He had 1 dribble, 7 shots and 21 points; what it means for Austin Reaves’ game

Austin Reaves showed the damage he can inflict with just one dribble and seven shots in Wichita State’s 90-71 victory over Tulsa on Sunday.

The sophomore scored a career-high 23 points. He made his first seven three-point shots in the first half, a WSU record for most threes in one half. He accomplished his work with only one dribble, often coming off screens and filling the wings in transition to find his favorite shot: the catch-and-shoot.

In the Tulsa game, all seven of Reaves’ three-pointers were assisted: Rashard Kelly kicked it out to him three times, Landry Shamet found him twice, and Markis McDuffie and Conner Frankamp once.

“That’s a big reason why I made the shots because the passes that I was getting were on point and on time,” Reaves said. “I didn’t have to alter my shot in any way. I could just catch it and shoot it.”

Reaves was deadly in his first season at WSU on catch-and-shoot threes: he made 58.8 percent (20 of 34) of them, per Synergy Sports Technology. His percentage is down this season (43.5 percent), but Reaves’ volume has greatly increased and he’s still shooting at an above-average clip.

Part of the success is due to Reaves’ long-range accuracy (he’s a 48.8 percent career three-point shooter), but any good shooter will tell you the importance of the timing and location of the pass leading up to the shot.

“As a shooter, you want as little work as possible leading up to the shot,” Shamet said. “We all did a really good job of getting him the ball when he was open and in his shooting pocket, so he was able to get it off quick.

“But when he’s like (he was on Sunday), we could have probably thrown it five feet outside of his body and he would have still probably shot it in.”

Reaves has seen his role grow — he’s playing 19 minutes per game, up seven from last season — and he has become even more productive on a per-minute basis. He’s averaging 7.0 points, 3.4 rebounds, and 2.2 assists, all improvements from last season on top of improved shooting at 48.5 percent.

After his explosion Sunday, Reaves knows opponents — likely starting Thursday as No. 16 Wichita State (17-4, 7-2 American) travels to Temple (11-10, 3-6) — are going to make it a priority to limit opportunities for him to catch and shoot. WSU will seek out ways to free him up for catch-and-shoots, but defense will likely overplay and force Reaves to beat defenders off the dribble as much as possible.

“I feel like people have been running me off the line ever since I got here since I’ve been so successful shooting the three,” Reaves said. “That’s a work-in-progress for me: the 15-foot jump shot, finishing around the rim. You can never be complacent with where your game is at. Those are things I’m working on every day to get better at.”

The mid-range part of his game is still developing, as Reaves has attempted just 13 mid-range jumpers this season, per Synergy, and has made 38.5 percent.

But his biggest improvement? At the rim, where Reaves has already scored 10 times and is shooting 66.7 percent, a drastic increase from his 28.6 percentage from last season.

“He’s starting to score more off the bounce,” WSU coach Gregg Marshall said. “He’s gotten into the lane and he’s creating more shots from 12-15 feet and actually getting to the rim and finishing. Catch and shoot is obviously what he’s best at, but he can score it off the bounce.”

This story was originally published January 30, 2018 at 6:52 PM with the headline "He had 1 dribble, 7 shots and 21 points; what it means for Austin Reaves’ game."