New Duke guard Mason Gillis knows what he’s best at, and he isn’t afraid to revolve his game around it.
Gillis, a former Purdue Boilermaker who committed to the Blue Devils on Monday, spent four seasons in West Lafayette. Across his junior and senior campaigns, the 6-foot-6 sharpshooter took 320 total shots.
228 of those attempts came from behind the 3-point line. That’s a whopping 71.3% of Gillis’s attempts over the past two years.
Gillis isn’t just a volume shooter, either. He made a personal-best 46.8% of his triples last season, and he’s a career 40.7% 3-point shooter.
The tendency shows up in his shot chart, too. The Athletic’s Brendan Marks posted a picture of Gillis’s heat map, pointing out that he was KenPom’s No. 4 shooter among high-major teams.
#Duke fans will be excited to see Mason Gillis' heat maps (courtesy of @CBBAnalytics)…
Gillis attempted three times as many 3s (124) as he did 2s (41) last season, and hit from basically everywhere behind the arc. Was No. 4 in 3PT% amongst high-major players, per KenPom. pic.twitter.com/sRWDwNk5wZ
— Brendan Marks (@BrendanRMarks) April 22, 2024
Gillis’s volume and efficiency will be welcomed on a team losing Jared McCain, the presumed first-round pick who converted on 41.4% of his 3-point shots as a freshman.