Duke Blue Devils: Dissecting Jared McCain's 3-Point Barrage Versus Florida State
Jared McCain has been rising up on draft boards since basically the turn of the calendar year as a lethal shooter who's helped Duke achieve a 20-5 record to sit second in the ACC just behind North Carolina.
His lack of physical tools has hindered him in emerging as a potential lottery selection, but that might very well change with the instability in the middle-of-the-round picks if he chooses to opt into the 2024 NBA Draft.
But if he continually delivers even half of what he produced on Saturday afternoon's 76-67 victory over the Florida State Seminoles, he's in a pretty good position. In that contest, McCain notched 35 points on 60-73-75 splits. His eight triples at that efficiency embodies what he'd offer to an NBA team from the jump. Those eight shots from beyond the arc broke a Blue Devil freshman record for most treys in a single game, while matching the freshman scoring record in addition to that. It was a masterful shooting performance with seven of his eight threes coming in the first half, and it didn't come off easy catch-and-shoots.
Of course, the dynamic of those preparations and ease to get his shots off will be vastly altered in the collegiate versus professional landscape – so let's dissect where and how the lot of his scoring was derived from.
Here is the end of the half, with Duke out in front 41-37 as the Blue Devils leak out in transition with under eight seconds remaining on the clock. Jeremy Roach securing the steal, he threads it through to the sprinting McCain. The pass a bit out in front, McCain snags with his shooting hand, steps back with great balance, squares straight up with the goal and rises for a picture-perfect jumper on what should've been a tough, wonky shot to hit just before the end of the half.
This is the type of shooting he's begun to master in a Blue Devil uniform – controlled while heading down court paired with a punch dribble to stop his momentum before squaring up into shooting stance, then rising up linearly to get a promising shot off from distance.
If he continues to hit those types of shots at a high clip, there may not be a reason for him to stay for a second season at Duke.
As seen in this compilation, the majority of his shots are coming off around one or two dribbles, and only a couple coming off the catch. He's minimizing his time with the ball in his hands and makes his decisions fairly quickly as the defense reacts to his shooting ability. And McCain's learned how to defeat the opposition's effort in a number of ways.
At the 0:13 mark, we see McCain's momentum taking him up the right wing before receiving a pass, shifting his weight to the right in a natural jab step as soon as he catches, subsequently creating enough space for a spot-up look which he drills. He understands how to utilize his gravity to his advantage.
The clip following at 0:21, we see that punch dribble come into play yet again, this time at the top of the 3-point line. He digs into the body of Jamir Watkins, putting his weight into him before the punch dribble to create worlds of space for a shooter like him, then quickly squaring up with a fast release to knock down the shot.
To shoot 8-for-11 from distance is no easy feat. Even lingering in the corner and waiting for a kick out would be greatly impressive to shoot 72.7% on 11 attempts. But to eclipse a shooting record off shots primarily in movement and off dribble, it's hard to deny that McCain has one of the best shooting strokes in college basketball.
And if he continues to play in a realm remotely close to how he played Saturday afternoon, he could eventually find himself in lottery discussions before the season's end.
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