Wait a second, can Mark Mitchell shoot now?

Over his first 12 games, sophomore Mark Mitchell only made one of his 22 3-point attempts. In his last 11 games, he’s made seven out of 12.

If you hadn’t watched Duke basketball since December, you might be forgiven for doing a double-take when Mark Mitchell buried a triple against the Hurricanes on Wednesday.

The sophomore didn’t excel from distance last season, but he shot 35% from beyond the arc. For an interior forward, that was at least enough to be respected.

Mitchell started putting up more shots early in the 2023-24 season, however, and it didn’t have the results anyone wanted. He averaged 1.5 attempts from long range as a freshman, but he fired off four 3-point attempts in Duke’s home game against Arizona. He took three more against both Bucknell and Arkansas.

Across Duke’s first 12 games, Mitchell put up 22 3-point attempts. He made one of them.

Then the Notre Dame game happened.

The sophomore buried both of his 3-point attempts on the road in South Bend en route to a season-high 23 points and his first double-double of the year.

He made another against Clemson, two more against Boston College, and one of his two attempts against Wake Forest.

When his lone 3-point attempt of the game against Miami found the net, it capped off an 11-game run that saw Mitchell make seven of his 12 deep attempts. After averaging less than 5% from behind the 3-point line to start the year, he’s made 58.3% since.

In fact, he’s been one of the most efficient shooters in the country over the past six weeks (among high major teams).

A simple part of the math is how much more selective Mitchell has gotten from distance. He averaged 1.83 attempts per game over the first 12 games, and he’s averaged 1.09 attempts since.

Even outside of that, however, Mitchell has to be given credit for continuing to shoot his way through his early-season struggles. He may still be averaging only one deep attempt per game, but his visible confidence makes that sentence have a much different connotation than it did in December.

The boost hasn’t just come from his 3-point shooting, either. He reached 15 points or more in just one in his first 11 games, but he’s reached that same benchmark in six of his last 12 appearances. He’s averaged 14.6 points per game with three double-doubles since the calendar turned to 2024.

The 3-point shot was never meant to be a massive feature of Mitchell’s game. After all, he’s a 6-foot-9 forward who averages more than six rebounds per game. Anyway, Duke has three starters (if you count Caleb Foster’s recent run in the opening five) shooting at a 40% clip from long-range.

The Blue Devils don’t need Mitchell to morph into a marksman. From a spacing perspective, however, it would be crucial if teams respected that he could shoot. And if he’s done anything over the past five weeks, he’s shown teams can’t just assume he’s fine on the perimeter. That might be all Duke needs.