Texas Tech basketball: There’s no need to panic after 3-straight losses

The 3-point shooting will improve

During this losing streak, the Red Raiders are just 18-72 (23%) from 3-point range.  That comes on the heels of a 43.5% start to the year from deep.

What is important to keep in mind is that 3-point shooting is often less impacted by the opponent than other aspects of the game such as turnovers, rebounds, overall field goal percentage etc.  That’s because a number of each team’s looks from behind the arc in a game are open shots with no defender in the vicinity.  Often, random luck is the determining factor between a good and poor shooting night from deep.

While teams can do things like denying a shooter of Moretti’s caliber from getting the ball or have extremely efficient rotations to limit open 3s, the reality is that there are plenty of open shots from deep for both teams in a game and it is up to the shooters to knock them down.

But in this losing streak, Tech’s only two shooters, Edwards and Moretti, have struggled.  Again, much of that can be attributed to fewer open looks during Ramsey’s absence but there have been open shots that just haven’t gone down.

In the last three games, that duo is a combined 10-39 (25.6%).  That’s not what we should expect from a pair that shot 45.9% (Moretti) and 44.9% (Edwards) from outside last season.

Edwards has struggled all year from distance.  He’s now shooting just 29.4% and it is worth wondering if the extra offensive burden he’s assuming is taking its toll on that aspect of his game.

Still, we have to believe that these two proven shooters will start to hit from deep at a more effective rate.  And when the 43.3% shooter Ramsey returns, there should be more spacing to the Tech offense than we’ve seen in the last three games.  Once that happens, the rest of the offensive game for inside players like T.J. Holyfield, Chris Clarke, and Shannon should also be improved.