Shooting the 3

VCU men’s basketball head coach Jeff Capel vowed before the season that the Rams would not be a jump-shot shooting team.

The Rams would rely on junior forward Nick George in the post and they also had junior college transfer Calvin Roland and senior big man Derrick Reid.

At the season’s halfway point, George is leading the team in scoring (13.7 points) and Reid and Roland have eaten up minutes in the post (20.5 and 16.2 minutes per game respectively). But the Rams had taken the fourth-highest number of three pointers in the Colonial Athletic Association (289) through Jan. 16, and they had connected on just 93 of them.

George, the Rams’ inside presence has been the main cuprit, shooting 20-of-57 from three-point range.

The 32 percent VCU had been shooting as a team from beyond the arc was the third-worst clip in the Colonial Athletic Association. Still, the team might be on to something. Of the first 25 games in conference this season, the team that shot the most three pointers has won 14 of them, and that team doesn’t necessarily have to shoot well either.

Drexel knocked down 15 of 29 three pointers in its 91-65 win over William & Mary last Sunday, but VCU took 23 treys against Towson on Jan. 7 compared to the Tigers 14 and still won 70-58 despite the fact that they made good on just five three-point attempts.