The Evolution of the Three-Point Line in NCAA Basketball
This article explores the history and impact of the three-point line in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), tracing its origins, rule changes, and influence on the game. A three-point field goal, also known as a 3-pointer, three, or triple, is a field goal in a basketball game made from beyond the three-point line, a designated arc surrounding the basket.
Origins and Early Experimentation
The concept of a long-range scoring shot in basketball dates back to the mid-20th century. The three-point line was first tested at the collegiate level in 1945, with a 21-foot line, in a game between Columbia and Fordham, but it was not kept as a rule. There was another one-game experiment in 1958, this time with a 23-foot line, in a game between St. Francis (NY) and Siena. In 1961, Boston University and Dartmouth played one game with an experimental rule that counted all field goals as three points.
In 1961, the American Basketball League (ABL) became the first basketball league to institute the rule, at the direction of Abe Saperstein. As commissioner of the new league, Saperstein wanted to add excitement to the game and distinguish the league from the bigger NBA. He hoped the three-pointer would become basketball's equivalent of the home run. To determine the distance the new shot line should be from the basket, Saperstein and longtime DePaul University coach Ray Meyer went onto a court one day with tape and selected 25 feet as the right length. “They just arbitrarily drew lines,” his son Jerry Saperstein said. “There’s really no scientific basis. Just two Hall of Fame coaches getting together and saying: ‘Where would we like to see the line?’” Not long after, in June 1961, Saperstein was traveling when the other seven ABL owners voted 4-3 to officially shorten the line, to 22 feet. Saperstein, who had significant power in the league as owner of the popular Globetrotters, disagreed with this and simply ignored the ruling. Games continued with the 25 feet (7.62 m) shot. Saperstein eventually acknowledged there was one problem with the 25-foot arc and solved it by adding a 22-foot line in the corners.
After the ABL shut down in 1963, the three-point shot was adopted by the Eastern Professional Basketball League in its 1963-64 season. It was also popularized by the American Basketball Association (ABA), which introduced it in its inaugural 1967-68 season. ABA commissioner George Mikan stated that the three-pointer "would give the smaller player a chance to score and open up the defense to make the game more enjoyable for the fans". During the 1970s, the ABA used the three-point shot, along with the slam dunk, as a marketing tool to compete with the NBA.
NCAA Adoption and Initial Impact
The NCAA's Southern Conference became the first collegiate conference to use the three-point rule, adopting a 22-foot (6.71 m) line for the 1980-81 season. Ronnie Carr of Western Carolina was the first to score a three-point field goal in college basketball history on November 29, 1980. Over the following five years, NCAA conferences differed in their use of the rule and distance required for a three-pointer.
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Used only in conference play for several years, it was adopted by the NCAA in April 1986 for the 1986-87 season at 19 ft 9 in (6.02 m) and was first used in the NCAA tournament in March 1987. The NCAA adopted the three-pointer in women's basketball on an experimental basis for that season at the same distance, and made its use mandatory beginning in 1987-88.
The addition of the three-point line, however, was not entirely well received. From Sports Illustrated's Jack McCallum in 1987: Duke's Mike Krzyzewski considers the monster a threat to America's Puritan ethic. "You should have to work hard to get a basket," says Krzyzewski, who played under Bobby Knight at Army, where everything came hard. Dayton's Don Donoher views the three-point shot as symptomatic of America's declining moral climate. "To me, it's just like a game show," says a disgusted Donoher. "In this world we live in now, we're into wild thrills." Worst of all, the three-point monster has left TCU coach Jim Killingsworth staring into the abyss.
The 3-point line debuted in Division I men’s basketball in 1987. That year, teams attempted just 9.2 3-pointers per game, making 3.5. The 3-pointer barely made an impact - accounting for just 14.4 percent of all points in Division I that season.
Distance Adjustments and Rationale
In 2007, the NCAA lengthened the men's distance by a foot to 20 ft 9 in (6.32 m), effective with the 2008-09 season, and the women's line was moved to match the men's in 2011-12. The NFHS, along with elementary and middle schools, adopted a 19 ft 9 in (6.02 m) line nationally in 1987, a year after the NCAA.
College basketball's 3-point line in the DI men's game moves back this season for the first time since 2008. In case you missed the news, the NCAA Playing Rules Oversight Panel approved moving it back to 22 feet, 1¾ inches in June. So how will the new distance affect college basketball? Quite a bit, if history is any indicator. Expect 3-point shooting percentages to drop at first while driving lanes and post play opens up. But the 3-point shot will remain the most valuable in the game.
