Washington Basketball: Takeaways from dominant win over South Dakota

The Quade Green 3-point shooting cold streak continues

Ultimately the fact that Quade Green has continued to struggle from deep wasn’t too big of an issue for Washington against South Dakota, but the spotlight on his 3-point shooting struggles will grow as the level of competition does.

Green, a five-star recruit, transferred to Washington from Kentucky in the middle of last season. This made him eligible to play for the Huskies in the 2019-20 season and while Green has settled into Washington’s ecosystem nicely, his game isn’t where it was at Kentucky.

He came to Washington for the opportunity to play more and he is doing exactly that. Green’s 28.0 minutes per game is the highest average of his career, as is his 4.4 assists per game. But his shooting has fallen off considerably (small sample size alert). Green is shooting 26.7% from 3-point range on the season and went 1-for-4 from 3 against South Dakota on Monday.

It is still early enough in the season where this seven-game stretch can simply be called a slump but any longer and it would be time to be ever so slightly concerned.

Green shot 38.5% from 3-point range over his 43 games with Kentucky, taking 3.1 attempts per game. Interestingly enough, on a Washington team that could really benefit from improved spacing, Green is only shooting 2.1 attempts per game from 3-point range.

On top of the regression in 3-point shooting, Green’s usage rate dropped considerably (8.3%) to the lowest (16.9%) of his career despite his turnover rate only decreasing by 2%. So while he is surely enjoying the increased playing time, Green needs to do a bit more offensively to help this Huskies team reach their collective ceiling.