Wes Moore’s first ACC championship was 2020. Tournament title. First for the program since 1991. That team finished second in the regular season and then won the thing.

They also shot 36.2 percent from three.

That is the starting point. Not the Final Four. Not last year’s 21-11. The first banner under Moore came with spacing. 8.4 makes a night. 23 attempts. More than a third of the points from behind the arc. Konig, Crutchfield, Brown-Turner, Kayla Jones. Real shooters. Defenses had to honor all of them, which is how the paint stayed open.

The next two years kept it going. 36.7 percent. 36.6 percent. Tournament titles in 2021 and 2022. Regular-season crown in 2022. Seven-plus makes. About 20 attempts. Mid-36 percent. Those were not circus teams. They were just good enough from range that the post and the drive had air.

Then it broke.

2022-23: 31.5 percent. 5.6 makes. No banner. First-round NCAA exit. Konig and Crutchfield were gone. The spacing left with them.

State has lived in the 31–33 percent range ever since.

2023-24 made a Final Four at 32.6 percent. James and Hayes could shoot. Not 36.

2024-25 shared the regular season at 33.2 percent. James, Hayes, and Jones as the third piece. Closest of the post-title years. Still not championship accuracy. They lost the tournament final.

2025-26: James and Hayes gone. Jones carrying the volume alone. 31.4 percent. 5.9 makes. Twenty-three percent of the points from three. Other teams made 7.2 a night against them. No ACC title. Michigan 92-63 in the second round.

Makes per game across those seven years: 8.4, 7.1, 7.4. Then 5.6. Then 6.2 and 7.1. Then 5.9.

The ACC championship teams under Moore shot 36 percent. The teams that did not win it have not. That is the history. It is not complicated.

Now Jones is gone too. Last year she took 186 threes and made 68 of them at 36.6 percent. Brooks and Pierre took 67 combined. They are the stars. They live inside the arc. That is fine if somebody around them can shoot. It is a problem if nobody can.

Lunan was 17-of-50. Cox was 14-of-38. Help. Not 186 attempts.

Samuels took 106 and shot 28 percent. Defenses will live with that.

Jernigan was 5-of-27.

Wooten is the portal piece who has to matter. 13.4 points at Colorado. 35 percent from three. If she takes five or six a night and makes them, the team number moves. If she just drives and settles, last year’s 5.9 makes come right back.

Leye is a forward. Put her next to Pierre. Don’t ask her to be Konig.

Ericksen and the freshmen are depth. If one of them is a spacer by February, good. That is not the plan for November.

This team does not need 8.4 makes a night to look like 2020. It does need to stop shooting 31 percent.

The target is simple because the history is simple. Get back over 33 percent. Get back to 7 makes. Find a second and third shooter so Brooks is not driving into a packed paint every trip.

Do that, and Pierre has a lane. Do that, and an ACC defense has to pick someone to leave. Do that, and this group can talk about Charlotte in March without it sounding like fan talk.

Don’t do that, and you already know the night. Two stars in traffic. Four people in the corners. A lead that needs one make and never gets it. You beat who you should beat. You lose the ones that decide the league.

Moore’s first ACC title team made threes. The two after that made threes. If this roster wants back in that conversation, accuracy from 22 feet is not a luxury. It is the first thing that has to change.