Should Oklahoma State Embrace a Higher Volume of 3-Pointers?
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Oklahoma State’s offense has often looked stagnant, but there might be a fix.
On Saturday, the Cowboys dropped their third game in four tries in Big 12 play, falling at Utah 83-62. Their 63-point output marked the fifth time OSU failed to hit the 70-point mark, including the third time in conference play.
OSU has had plenty of eye-opening stats throughout the season, but some of its offensive numbers have been hard to fathom. The most absurd numbers have come from the Cowboys’ shots inside.
Throughout the first four games of conference play, OSU has only managed to shoot 50% or better on layups once, going 12-of-20 against West Virginia. OSU shot only 12-of-25 in its win against Kansas State, 9-of-27 in Saturday’s loss at Utah and an unbelievably bad 3-of-22 against Houston in the conference opener.
That brings the Cowboys to 36-of-94 on layups in conference play this season, good for 38.3%. Overall, OSU is shooting only 60-of-149 from inside the arc this season, good for 40.2%.
For the 3-point shot to be as efficient as the Cowboys’ twos, they would only need to hit 26.8% from beyond the arc. In conference play, OSU is shooting 26.1% from that range. It isn’t quite the number the Cowboys need to hit to match the two-point efficiency, but it is close enough to consider a significant change in offensive strategy.
Considering the Cowboys are pegged to finish near the bottom of the Big 12 and have looked like it so far, they could use a strategy with high variance. The 3-point shot can swing games drastically in one direction or the other, particularly if one team puts up a large amount of shots from outside.
Considering the Cowboys’ offense results in around 0.8 points per possession regardless of where shots come from, it might be best for them to accept they are often smaller than their opponent and need to fire from deep. OSU ranks 11th in the Big 12 in conference play in 3-point attempts at 21 per game.
Maybe it would be a shortsighted strategy to try and cheat the system by putting up a ridiculous number of threes, but OSU hasn’t shot more than 26 in a game this season, and it might be time to let it fly.
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Ivan is a sports media student at Oklahoma State University. He has covered OSU athletics since 2022 and also covers the OKC Thunder for Inside The Thunder and Thunderous Intentions.