Barry On Bad Duke Three Point Shooting

You have to feel for Duke sophomore Jordan Goldwire. Well, you don’t have to, exactly, but the poor guy sure could use some support. Good luck might help too.

You know, at least, that he’s getting good coaching.

Goldwire is the worst shooter on a team that can’t shoot accurately beyond the lane. Duke for most of the season has been in the running for the ACC’s worst 3-point shooting squad, and one of the worst from the line. That’s still true, notwithstanding its sudden .526 marksmanship (10-19) from the bonusphere at Notre Dame. (The Devils were still rotten from the line at South Bend, hitting 9 of 16.)

After its winning effort against St. John’s the team stood at .309 shooting from beyond the arc through 21 games.

When it comes to missing threes Goldwire has been leading the way for Duke. Prior to making the first of two last-minute attempts against St. John’s, the Georgian (U.S. version) had missed every 3-pointer he’s taken, 15 in the first 20 games, and made but two of five free throws.

Since the 3-point shot went into effect for the 1986-87 season, no Duke player with a significant number of attempts has gone an entire year without making a three. By “significant” we mean at least 10 tries.

At 1-17 so far, Goldwire is in the neighborhood of matching Duke’s worst long-distance shooters of the 3-point era -- Nick Horvath in 2002, Sean Dockery in 2004 and Matt Jones in 2014.

He’s already sure to eclipse one of the program’s worst single-season 3-point shooting efforts, turned in by one Jordan Goldwire in 2018. Of course there’s still time to make a few more in ’19, and to improve as an upperclassman, as several illustrious predecessors did.

Until Saturday, Goldwire was the ACC’s sole double-digit long-range launcher without a conversion. Next-worst is Notre Dame’s Robby Carmody, who’s 1-11 on threes. Moses Wright of Georgia Tech is 2-16 and Louisville’s VJ King is 3-23.

By the way, we included Nick Horvath’s 2004 performance below, even though he tried only seven 3-pointers, because he remained so strikingly consistent in his inaccuracy. Also, one of his few makes, a banked three late in overtime, helped beat DePaul in 2000-01.