs can stay consistent from deep, they may have something special brewing.