Dick Vitale: Enough With All the Three-Pointers Already

Villanovaset an NCAA Tournament record on Saturday night by making 18 three-pointers against Kansas en route to a 95-79 victory. The Wildcats tied the previous mark with 3:45 left to play in the first half with a display of torrid shooting made to sink any dome-related marksmanship narrative. When the smoke settled, Jay Wright’s team had attempted 40 threes and 25 two-point field goals, prompting Dick Vitale to put his foot down and suggest some rule changes.

The time has come to push the 3-point line back to the international distance and widen the lane. The game is becoming dominated too much by the 3-point shot.
— Dick Vitale (@DickieV) April 1, 2018

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Just was on @Espn Sportscenter / firmly believe the rules committee MUST MOVE 3 pt line back to International line 22’1 “/ also widen lane from 12’ to 16’ the game is too boring / just running to the line & shooting 30 / 40 3’s / need more cutting / driving .

A post shared by Dick Vitale (@dickiev_espn) on Mar 31, 2018 at 9:17pm PDT

On one hand, there’s something kind of lame about complaining in the wake of a historic shooting display from beyond the arc. Villanova perfected the art of the long-range game last night and scored 95 points. It was exciting, productive basketball.

On the other, Vitale does have a point. The college game too often becomes a jump-shooting contest and outcomes are decided on who makes the most threes. There’s great similarity between teams as they focus more on threes instead of twos. One can understand how people find that boring in aggregate.

With college hoops tinkering with rules changes in the NIT, it’s not inconceivable that Vitale will get his wish sooner rather than later. It’s my personal belief that today’s players will continue to shoot and make threes at close to the same clip even if that happens, but wouldn’t mind being proven wrong.