Let’s Not Get Carried Away Here

For the start of college basketball season, ESPN.com took a look at the 25th anniversary of the 3-point shot in the college game.

There’s a good read about Ed Steitz, the man who brought the 3-pointer to college basketball.

There’s also a story about what the shot has meant to mid-major programs and what it meant to Steve Kerr, the the most accurate 3-point shooter in college history.

But through it all, the stories tend to overemphasize the revolutionary impact of the shot on the college game. The ABA had a 3-point line since the league’s inception in 1967. The NBA added it for the 1979-80 season, and it was adopted for international play in 1984.

The 3-point shot has had a huge impact on the college game, but when Dana O’Neil writes in the story about Steitz that, “It seemed crazy in 1986, too. To everyone except one man,” that’s more than a bit of hyperbole.