Hoos Looking to Improve Long-Range Proficiency

By Jeff White (jwhite@virginia.edu)
VirginiaSports.com

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. — In her four seasons as a Hofstra forward, Amaka Agugua-Hamilton never missed a 3-pointer in a game. Then again, she never attempted one.

Agugua-Hamilton, who’s headed into her third season as head coach of the UVA women’s basketball team, contributed in other ways offensively for Hofstra. She shot 55.1 percent from the floor for her college career.

“From 15 feet and in, I was money,” Coach Mox recalled this week, smiling.

Her counterpart at UVA, Tony Bennett, represented the other extreme during his stellar career as a guard at Wisconsin-Green Bay, attempting 584 treys. He made 290 of them, and his 49.7 shooting percentage from 3-point range still ranks No. 1 in NCAA history.

Bennett’s final season with the Phoenix was 1991-92. For all of his proficiency with the 3-pointer, he never would have envisioned then what a prominent part of the game it’s become. In Bennett’s three seasons as head coach at Washington State (2006-2009), his big men included Aron Baynes, who attempted all of three 3-pointers as a college player. The Cougars’ conference rivals included Stanford, led by 7-foot twins Brook and Robin Lopez.

If you’d told him then that Baynes and Brook Lopez would become 3-point specialists in the NBA, Bennett said, “I’d have said, ‘Yeah, that’s not happening.’ ”

What really surprises Bennett is “the range that guys can shoot from,” he said. “I had deep range, but you just didn’t shoot those. In high school you’d play four quarters, so at the end of the quarter that was a freebie. If you had the ball late, you could pull up at the volleyball line. But Steph Curry obviously has established that [as part of the game], and Caitlin Clark with her logo shots.”

For Cavalier hoops, the start of the 2024-25 season is fast approaching. Fans can get an early look at both teams Saturday night during the Blue-White scrimmages at John Paul Jones Arena.

The event is free to the public, and doors open at 5 p.m. The women’s team will scrimmage at 6 and the men’s team at 7 p.m. At 6:45 p.m., two players from each team will compete in a 3-point shootout.

Both teams shot inconsistently from 3-point range in 2023-24, and each ended its season with a poor performance from outside.

The UVA men were 3 for 17 beyond the arc against Colorado State in the NCAA tournament’s First Four.

The UVA women were 4 for 16 from 3-point range versus Villanova in the Women’s Basketball Invitation Tournament’s second round.

Overall, the Cavalier women shot 31.1 percent on 3-pointers in 2023-24. In her final college season, Camryn Taylor shot a team-high 51.7 percent, but she attempted only 29 treys in 28 games.

Agugua-Hamilton expects the Wahoos to be more efficient from long range in 2024-25. In an intrasquad scrimmage at JPJ, the Hoos played for about 25 minutes Monday and collectively made 18 treys, Agugua-Hamilton said.

“So I think we have some kids that can light it up,” she said. “As long as we can do that with the lights on, it’ll be good, because we have players that get doubled inside, and that leaves people open [on the perimeter]. We’ve got guards that can get downhill and create for shooters.”

The UVA men shot 35.8 percent from long range in 2023-24. Of the players who attempted more than 40 treys, however, only Jacob Groves (49.9) and Isaac McKneely (44.5) shot better than 31 percent.

Even without elite shooting, Bennett’s team won 23 games and finished third in the ACC. “But it can really be a limiting factor when you can’t stretch the defense,” he said. “It is a great equalizer, because sometimes defenses are really good and it’s just about the ability to knock down shots.

“We’ve all gone against teams when they’re hot and it’s like, ‘Uh oh.’ So I think it’s really the way the game has gone. In the pro game, the college game, WNBA and Europe, it’s such a huge part of it. Teams are very few and far between that can be good without being able to at least stretch it at a few positions.”

Back for the UVA men are two proven outside shooters: McKneely and senior swingman Taine Murray, who made 18 of 40 attempts (45 percent) from 3-point range last season. Another returning player, 6-foot-6 junior Andrew Rohde, made only 28 of 109 3-point attempts last season (25.7 percent), but he’s been more accurate in practice this fall.

Newcomers in Bennett’s program include three players who should immediately make the Cavaliers more dangerous from 3-point range: freshman Ishan Sharma and transfers Elijah Saunders (San Diego State) and TJ Power (Duke). Christian Bliss, a 6-foot-4 guard who redshirted last season, figures to bolster Virginia in that area, too.

“There’s some more shooting,” Bennett said. “There’s more guys that will look for it and be a little more of a threat from 3, and we’re trying to obviously continue to adjust our offense to our personnel. And so I think for us to be good, we’re going to have to be able to stretch [the floor] from multiple spots.”

A team can’t rely solely on 3-point shooting, Bennett said, “but you certainly have to have it, and it sets up a lot. It puts pressure on the defense, in terms of opening the lane, and you see how it’s transformed the game.”

For the Cavalier women, Kymora Johnson hit multiple 3-pointers in 17 games, with a season high of six in a non-conference win over Fordham. She struggled from long range early in the season, though, and finished the season at 31.7 percent (60 of 189).

“She was a freshman point guard who was thrown in the fire, and I think she handled it pretty well,” Agugua-Hamilton said. “Her efficiency is what we’ve been working on. She had [foot] surgery in the offseason and missed some of the summer, but I like where she’s at.”

The Hoos’ roster includes three freshmen—Breona Hurd, Payton Dunbar and Kamryn Kitchen—all of whom are capable outside shooters. Dunbar and Kitchen are expected to redshirt this season, but “we have some other people that can fill it up,” Agugua-Hamilton.

They include sophomores Olivia McGhee and Edessa Noyan, juniors Paris Clark and Yonta Vaughn and transfers Latasha Lattimore (Miami) and Casey Valenti-Paea (Long Beach State). A 5-foot-9 guard from Melbourne, Australia, Valenti-Paea shot 37.9 percent from 3-point range last season.

McGhee, a 6-foot-2 guard, was part of the Cavaliers’ celebrated freshman class in 2023-24. She made five of her first nine 3-point attempts but was streaky thereafter and finished the season at 28.4 percent. Agugua-Hamilton expects many more makes from McGhee this season.

“O’s a great shooter,” Agugua-Hamilton said.

Of the returning players who attempted at least 12 treys last season, Clark was the most accurate (18 of 50, 36 percent). Agugua-Hamilton wants Clark to shoot enough to make opponents guard her on the perimeter.

“She’s not going to be high volume,” Agugua-Hamilton said. “That’s just not her game. But if she can keep them honest, where she has a great percentage and somebody has to guard her, then she can get downhill and do what she wants to do.”

The UVA women averaged nearly 22 3-point attempts per game last season, and they’re not going to radically alter their approach in 2024-25. For the Hoos to take another step forward, however, they’ll probably need to shoot better from long range.

“It’s a big part of our offense,” Agugua-Hamilton said.

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