Hop wants to see improvement defending the three

Dawgman Radio: A Washington Huskies athletics podcast

It doesn't sound like Mike Hopkins is a big believer in statistics, but he looks at them to make sure he's got a handle on the trends that are affecting the basketball team.

Washington is shooting 46.1 percent from the field, good enough for 93rd in the country. The shooting will come, Hop insists when the team makes extra passes to create better looks. But what the numbers are also telling him is that Washington's three-point defense is really bad right now. Like 321st in the country bad.

And guess what? South Dakota, Washington's next opponent, is shooting 47.4 percent from three, which happens to be the best percentage of any Division-1 team in the country (Washington is shooting 28.7 percent, which has them at No. 304).

Think about that for a second: South Dakota is shooting better from three than UW is shooting from the field. And that's with all those high-flying Nahziah Carter dunks and all the inside makes from freshman phenom Isaiah Stewart.

So it's easy to figure out what the Huskies have been working on during the Thanksgiving break. And it's weird to think of UW as poor defending the three, because the last couple of seasons they've been very good with their denials around the perimeter.

Hopkins talked to the media Sunday and spoke on defending the three, as well as other topics ahead of Monday's matchup with the Coyotes, and more.

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