As the final college basketball games of the weekend close out, the Gators sit at 48th in KenPom’s adjusted offensive efficiency, one spot ahead of Buffalo from the MAC. At this point in the season, the preseason predictions are still baked into KenPom’s algorithm, but using similar analytics tool BartTorvik, you can look at adjusted offensive efficiency based exclusively on in-season performance so far.
The Gators are 76th in the country.
Clearly, the offensive side of the ball has not been kind to the Gators, and the difficulty they had putting the ball in the hoop was a big part of their three losses so far this season.
Looking at various offensive statistics the Gators are average to okay in several categories, but there is one area that sticks out like a sore thumb.
Three-point shooting.
Currently Florida is 258th in the country from behind the arc, hitting only 30.9% of their attempts. Their struggles from deep have resulted in points left off the board, the chance for defenses to shrink the floor and dare Florida to shoot, and crooked misses that have turned into long rebounds that opponents have turned into fastbreak opportunities. In 2021 three-point shooting is more valuable than ever and Florida’s problems in that category are a cause for concern moving into conference play.
If there is one player that has felt the worst of the overall Florida shooting slump, it’s Penn State transfer Myreon Jones.
Jones came into Florida as the most heralded long-ball shooter of Florida’s transfer class, understandably considering he had two seasons of 40% three-point shooting at Penn State before coming to Gators. Given the fact that he achieved a good percentage in a power conference, many expected near identical production for Florida.
Unfortunately, that hasn’t been the case. Through 11 games he’s shooting 19-63 from deep, or 30%. That number wouldn’t look good for most guards, and for a player whose number one skill is his ability to make the three, it’s some level of concern.
How concerning is it? That’s for you to decide.
Jones is notoriously streaky. During his time at Penn State, he was far from a consistent shooter. He would regularly have poor shooting games–but they would almost always be followed by hot shooting games, and there weren’t too many average or decent performances. Check out his three-point shooting numbers from his final stretch at Penn State in 2021:
Vs. Wisconsin: 3-3
Vs. Wisconsin: 2-6
Vs. Maryland: 0-4
Vs. Michigan State: 1-5
Vs. Nebraska: 3-8
Vs. Ohio State: 3-5
Vs. Iowa: 2-9
Vs. Nebraska: 6-12
Vs. Purdue: 0-5
Vs. Minnesota: 4-7
Vs. Maryland: 2-7
Vs. Nebraska: 3-6
Vs. Wisconsin: 1-3
As you can see, his shooting numbers are a roller coaster. Jones has an extremely funky shooting stroke where he moves the ball from the left side of his body during the release, with his guide hand all over the ball. Jones also shoots a rainbow, a shot with so much arc that it often leaves the broadcast’s frame for a moment. It’s not the way you’d ever teach a player to shoot, but he’s used that very stroke to have a good career as a three-point shooter.
This type of quick trigger microwaveable confidence from Myreon Jones is something the #Gators were missing with Noah Locke.
Actively hunting his shot. Plus he’s a more capable ball-handler and defender. Upgrade. pic.twitter.com/WXjG4n9xfW
— Lucas Dolengowski (@LDolengowski) November 10, 2021
However, his percentages have always come out more positive than negative, and he hasn’t often had poor shooting stretches that last more than a couple games in a row. But, this season, we’re seeing that. Jones is 4-27 (15%) from three in Florida’s last five games, something that would be a reasonable cause for concern considering he hasn’t had this kind of stretch before in his career.
Does that mean he’s due to bounce back with a really hot shooting couple of weeks? Perhaps, perhaps not. Let’s take a deeper look into his three-point shooting this season.
To start, let’s look at how he shoots from each area of the floor.
Left Corner: 41.7%
Left Wing: 27.8%
Straight On: 36.8%
Right Wing: 16.7%
Right Corner: 0%* (*only 0-3)
Okay, something certainly sticks out there.
If you combine both the left and right wings, Jones shoots 23%.
Wing threes have accounted for 48% of Jones’ three-point attempts, so you can start to see some of the picture of why he is struggling from deep this season. Nearly half of his threes coming from his worst spots on the floor? That’s a recipe for poor shooting numbers.
Knowing this, the Gators should be gearing more offense towards getting Jones threes from straight on as well as the corners (particularly the left, where he seems to like shooting from much more). The sample size is still relatively small, but knowing how Jones struggles from the wings, if the bulk of his attempts come from those areas moving forward and he continues to struggle… we can’t be too surprised.
Looking back to Jones’ last year at Penn State, he also struggled greatly from the left wing shooting 27.5%, nearly identical to what he’s shooting so far this season.
