Aside from dunks, one of the most exciting aspects of offensive play in basketball is three-pointers. Not everyone is a sniper shooter able to swish threes, but for the Ragin’ Cajuns women’s basketball team, there are several who can.
In the past seven years, the seasons with the best three-point percentages were the 2016 and 2019 seasons. Compared to the Cajuns opponents, Louisiana took fewer shots but still averaged more.
In the latest season alone, three Ragin’ Cajuns had phenomenal three-point averages. Guards Diamond Morrison, Brandi Williams and Jasmine Thomas were the players who contributed heavily to Louisiana’s high three-point average. As a guard, your main job is to perform well offensively and being an active three-point shooter is a big plus, especially in crunch situations when three points are needed instead of two.
Morrison shot 47% for the second-highest percentage on the team, even higher than the team average. Thomas averaged 40%, while Williams averaged 39%, all well above the team average.
The team as a whole had an average of 33% in three-point shooting. This percentage was higher than the average of all their opponents from the season.
Jumping back in history a few years, the 2016 team also had a 33% three-point average. Fewer players shot three’s often, but guard Troi Swan and point guard Jaylyn Gordon made an impact.
As a point guard, more often than not, you control the floor. It’s the point guard’s job to set up the offense so the fact that Gordon did so well in three-pointers speaks volumes. She averaged 35%. Swan on the other hand averaged 32%, just shy of the team average, but still the second-highest average on the team.
Going back a few more years, the 2012-2013 season saw Louisiana average 29% in three-pointers. Though it wasn’t as impressive as more recent years, due to the team roster being notably smaller, two Ragin’ Cajuns still shot well.
Guards Keke Veal and Sylvana Okde were the team leaders for the season. Together they scored over 300 points just off three-pointers. Veal averaged 23% and Okde 34%. The duo led the team offensively as a whole as well, averaging 13.1 and 10.2 points per game respectively.
Head Coach Garry Brodhead has been with Louisiana since getting the position in April of 2012. After getting the position, Broadhead gave Louisiana a new kind of gameplay that consisted of shooting and speed. In an interview with Jay Walker, Broadhead spoke a little about the upcoming season.
Staff communication was different, as was recruiting. “I think because we worked ahead of time, we knew who we wanted early on, so when this happened it kept that door open for us,” he said.
They worked on talking with potential recruits and their families via zoom.
“We were able to get four commitments, that was just big, we feel really, really good about the 2021 class and in the meantime, we were also recruiting 20 class,” said Broadhead.
Can’t wait for this upcoming season and to see if there are any new three-point sniper shooter.