Technology, crunching numbers helping teams shoot better. Here’s what Kentucky does.
Going into Thursday’s games, Kentucky ranked outside the top 150 among NCAA Division I teams in field-goal, three-point and free-throw shooting accuracy. UK was outside the top 250 in overall shooting (No. 252 at 42 percent), and three-point shooting (No. 274 at 30.3 percent).
To which, ESPN analyst Debbie Antonelli advised, “Get in the gym.”
One question came to mind when pondering UK’s poor shooting this season: Are 11 games a large enough sample size to make judgments about a team’s performance?
“It’s a pretty good sample size,” Antonelli said. She suggested her first witness to make that case might be the ESPN bracketologist.
“Joe Lunardi had them in the tournament by winning their last game,” she said in reference to Kentucky’s 76-58 victory at Florida last weekend. “I mean, wow, that means they have enough of a sample size, I guess.”
Davyeon Ross, the co-founder of a technology that uses analytics to help produce better shooting, jokingly played the capitalist when asked about Kentucky’s poor shooting this season.
“They should be using ShotTracker,” he said with a chuckle. He immediately added that he was joking and not intending to criticize UK’s program or drum up business.
Ross co-founded ShotTracker. It tracks where and when players take shots and other factors that affect shooting accuracy. It does this with sensors placed on the ball, attached to the players’ jerseys or shoes and a third that makes a three-dimensional map of the court.
Kentucky’s women’s team uses ShotTracker.
Daniel Boise, the director of player development and now an interim assistant coach, said the UK women’s program has used the technology for about three seasons.
It involves a clip about the size of a quarter being attached to a player’s jersey or hung on a loop at a shoe, he said.
Dribbling the ball three times activates the system, which is only used in practices, Boise said. The NCAA has put limits on its use.
The UK women’s team records where shots are taken, whether it’s a make or a miss, whether it comes off a catch-and-shoot action or off the dribble, whether the ball has first been in the lane and how many passes preceded the shot.
In this year’s games, UK women’s shooting is 20 percent better when the shot comes after two or more passes.
End-of-season reviews with players include “looking at your ShotTracker portfolio,” Boise said.
When it first added the ShotTracker technology, the women’s program made the men’s team aware. Spokesperson Eric Lindsey said the men’s program felt it could do its own shot tracking in practices and games. Of course, UK had a win-loss record of 330-77 in John Calipari’s time as coach going into this season.
The men’s program is not adverse to new technology, Lindsey said. The program uses “Catapult” to monitor effort and heart rates.
After UK made only four of 18 three-point shots in Tuesday’s home loss to Alabama, Calipari made an arresting comment. He suggested Kentucky might not be a good three-point shooting team.
More than once earlier this season, he said he was waiting for good shooting in practices to carry over to games.
Practices and games can be apples and oranges.
“If you’re not doing things at game speed and taking game shots, then why would you expect to be able to score in a game,” Antonelli said. “I’ve been to Cal’s practices. So I know they take shots at game speed and game tempo.”
Shot selection, which players are taking shots and when and where in the offense are factors to consider, the ESPN analyst said.
One advantage of technology-based assessments by ShotTracker and Catapult is that the numbers are objective.
“It’s not just the coaches hollering at you that ‘You need more ball reversal’ or ‘We need more post touches,’” Boise said.
One of the teams that uses ShotTracker is Brigham Young, which is coached by former Kentucky player Mark Pope. BYU was the only team in Division I to make 40 percent of its three-point shots last season (42.2 percent to be exact). The numbers “put some meat behind what we say we believe,” Pope says in a promotional video posted by ShotTracker.
Ross’s company does not seek to resolve the debate about making assessments based on analytics or the eye test.
“I don’t think you’ll ever go away from the eye test,” he said. “Our goal is not to eliminate the eye test. Our goal is to help you validate (what the eye sees).”
Next game
Kentucky at Auburn
When: 2 p.m. EST Saturday
TV: ESPN
Radio: WLAP-AM 630, WBUL-FM 98.1
Records: Kentucky 4-7 (3-1 SEC), Auburn 6-6 (0-4)
Series: Kentucky leads 95-21.
Last meeting: Kentucky won 73-66 on Feb. 29, 2020, in Rupp Arena.
