Before the 2022–2023 season, Florida acquired Will Richard, a transfer from Belmont, and the coaching staff thought he had the potential to be a first team SEC contributor in the long run in addition to being a player who could contribute immediately. Nothing went wrong in his first season with the Gators. With an average of 10.4 points and 4.5 rebounds per game, Richard moved into a starting position and emerged as one of Florida’s most reliable players. The next task was to determine whether he could achieve the kind of breakthrough Florida had anticipated, rising from a reliable starter to one of the conference’s top wings.
That objective was not entirely met. Now, by no means was it a horrible season—quite the contrary, it was excellent. Once more, Richard started each and every game and was assigned to cover the best perimeter player on the other team. In the end, he averaged 11.4 points and 3.9 rebounds per game to close out the season—pretty much the same numbers from his freshman year at Florida. While his defense was respectable, it wasn’t enough to put him in the category of “elite,” and generally his second season in Gainesville looked a lot like his first. This was high-caliber work, but neither Richard nor the Florida staff anticipated the significant advancement in his career that they did, and now that he is a senior, they will be hoping for that leap.
One of the disappointing parts of Richard’s junior season was the drop in three-point shooting he had from his sophomore season. In 2022-23 he shot 40% from three, but in 2023-24 that number dipped to just 35%. Given that Richard isn’t much of a driver (more on that later) the jumper is of utmost importance to his game and while 35% is adequate for most players, it’s not enough for him to be bringing positive offensive value. When you look deeper into the numbers, you can start to see the real story of Richard’s shooting. In transition he shot an excellent 39% from three, but in the half court where most basketball is played–he shot just 30%. When you look at the film you’ll see that most of the transition attempts are wide open as defenders lost him, but in the half court he was often facing a closeout. Good shooters can make shots when they’re wide open but often struggle when facing any kind of defensive pressure, and last year that was the case with Richard.
To get a better picture of Richard’s three-point shooting, let’s look back at his sophomore season when he shot 40%. He hit a remarkable 52% of his wide open threes which was a huge reason why his overall percentage was so good–but he didn’t seem to get those same opportunities as a sophomore. The answer why is rather clear–it’s because as a sophomore due to injury, Richard played most of his minutes as an undersized power forward. That meant he was often guarded by much bigger players who were tasked with helping in the paint, and that allowed Richard to get a lot of wide open jumpers. Fast forward to last season, and Richard played all of his minutes at the wing. That meant he was guarded by players who are used to playing against jump shooters and they were much tighter defensively which led to Richard having to take more guarded shots–leading to a lower percentage.
So, is Richard more like the 40% three-point shooter he was as a sophomore, or the 35% shooter he was as a junior? The numbers likely suggest he’s closer to the 35% shooter which is still a positive particularly at the volume of threes Richard takes–but he may not be the pure marksman Florida’s staff thought he might be.
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