SALT LAKE CITY — Rick Byrd became the basketball coach at Belmont in 1986, the same year the N.C.A.A. universally put in the 3-point line. Byrd considered himself a basketball purist, and still does. Initially, he did not care for the new rule or the strange arc.
"If they were going to do that, I thought, why don't you just have a big grid?" Byrd said Wednesday, on the eve of another N.C.A.A. tournament. "This is worth 1. This is worth 2. This is worth 17."
Yet Byrd also specialized in offense. He loved nothing more than to diagram plays. He sketched them regularly, on notepads and brochures and restaurant napkins. The more he thought about the 3-pointer, the more he considered the math involved.
It was simple, really. A team that made one-third of its 3-point shots scored as many points as a team that connected on half of its 2-point shots. At a university like Belmont, where Byrd would perpetually struggle to recruit elite post players, heaving a high number of long-range attempts made perfect sense, within the confines of the offense he constructed.
To that end, Belmont has made the third-most 3-pointers of any team in the nation since it entered Division I in 1996. The top two: Troy and a little team called Duke.
Such long-range marksmanship has also made Belmont a trendy upset pick in this N.C.A.A. tournament, where the Bruins, a No. 11 seed, will face sixth-seeded Arizona on Thursday in the West region. Belmont is the 18th-most-accurate 3-point shooting team in the country; Arizona is tied for 273rd in opponent 3-point percentage. The math again appears simple — except that it is not.
These Bruins have almost come full circle. They still attempt many 3-pointers and still make a high percentage, but they do not rely on the long ball as much as past teams did. They have been mischaracterized as simply a 3-point factory.
"That's what's scary about them," said Sean Miller, the Arizona coach. "They're a great offensive team, period."
So continues the Belmont offensive evolution. For years, Byrd said, his offense fit the school's profile — small, scrappy, creative. The aha moment came early on, back when Belmont played N.A.I.A. hoops. Its rival, Lipscomb, surrounded one adept post player with four perimeter shooters.
What Byrd could not defend, he adopted. It helped that he inherited a recruit named Joe Behling, the exact kind of post player for the four-out, one-in offense. Behling became an all-American and the national player of the year.
Over the years, Belmont became known for its 3-point prowess, but its offense, Byrd's offense, revolved around that player in the post. The Bruins rarely ran set plays for their shooters. Instead, they threw the ball inside and reacted to the defense, which either guarded the inside player with one defender or helped with another body, opening up driving lanes and 3-point looks.
"Offense, as much as anything, is about the value of the shot," Byrd said. "We shoot very few shots between the five feet from the basket and the 3-point line. Probably less than almost anybody out there. I want quality shots. I don't care if we win 88-46 or 48-46."
That philosophy remained intact this season, even if the implementation shifted. No player taller than the 6-foot-7 forward Trevor Noack played regular minutes. That forced Belmont to change its offense (even Noack took 91 3-pointers) to more resemble other college offenses. That meant the Bruins needed to shoot well, from anywhere, consistently, which is what they did.
Belmont made nearly half its shots over the course of the season. Its 49.4 shooting percentage ranked fourth nationally. That started with guard Ian Clark, who came to Belmont for the four-out, one-in offense yet flourished when it shifted to ball screens and heavy motion. This season, Clark recorded a 54.1 shooting percentage and made 46.3 percent of his shots from behind the arc — astounding figures.
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