His shooting stroke very well may have something to do with his struggles from the left wing. Bringing the ball from the left side of his body obscures his left eye first and then his right eye upon release, and depending on which eye dominant he is that could make the sightline much more difficult from the left than right side.
You might be surprised to hear this, but straight on is generally the lowest efficiency three-point spot on the floor, with the corners being highest and the wings coming second. Year to year, straight on three-point percentage is around 4% lower than the national three-point average, so they are generally not the types of threes you want to generate.
Whatever it is for Jones (though I suspect it’s his stroke/dominant eye), he loves the straight on three and is excellent at it. If the Gators are trying to get Jones’ three-point stroke going, and they should be, getting him straight on three-point attempts as opposed to shots from the wing would be a great place to start.
One way to get him those threes? Use him as a pick and roll ball handler.
Surprisingly, after not being a great pick and roll ball handler at Penn State, Jones has been Florida’s best pick and roll guard so far this season. Much of it is due to the threat of him pulling up, and for good reason. As we’ve already discussed many times, Jones’ form is far from picturesque. But, he clearly has outstanding touch, and that’s why he has been so successful shooting in his career. As a touch shooter who is all about feel over mechanics, he has always been good off the dribble–getting his rhythm with a few bounces before pulling up.
When running a pick and roll and pulling up off the bounce, Jones is hitting 46% from three. Because of the nature of the pick and roll many of these attempts are straight on threes, Jones’ favorite spot, and adding in his talent to shoot off the dribble, it’s a good way to get Jones and the Gators a high quality look.
There is one limitation to this attack, and savvy teams are going to jump all over it defensively.
Because of Jones’ stroke where he brings the ball from the left side of his body, it is very, very difficult for him to pull up when driving to his right. Take a look at this clip. You can see how comfortable he is pulling up when going left, because driving left puts the ball in the perfect position for him to pull up and start his shooting motion.
MYREON JONES FOR THREEEEE!!! Don’t go to sleep just yet! pic.twitter.com/HWtitXGYuA
— InAllKindsOfWeather.com (@AllKindsWeather) November 25, 2021
However, as you can imagine based on that stroke, it’s very difficult for him to get into his shooting motion going right. When driving to his right and pulling up, he is shooting only 26%. Opposing teams that realize this will always send Jones to his right, daring him to attack the paint off the bounce knowing he isn’t comfortable pulling up going that direction.
If teams don’t realize this, the Gators would be wise to give Jones’ right side pick and roll where he attacks to his left towards the middle of the floor. That’s the best way for him to get to his pull up, and therefore is the best way to generate shots for him.
Another way the Gators could get Jones some quality shots is by running him off of some screens. That was a big part of Penn State’s offense centered around Jones, and I thought for a moment it was going to be a major element of Florida’s featuring of Jones. They started the season running Jones off some screens and early returns were good–he hit 4 of his 6 threes off of screens. However, his last attempt coming off a screen was against…Troy. So, it’s been a little while. It also coincides with when Jones started to go cold, though I don’t think it would be totally fair to suggest the two are completely related. However, I think the fact the Gators haven’t run actions for him hasn’t helped him get the easy shots that could get him back into rhythm.
One action that would be great to continually run for Jones would be the stack screen set the Gators ran a bunch against South Florida. Particularly because it gets Jones the shots he’s best at–straight on threes.
Florida’s best offense has come from this stack screen set, one that South Florida has not been able to adjust to. I would keep going back to it until the Bulls figure out how to stop it. pic.twitter.com/ub61luZ49L
— Eric Fawcett (@Efawcett7) December 18, 2021
I have mentioned a bunch of technical ways the Gators could feature Jones and get him higher quality looks that he’s better at hitting, but there is one pretty straight forward statistic that might suggest position regression is coming, even if the Gators don’t change much of what they do for him.
Last year at Penn State, when left unguarded Jones was an assassin hitting 48% of his threes, well above his 40% average. That shouldn’t be shocking because, well, they’re wide open threes, they should be more efficient than a normal three.
This year at Florida, Jones has hit 26.7% of his unguarded threes.
Considering Jones is a player that has proven for two seasons that he’s an excellent shooter, and especially one that can punish defense for leaving him open, that number is shocking, and it’s probably due to improve.
For someone so historically streaky, it could be the low quality shots that Jones has been getting in Florida’s offense that has taken him out of rhythm and made him miss the wide open ones. Or, perhaps it’s Jones missing the wide open shots that has him less confident while shooting regular shots within the offense.
Whatever the case may be, there is definitely room for improvement. Some of that is on Jones’ shoulders, but some of it should definitely be on Florida’s coaching staff to recognize where he is best and where he struggles, and to generate more quality looks for him in the areas of the floor where he is best.