March Madness: St. John's using the three-point shot to win games in the NCAA Tournament
After St. John’s saw its 2024-25 season come to an end with an upset loss to Arkansas in the second round of the NCAA Tournament, coach Rick Pitino and his staff had a number of priorities when they began to recruit the transfer portal. None was bigger than finding players who could make three-point shots.
That Red Storm team had won 31 games, captured the Big East regular season and tournament titles and earned a No. 2 seeding for the Big Dance. It did all that despite being one of the worst three-point shooting teams in the country by compensating with a defense ranked second in the nation and voracious offensive rebounding. That Storm made only 30.1% from behind the arc to rank 347th of 365 teams in Division I.
This season, St. John’s (30-6) and the three-point shot have become a bit of a conundrum. The Red Storm don't shoot it great, but it is definitely a weapon in their arsenal and has been a key in their NCAA Tournament run to the Sweet 16, where on Friday No. 5 St. John’s faces No. 1 Duke (34-2) at Capital One Arena in Washington, D.C.
The Storm made 10 threes on 34.5% shooting in last Friday’s first-round win over No. 12 Northern Iowa and 11 on 31.4% shooting in Sunday’s second-round triumph over No. 4 Kansas. Not eye-popping percentages, but three-pointers accounted for 38% of their points against UNI and 49% against the Jayhawks.
Those numbers may seem out of character for a team that averages only 21.4 three-point attempts and makes just 7.1 per game (33.2%). But the three-point shot was necessary against a UNI team that is one of the best in the country defending the arc and a Kansas squad laden with tall, shot-blocking bigs.
“I was imploring my guys the entire game — this is going to sound strange — I said, ‘You have to keep shooting the three' . . . I was all over Bryce Hopkins,” Pitino said after the 67-65 win over Kansas in which Hopkins had 18 points on a career-high six made threes. “We need it because when you're not in sync offensively because of their size and they wouldn't let us have a good look, your only salvation is to make threes.
“The three-point line, which hasn't been in our favor most of the year, had to win it for us tonight because our offense going to the basket was not [bearing] fruits.”
Since ending the regular season with a total of 20 three-pointers, Hopkins has been the team’s best three-point shooter, going 11-for-18 from deep in five games, including three in the Big East Tournament.
And that only adds to the Red Storm three-point conundrum. Hopkins’ transfer from Providence wasn’t about his three-point shooting, as he made just 30% on attempts from deep in his 50 games with the Friars.
The truly strong outside shooters that St. John’s pursued and landed were transfers Oziyah Sellers (40.1% in 2024-25), Ian Jackson (39.5%) and Joson Sanon (36.9%) and freshman Imran Suljanovic.
Suljanovic has missed the entire season after October knee surgery, but none of the other three has replicated the three-point success of a year ago. Sellers is at 35.4%, Jackson at 35.3% and Sanon at 34.3%. As a result, St. John’s ranks 218th in three-point shooting and 281st with 34.7% of its points coming on threes.
When Pitino’s Providence team rode a high volume of three-point shots to the 1987 Final Four, he was the first coach to see the introduction of the shot as a weapon. And throughout this season, he has implored players to take them when they have a good look at the basket from the arc, though they haven’t done it enough to satisfy him.
The offseason strategy St. John’s used in seeking outside shooters has had an impact, because they can make three-pointers in a way the previous edition couldn’t. This is an extremely versatile team. The defense and rebounding may not again be elite, but they are top tier. And with more three-point shooters in the mix, the Red Storm can score that way and opposing defenses have to respect it.
LONG STORY
Key numbers behind St. John's three-point shooting:
33.2
St. John's three-point shooting percentage, 218th of 365 teams in D-I.
34.7
Percentage of St. John's points via the three, 281st in the country.
12-0
Record when the Red Storm shoot 36% or better behind the arc..
13-0
Record when the Red Storm make eight threes or more.
Roger Rubin returned to Newsday in 2018 to write about high schools, colleges and baseball following 20 years at the Daily News. A Baseball Hall of Fame voter since 2011, he has covered 13 MLB postseasons and 14 NCAA Final Fours.
