What is Alabama Basketball’s Philosophy on the Mid-Range Shot?

If you’ve followed Alabama basketball for any notable amount of time since Nate Oats took the program over in spring of 2019, you’ve probably heard jokes about the lack of the mid-range shot in the Crimson Tide’s offense.

Oats is notorious for running an offensive system that’s heavily analytics-based, a system that believes in the most efficient shots, which Oats says are layups, 3-pointers, and free throws.

This has led college basketball fans and broadcasters alike to believe the mid-range shot is ‘banned’ in the Alabama offense, and that players who take it are immediately benched for taking what Oats deems to be a bad shot.

Appearing on the Crimson Crossover podcast earlier this week, Alabama assistant coach Ryan Pannone explained the team’s philosophy regarding the mid-range shot, as well as what he believes are some misconceptions about Alabama’s offensive system.

“This is the biggest misconception when it comes to Nate Oats,” Pannone said. “He’s never benched a player, in the last year he’s never yelled at a player for taking a mid-range shot. He will bench you, and he will yell at you for not taking an open three, though. If you’re open and you don’t shoot it, that is an automatic sub.”

Pannone explained that moving players away from the mid-range shot is more of a matter of teaching, rather than punishment. When examining the numbers, the coaching staff has a reason for wanting players to stray from a contested 18-footer, but the goal is for the players to understand that reasonining as well.

“With Coach, it’s about education,” Pannone said. “At the heart of it he’s a teacher. All he does all summer long, he doesn’t yell at you, he doesn’t run you in practice, he’s just going to educate you. Like, ‘hey, you’re shooting 35 percent on mid-range shots. That’s worth .70 points per possession. If you were to flip that to a three, that would be roughly worth 23 percent. How many 23 percent threes do you want to take?’”

Analytics is ingrained in everything Alabama does. So much so that Pannone’s former boss in the NBA, New Orleans Pelicans executive David Griffin, called Alabama the “31st NBA team.” From style, to system, to terminology, everything Alabama basketball does mimics an NBA system, including trying to get more efficient shots than a mid-range.

“Oats is gonna constantly try to educate guys, and get them to buy into the style,” Pannone said. “He’s gonna show them if you reallocate these mid-range shots to try to drive to the rim to create more fouls, layups and threes, here is what your offensive leverage is gonna be, here’s what you points per shot is gonna be, here’s where our team offense is gonna be. Then he’s gonna educate, here’s what the NBA is looking for.”

Pannone talked more in depth about two key contributors from Alabama’s Final Four team this past season, both of whom came in as transfers that had a habit of taking mid-range shots. One of the players couldn’t quite shake the habit, while the other adjusted his game and saw his efficiency skyrocket.

“Take Aaron Estrada,” Pannone said. :Aaron shot the most mid-range non-rim twos on our team, and he did it super inefficiently. It literally would be the worst offense in college basketball. But Oats never took him out of the game, never benched him. I want to say he was about 38 percent on non-rim twos for the year, which is .8 points per possession, which is terrible offense.”

With Oats, the answer was never to bench Estrada, yank him out of the game, or any of the other myths it seems like people believe Oats does when he sees a mid-range shot taken. But what Oats really wants to to see an adjustment similar to what Latrell Wrightsell did, and the number speak for themselves.

“If you take a look at Latrell Wrightsell, Latrell was a heavy mid-range player a year ago at Cal State Fullerton,” Pannone said. “I want to say he was the upper three-or-four-hundredth most efficient player in college basketball. Last year, he was fourth in the country in offensive efficiency because he stopped taking mid-range shots. Here’s one of the best shooters in college basketball, and mid-range shots are inefficient.”

But while most mid-range shots are inefficient, Pannone explained that the timing of taking a mid-range shot is the most important aspect of it all.

“Our fans have got to understand, there’s nothing wrong with shooting mid-range twos, it’s when you shoot them,” Pannone said. “A mid-range two is worth at the college level, below 40 percent or .8 points per possession, why would you take that with 12 seconds on the shot clock, when you have 12 seconds to try to create a foul, layup or three. You want to fight the urge to settle, until there’s four seconds or less on the shot clock. At that point, it’s shots on goal.”

When you look at some of the best players in the NBA, there are some players that are good enough to take a mid-range and it be a good shot. Kevin Durant, DeMar DeRozan, even former Alabama star Brandon Miller are all efficient mid-range scorers at the next level. But in college, it’s a rarity that a player is efficient enough to shoot a high volume of mid-range, when other, better shots could be found within the offensive system.

“What people have to understand is there’s a handful of players in the NBA that can make that sot at an efficient level,” Pannone said. “Steph Curry and Dame Lillard also shoot almost 40 percent from halfcourt, that doesn’t mean it’s a good shot for everyone.”

Pannone boiled Alabama’s mid-range philosophy down to four simple steps:

“It’s communication, education, reallocation, fight the urge to settle. But four seconds or less, hey, take a mid-range shot.”