Iowa's perimeter shooting improves on 'law of averages'

CEDAR FALLS - Iowa's coaches and players knew their outside shooting was too bad to be true.

Through six games, the Hawkeyes (3-5) struggled mightily while shooting from 3-point range. Iowa sank only 26.6 percent of its 3-point shots, way down from its average of 36.4 percent last season.

The last two games, before tonight's game against Northern Iowa, Iowa's perimeter shooting has bounced back. Iowa tied a school record with 15 3-pointers in a win against Prairie View A&M and 48.4 percent overall. Last week in a six-point loss to Virginia Tech, Iowa hit 12 of 27 3-point shots. It's been a nice change for Iowa's coaches and players to talk about how their shooting touch has returned rather than their early-season struggles.

"I just think it's the law of averages," said Iowa assistant coach Chad Walthall, who will serve as interim coach for the second straight game. "When you're a good shooting team, you're working on shooting consistently. Eventually you're going to shoot the ball well.

"It's amazing how when shots go in. It snowballs. It can just start to snowball and kids start to feel good about it. A guy might hit one or two and the other guy watches them and watches that ball go in the net. Sometimes the same things happens if you're missing shots. Again, law of averages. We're just too good of a shooting team to keep the shooting the ball as poorly as we were."

Sophomore guard Anthony Tucker was the team's shooting ace last year, hitting 42.7 percent of his 3-point attempts. He also struggled in the first six games this year, hitting just 22.7 percent of his 3-point attempts. The last two games he returned to form, sinking six 3-pointers in each game. He tied a career-high with 24 points against Virginia Tech and scored 20 against Prairie View A&M.

"I wish there was some magic formula," Walthall said. "If I knew it, we'd all do it all the time. I think again it's a matter of you hit one or two and that confidence just triggers. He deserves a lot of credit for the work he's put in. He's put in a lot of work after practice, before practice, sometimes you just have to shoot your way out of it.

"Eventually we knew he'd start putting them in. Once you put the time, you'll get rewarded. He's started to get rewarded."

Tucker said the team started to work on attacking on offense, which has helped him get back into the flow.

"I'm starting the shoot the ball a little bit better. It's nice," Tucker said. "It's been frustrating definitely, but it's starting to get better. It's nice to see the ball go in.

"We focused on attacking in practice, and we want to go attack, because we play well when we do. So it's something that we're concentrating on."