In Tuesday’s win against Michigan, senior guard Nick Zeisloft did something he’s only done five times this season. He made a 2-point shot.
Of the 158 shots Zeisloft has taken this season, 140 of them have been from behind the arc.
From what he and IU Coach Tom Crean said at Big Ten Media Day in October 2015, this doesn’t make a lot of sense.
“I’m able to do so many different things with the ball now, whereas I was pretty much only a catch and shoot guy when I came in here,” Zeisloft said at the time. “You learn every day guarding these guys.”
At Big Ten Media Day, Crean said he wanted to move all of his guards, including Zeisloft, into the post.
For Zeisloft at least, this hasn’t happened. This season has been similar to last for him in that aspect.
He’s still spending the majority of the time on the perimeter. Last season, 88.6 percent of Zeisloft’s shots came from the 3-point range. This season, that number has increased to 90.5 percent.
Crean also said at Big Ten Media Day he was encouraging Zeisloft getting to the line more often this season.
“We don’t want it to take away from him being a great shooter, but he has to get fouled,” Crean said. “He’s got the chance to be an 85-90 percent free throw shooter.”
So far, Zeisloft has gotten to the free throw line 13 times and has made 11. The percentage is around where Crean wanted it at the start of the season, but the quantity is not.
Not all of these free throws have come in the way Crean wanted, either. In fact, most of them haven’t.
Most have come either at the end of games, when the other team was just fouling whoever had the ball at that time. They also came when Zeisloft was fouled away from the basket, but shot free throws because IU was in the bonus.
This worked fine for Zeisloft early in the season, but since conference play has begun, he’s struggled.
He is averaging 5.7 points per game and shooting only 28 percent from the field. When his 15-point performance against Minnesota on Jan. 16 is excluded, his average points per game drops to 4.6. His shooting percentage drops to 23 percent.
After that Minnesota game, Crean said his shooting helped the entire team.
“Obviously it’s three points on the scoreboard, but our guys see Nick make shots, that’s a big thing to them,” Crean said. “We don’t treat Nick like he’s the kicker and tell him to go off on the side and get ready to do your thing.”
But since that game, he’s returned to struggling from the field. There are the occasional deep, contested 3-pointers. He made one against Michigan on Tuesday.
But Crean has stayed consistent in his message about his team’s 3-point shooting, not just Zeisloft’s.
In IU’s other game against Minnesota this season Jan. 30, the team combined to shoot 2-of-18 from behind the arc. Zeisloft was 0-for-4.
Crean had one message for his team after the game: keep shooting.
“So there were a couple of times where we’ll look at it and say we weren’t — our technique wasn’t as good,” Crean said. “I know Nick rushed a couple. But — and we didn’t shoot enough. We didn’t shoot as many as we needed to.”
