Red-Hot McKneely is (barely) No. 2 in nation in 3-point shooting

By Jerry Ratcliffe

Tony Bennett indicated Tuesday night that he had a traffic light for Virginia players when it came to shooting transition 3-pointers. Some have a green light, some a yellow, and others a bright red light, the latter meaning do not shoot.

Isaac McKneely has his own light: bright neon, glow-in-the-dark, gotta-wear-sunglasses green. Yeah, he’s that good.

If you were impressed with McKneely as a freshman last season, he was only beginning to scratch the surface of his shooting ability. So far this season, he’s off to a flying start.

After knocking down 6 of 8 of his 3-point attempts in Virginia’s rout of visiting North Carolina Central on Tuesday, McKneely woke up the following morning ranked No. 2 in 3-point field-goal percentage in major college basketball. McKneely is shooting a blazing 58.14 percent from beyond the arc (25 for 43). The only player ranked ahead of him is Kentucky freshman Reed Sheppard, shooting 61.11 percent (20 for 36). If you take players who have attempted at least 40 triples, McKneely leads the nation.

The West Virginia sharpshooter made four-straight 3-pointers in the first three minutes of the NC Central game, essentially delivering a haymaker that Central never recovered from. Not only were the UVA fans at John Paul Jones Arena impressed, so were McKneely’s teammates.

“It was crazy … McKneely, he’s an alien, he’s not from here,” said freshman Elijah Gertrude. “I don’t know where he’s from. He hit four 3’s in like three minutes and 30 seconds. Oh my God, I don’t even know what to say.”

McKneely wasn’t available to media following the game, but after scoring an identical career-high 22 points in Virginia’s win over Syracuse last Saturday, he spoke about working hard in the offseason to improve all of his skills, including his 3-point shot.

Syracuse coach Adrian Autry immediately noticed how McKneely had expanded his range from last season, when as a true freshman, the West Virginia native sometimes deferred his shot to upperclassmen on the team. No longer.

McKneely said he was hunting his shot more and being more aggressive with his offense, that he has invested time in improving his shot, working with Bennett (who still holds the NCAA record for 3-point field-goal percentage), and gets up extra shots every day.

At this juncture of last season (UVA was also 8-1), McKneely was only 12 for 31 from the 3-point arc. Those numbers pale in comparison to his current 25 for 43.

McKneely’s present numbers are well ahead of any other Cavalier in terms of percentage over the past decade.

Joe Harris was 19 for 41 (46.3 percent) after eight games in 2012-13, while Kyle Guy was at 45.5 in 2017-18 and Ty Jerome was at 45.2 percent in 2018-19.

Meanwhile, his percentage is even more impressive considering he’s not taking a lot of shots, only 3.12 (3-point) attempts per game. In fact, McKneely is tied at No. 298 in the nation in 3-point attempts so far this season with 43. Imagine what his numbers would be if he took nearly 5 triples a game, which leads the country.

What shade of green will McKneely’s light be if he keeps up this pace?