Houston has trey problem
HOUSTON — Oklahoma is one of the nation’s best 3-point shooting teams. Villanova is no slouch, either.
Their numbers don’t lie but neither do NRG Stadium’s. That’s where the Sooners and Wildcats will play their national semifinal game on Saturday and also where a lot of 3-point shots have just not gone in the basket.
There have been six NCAA Tournament games played in the home of the NFL’s Houston Texans, but sizable crowds of 70,000-plus have seen misses at unusual rates for big-time college basketball.
In the six games — the 2011 Final Four and the 2015 South Regional — the 12 teams combined to shoot 27.6 percent (59 of 214) from 3-point range. Plenty of teams have bad games, but only three teams in all of college hoops shot 27.6 percent or worse on 3s this season: Robert Morris, Grambling State and Prairie View A&M.
Only one team playing at NRG — Duke last year — shot better than 33 percent, and that was 42.1 percent (8-19).
Oklahoma (29-7) is coming into the Final Four shooting 42.8 percent on 3s — second in the nation — and Villanova (33-5) hits at a 35.4 percent clip.
Both teams had chances to shoot in the stadium on Thursday and Friday and the ballpark’s history didn’t seem to bother the Sooners.
