Michigan State basketball has seen a major 3-point shooting turnaround

Michigan State basketball started the season 2-for-31 from deep but the turnaround has been shockingly impressive.

Coming into this season, Michigan State basketball was expected to be a great 3-point shooting team. However, as I’m sure you all remember, the Spartans started horribly from beyond the arc. Do you remember just how bad it was?

In the first two games of the season, Michigan State shot a miserable 6.5% (2-for-31) from 3-point range. I think we all knew this was an abnormality, an exception to the norm, but this had everyone panicking.

Fast forward to Jan. 5 and MSU is riding a five-game winning streak and has been lights out shooting the ball. Just how good has MSU been from beyond the arc now compared to the start of the season?

MSU’s 3-point turnaround

When you divide the season roughly in half, the 3-point shooting discrepancy is shocking.

Here is how the team stacked up nationally from their first eight games compared to their last six.

From the start of the season through Dec. 5, Michigan State was the 324th-best 3-point shooting team in the country, shooting 27.5 percent.

Since then, it's the 8th best 3-point team in the country, shooting 44.5 percent. A remarkable turnaround.

— Kyle Austin (@kylebaustin) January 5, 2024

Now that is an absurd stat. Michigan State basketball started the season ranked No. 324 in the country in 3-point percentage at 27.5%. However, in their last six games, the Spartans are No. 8 in the country at 44.5%.

MSU as a team likely should be somewhere in between those percentages. We aren’t as bad as 27.5% and we likely aren’t going to keep up this 44.5% shooting pace either. But I’d like to think we are closer to the latter than the former.

In the last two seasons, Michigan State finished above 37 percent from 3-point range as a team. Just think for a second if the Spartans shot that percentage for the entire season. Their record might only be slightly better, but they would’ve beaten James Madison and everyone would’ve felt a whole lot better about the season overall.

MSU 3-point shooting this season

As a team this year, MSU is 35.1% from beyond the arc which puts it at No. 114 in the country. That’s not great, but not bad either. The way things are trending, however, I imagine the Spartans will slowly inch their way up toward the top 50.

Leading the way for Michigan State from 3-point range is Tre Holloman at 42.1%. He is the only player above 40 percent on the season, but he takes a lot fewer attempts than others.

Tyson Walker has the most makes with 27 this season while also shooting an efficient 39.7% from 3-point range. Walker can be extremely streaky, but I would bet he finishes the season above 40 percent.

Michigan State’s much-improved 3-point shooting has a lot to do with the current winning streak. I wouldn’t panic if the Spartans start shooting it a little worse, 44.5% is hard to keep up. But if they can hang around 38-39 percent as a team, then they’re going to be in really good shape.