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By 2008, the college basketball landscape was fully submerged in the three ball. The popularity of the shot had skyrocketed. That offseason - 21 years after the introduction of the 3-point line - the NCAA voted to move the line back one foot, to 20 feet, 9 inches. In all but two of the 21 seasons from 1988 to 2008, 3-point field goal attempts per game and made 3-pointers per game rose across all of Division I. In 2009, both saw their biggest drops in the history of the shot, with teams shooting 0.8 fewer 3-pointers per game and making 0.4 fewer.
The NCAA experimented with the 6.75 m (22 ft 1+3⁄4 in) FIBA three-point line distance in the National Invitation Tournament (NIT) in 2018 and 2019, then adopted that distance for all men's play with a phased conversion that began with Division I in the 2019-20 season. The NAIA and other American associations also adopted the new NCAA distance for their respective men's play. In that same 2019-20 season, the NCAA planned to experiment with the FIBA arc in women's postseason events other than the NCAA championships in each division, most notably the Women's National Invitation Tournament and Women's Basketball Invitational; these events were ultimately scrapped due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
To get an idea of how modern teams will react to the change, we compared how teams performed from 3-point range in the NIT over the past two years vs. 3-point performance by NIT teams in postseason vs. And this isn’t just a difference in postseason play of 3-point shooting dropping off. We did the same comparison to teams in 2017, when the NIT 3-point line was the same as the regular-season 3-point line.
Impact of Distance Change on the Game
The distance from the basket to the three-point line varies by competition level: in the National Basketball Association (NBA) the arc is 23 feet 9 inches (7.24 m) from the center of the basket; in the International Basketball Federation (FIBA), the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA), the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) (all divisions), and the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA), the arc is 6.75 m (22 ft 1.75 in) from the center of the basket; and in the National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS) the arc is 19 ft 9 in (6.02 m) from the center of the basket. Every three-point line becomes parallel to each sideline at the points where each arc is a specified distance from the sideline. In both the NBA and WNBA, this distance is 3 feet (0.91 m) from the sideline; as a result, the distance from the center of the basket gradually decreases to a minimum of 22 feet (6.7 m). FIBA specifies the arc's minimum distance from the sideline as 0.9 meters (2 ft 11 in), resulting in a minimum distance from the center of the basket of 6.6 meters (21 ft 8 in). The NCAA and NAIA arc is the same distance from the center of the basket as the FIBA arc, but is 3 feet 4 inches (1.02 m) from each sideline because the North American court is slightly wider than the FIBA court.
Once again, the 3-point line was extended, in part, to make defenses cover a larger percentage of the court and to improve offensive spacing, but that also means that offensive players are arguably more spread out than they've ever been in the history of college basketball.
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Still, Kelsey does believe the new line will affect the game, mainly by increasing spacing on the court. In fact, his team has occasionally practiced with the NBA 3-point line (23 feet, 9 inches at the center) taped onto their court to drive home the value of proper spacing. “That’s how you generate 3-point shots, by attacking the basket and collapsing the defense,” he said. “Our motto has always been playing inside out,” he said.
Last season, Wofford shot 41.4 percent from deep - the second-best mark of any team in Division I. McAuley is right. From 1987 to 2014, Division I teams had an average of 5.8 made 3-pointers on 16.6 attempts per game. The 2016 season saw record highs in both made 3-pointers and 3-point attempts per game across Division I with 7.11 and 20.49 respectively.
“We’re going to have to have some more plays that attack long closeouts,” he said. “With our ability to shoot the basketball the way we do, people are going to have to come out and guard us a little further out. Apart from minor changes, McAuley doesn’t see 3-point heavy teams like Wofford being too frazzled by the change. “For us, maybe it doesn’t change as much,” McAuley said.
Three-Point Shooting in the Modern Game
In the NBA, attempting three-point field goals has become increasingly frequent in the modern day, particularly from mid-2015 onwards. The increase in latter years has been attributed to two-time NBA MVP Stephen Curry, who is credited with revolutionizing the game by inspiring teams to regularly employ the three-point shot as part of their winning strategy. Curry is the NBA's all-time leading scorer in three-point field goals made and is ranked highest in "Off Ball" average attention drawn.
