The Pitonovan Three Ball Count
As coaches, Rick Pitino and Billy Donovan have cherished the three-pointer.
We're going to go out on a limb and suggest you might see more than a few three-pointers in Saturday's first regional final (Louisville vs. Florida). And we have 28,440 reasons why.
That is the number of three-pointers attempted by college teams coached by either Rick Pitino or Billy Donovan, who will match wits (and gunslingers) in that game. They have made 10,435 (36.7%).
Surprisingly enough (or not, actually) the best three-point shooting percentage for any of these 38 teams is the one year in which they teamed up: Pitino's 1986-87 Providence Friars, who shot 42.1 percent from the (shortened) arc, with Donovan, Delray Brooks and Ernie Lewis combining for 634 of the teams' 665 attempts.
If Donovan's Gators (892 3FGA) toss up 15 three balls today, it will be the most 3FG attempts for either coach's teams in one season, surpassing the 906 launched by Pitino's 2004-05 Cardinals.
A year-by-year look at the three balls launched by Pitino- and Donovan-coached college teams: