Michael Devoe has made a three in nine straight games and has hit 44.4 percent of them against the ACC. (photo by Danny Karnik)
His form looks smooth, almost nonchalant – left elbow tucked, face expressionless, raising up gracefully, every movement unhurried.
Perhaps that’s why Michael Devoe’s three-point shooting has also felt understated this year. With three more threes against Pittsburgh, the sophomore from Orlando, Fla., enters the season finale shooting 42.9 percent (51-of-119) from beyond the arc. He’s on pace for the best three-point percentage by a Yellow Jacket with at least 100 attempts on the season since Anthony Morrow in 2007-08 (81-of-181, 44.8%).
Devoe and the Yellow Jackets will face a defense Friday that coerces a lot of three-point attempts. In ACC play, Clemson forces 43.3 percent of opponents’ shots to come from three, the second-highest percentage in the league. Part of that is due to the way the Tigers “dig” on dribble-penetration, which results in clogged paints and hard recoveries on shooters.
Over their last six games, Devoe and Jose Alvarado have shot a combined 41.0 percent from three. Their marksmanship may come in handy Friday night.
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At last the story can be told: as he revealed on last week’s “Georgia Tech Basketball Report,” Devoe says he wears #0 in honor of Minnesota Timberwolves guard D’Angelo Russell, who played in the same AAU program as him. Russell also starred at Montverde Academy in Montverde, Fla., where Devoe finished up his career.
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Josh Pastner tried to warn you.
The Yellow Jackets’ head coach said that along with Notre Dame’s John Mooney, no “5” man presents a more unorthodox matchup in the ACC than Clemson’s Aamir Simms. For the first 27 minutes of their matchup Feb. 25, the 6-8, 240-pound junior proved why. Using a variety of slips, post-ups, rims runs, and pick-and-pops, Simms (13.0 ppg, 7.1 rpg, 39.2% 3pt.) showed a cagey ability to score at all three levels. When he swished a jump hook with 13:55 to play, he had 23 of Clemson’s first 38 points.
Simms, though, didn’t score for the rest of the game, and Tech pulled away to win 68-59. As they stretched out their lead, the Jackets did a better job denying slips on screens, which Clemson used to break them down in the first half. Pastner also praised Bubba Parham’s work on freshman point guard Al-Amir Dawes (4-10 FG) and Devoe’s work on 6-5 John Newman III (1-7 FG).
Thanks to that on-ball defense, the Tigers couldn’t put the Jackets in rotation and make the whip and swing passes that often lead to their three-pointers. Clemson entered the game scoring the highest percentage of its points off three-pointers in the ACC. Check out what they did against Tech:
% of pts. from 3pt.
- Entering game: 3%
- Georgia Tech: 10.1% (2-20 3pt.)
Head coach Brad Brownell said his team “was soft offensively” in a 70-58 loss to Virginia Tech Wednesday. Can the Yellow Jackets force the Tigers into taking tough two’s and win the 50-50 balls that helped them at McCamish?
