Luke Winn's Top 16 Shooters

Author:
SI Staff
Publish date:
Nov 8, 2012

Luke Winn's Top 16 Shooters

Mardracus Wade

He isn't the Razorbacks' biggest star (that would be SEC Player of the Year candidate B.J. Young), but Wade is an excellent catch-and-shoot option in transition who made 47.6 percent of his treys as a sophomore.

Gary Bell Jr.

Bell made 47.7 percent of his threes as a freshman and -- according to Synergy Sports' logs -- averaged 1.321 points per possession on all of his jump shots. That put him in elite territory, and he's expected to stay there as long as defenses keep keying on teammates Elias Harris and Kevin Pangos.

Sean Armand

According to Synergy Sports' logs, Armand had the third-highest efficiency of any jump shooter in the nation, averaging 1.445 points per possession last season. (Only SIU-Edwardsville's Kris Davis and Wichita State's Joe Ragland were better.)

Bryson Johnson

The best volume gunner in the Patriot League for a few years running, Johnson hit 45.6 percent of his threes as a sophomore and 40.6 as a junior. Keep an eye on junior teammate Cameron Ayers, too -- he made 46.8 percent of his treys last season, and is just as much of a threat from deep.

Nick Kellogg

While his father, Clark, was a 6-7 forward, Nick is a 6-3 gunner who made 42.7 percent of his threes last season. He's a primary assist target of point guard D.J. Cooper, who does his best work off the dribble.

Colt Ryan

Ryan has been the Aces' leading scorer for his entire career, during which he's established himself as one of the Missouri Valley Conference's most feared shooters. As a junior he connected on 43.8 percent of his long-range attempts.

Scott Bamforth

Damian Lillard received all the attention at Weber State for the past two seasons, but Bamforth quietly broke the 40-percent mark from long range as a sophomore and junior. He's no slouch from the stripe, either, converting 87.5 percent of his attempts.

Kris Davis

Davis came out of nowhere -- he was an under-recruited scorer out of Detroit's Public League -- to lead the nation in three-point percentage at 59.8. He only took 97 attempts, and we only have one year of data on him, so it seems unwise to anoint him the country's best shooter -- but he's worth monitoring in '12-13 to see if his freshman campaign wasn't a fluke.

Kenny Boynton

Last season, Boynton made the jump from averagely efficient gunner to elite scorer, posting a 121.8 ORating while using a team-high 23.1 percent of possessions. He took the seventh-highest amount of three-point attempts (270) in the nation, and made 40.7 percent of them.

Langston Galloway

Galloway, who was the most efficient offensive player in the Atlantic 10 last season (a 124.9 ORating, and 46.6 percent on threes), is a big reason why the Hawks are expected to contend for their first NCAA tournament bid since 2008.

Doug McDermott

The Bluejays' Naismith Award candidate is hyper-efficient on the interior (where he shot 63.2 percent last season) and from beyond the arc (where he shot 48.6 percent). There isn't a more versatile scorer in the country.

Brady Heslip

The Boston College transfer stepped into Baylor's starting lineup last season and shot 45.5 percent from three and 92.1 percent from the free-throw line. Heslip had 12 games (of 38 played) in which he made at least four threes.

Scott Wood

As the most feared catch-and-shoot option in the ACC, Wood gets tagged with no-help defense in nearly every game. He still found a way to connect on threes at a 40.9 percent rate as a junior, while also hitting 90.7 percent of his free throws.

Jordan Hulls

Hulls, who's an elite, off-the-dribble gunner, nearly cracked the half-made mark (hitting 49.3 percent of his threes) while serving as an auxiliary option in Indiana's Cody Zeller-and-Christian Watford-dominated offense last season. Zeller's emergence as a low-post star should only help Hulls get more open looks.

Isaiah Canaan

Canaan shot 45.6 percent from long-range last season while being hounded by opponents' best defenders and having to create much of his own offense. He has posted three-point percentages of 40-plus for three straight years -- a rare feet for a ball-dominating lead guard.

Rotnei Clarke

Clarke, a senior transfer from Arkansas who sat out the 2011-12 season, is the nation's most deadly high-volume shooter. He was the primary focus of SEC defenses in his final two years with the Razorbacks, yet managed to make more than 40 percent of his threes while taking 200-plus attempts.