As a random aside, give credit to the Hokies, or whatever's in the water in Blacksburg, Virginia. Twenty-four schools have improved upon their 2018-19 3-point percentage by at least five percentage points, through the games played Dec. But the list of the national leaders in improvements in 3-point percentage also includes Ohio State (No. 11 seed in the 2019 NCAA Tournament that advanced to the second round), Oregon (No. 12 seed that advanced to the Sweet 16), Nevada (No. 7 seed) and VCU (No. James Madison, however, provides an easy counterpoint against a hypothetical sport-wide trend that taking significantly more threes will increase 3-point percentage. Similarly, South Dakota's 3-point attempt percentage has decreased by 8.8 percent while its 3-point percentage has increased by roughly eight percent. You can make some sport-wide analysis on changes in 3-point attempts and percentages if you break down the scatter plot shown above into quadrants.
The average Division I 3-point percentage is 33.1% this season, which is the lowest in the history of kenpom.com, which dates back to the 2001-02 season. North Florida, the national leader in 3-point attempt percentage, takes 52.4 percent of its shots from three. Perhaps in a self-aware strategy, Florida A&M, which is last in the country in 3-point percentage at 22.1 percent, is the most 3-point-averse team nationally. Similarly, 3-point attempt percentage has also declined this season but across all 353 Division I teams, the average percent change is minor. It shouldn't be a surprise that 3-point attempts are slightly down year over year.
The national average on assist rate (meaning what percent of shots were assisted) is 51.6 percent this season, which is the lowest in the 19-year history of kenpom.com. For reference, the national average for assist rate was higher than 55 percent from the 2002 season through the 2007 season but in recent years it has been closer to 52 percent.
The national average for block percentage is 8.9%, which is the lowest since 2009 (8.8%). The national average for offensive rebound percentage is 28.2%, which is the lowest in the history of kenpom.com. Once again, if offensive spacing has been increased due to the extended 3-point line and perimeter players are often operating at least one or two feet further away from the rim than they were last season, it makes sense that offensive rebounds are harder to grab. The national average for non-steal turnover percentage (meaning what percent of turnovers aren't steals but rather, unforced turnovers, whether it's an errant pass or a shot-clock violation) is up to 10.5 percent, which is the highest since 2012 (also 10.5 percent).
Court Layout and Three-Point Line Specifications
A three-point line consists of an arc at a set radius measured from the point on the floor directly below the center of the basket, and two parallel lines equidistant from each sideline extending from the nearest end line to the point at which they intersect the arc. In the NBA, WNBA, NCAA or NAIA, and FIBA standards, the arc spans the width of the court until it is a specified minimum distance from each sideline. The three-point line then becomes parallel to the sidelines from those points to the baseline. The unusual formation of the three-point line at these levels allows players some space from which to attempt a three-point shot at the corners of the court; the arc would be less than 2 feet (0.61 m) from each sideline at the corners if it were a continuous arc. In American high school standards, the arc spans 180° around the basket, then becomes parallel to the sidelines from the plane of the basket center to the baseline (5 feet 3 inches or 1.6 meters). The high school corner minimum is taken as a requirement for newer high school gymnasiums and fieldhouses built in the three-point era.
A player's feet must be completely behind the three-point line at the time of the shot or jump in order to make a three-point attempt; if the player's feet are on or in front of the line, it is a two-point attempt. An official raises his/her arm with three fingers extended to signal the shot attempt. If the attempt is successful, he/she raises his/her other arm with all fingers fully extended in manner similar to a football official signifying successful field goal to indicate the three-point goal. The official must recognize it for it to count as three points. Instant replay has sometimes been used, depending on league rules. The NBA, WNBA FIBA and the NCAA specifically allow replay for this purpose. In NBA, WNBA & FIBA games, video replay does not have to occur immediately following a shot; play can continue and the officials can adjust the scoring later in the game, after reviewing the video.
If a shooter is fouled while attempting a three-pointer and subsequently misses the shot, the shooter is awarded three free-throw attempts. If a player completes a three-pointer while being fouled, the player is awarded one free-throw for a possible 4-point play. In 3x3, where shots from behind the arc are worth 2 points, the shooter is normally awarded two free throws if the shot is missed and one if the shot is made. However, if the fouling team has committed more than 6 fouls in the game, the shooter receives two free throws regardless of the result of the basket attempt.
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