PEORIA, Ill. -- The NCAA released its final men's basketball statistics Wednesday and junior guard Jeremy Crouch (Pekin, Ill./Pekin H.S.) became the fourth Bradley player to lead the nation in an individual statistical category, tying Texas A&M sophomore guard Josh Carter with the nation's best 3-point field goal percentage. Both players made exactly one-half of their 3-point field goal attemps during the 2006-07 season, Crouch draining 83-of-166 in his 27 games and Carter making 86-of-172 in 34 games.
Prior to Crouch's statistical co-championship, Aaron Zobrist led the nation in free throw percentage (.906) during the 1996-97 season, Hersey Hawkins led the nation in scoring (36.3 points per game) during the 1987-88 season and Joe Allen led the nation in field goal percentage (.655) during the 1967-68 campaign. As a junior in 2006-07, Crouch becomes the first Brave with a chance to repeat as a national statistical champion: Zobrist, Hawkins and Allen all were seniors when they led the nation in their respective categories.
In order to qualify for the NCAA list of 3-point field goal percentage leaders, players were required to make at least 2.5 treys per game. Making Crouch's 3-point field goal percentage mark even more impressive, the 6-foot-5 guard also finished 23rd nationally by sinking 3.07 3-pointers per contest during the 2006-07 season.
Crouch was joined on the list of 3-point field goal percentage leaders by Bradley senior guard Will Franklin (Houston, Texas/Alief Hastings H.S.), who finished 23rd nationally by making 43.3 percent of his long-range tries. In one other statistical category, Bradley junior point guard Daniel Ruffin (Peoria, Ill./Central H.S.) finished 32nd nationally by averaging 5.4 assists per game.
As a team, Bradley finished third nationally in 3-point field goal percentage (.420) and fourth by making 10.0 treys per game. Bradley's Missouri Valley Conference record 349 total 3-pointers were the third-most in the country, trailing only West Virginia (371) and VMI, which made a national record 442 triples in just 33 games. Bradley also was 13th nationally by committing only 11.4 turnovers per game and 40th by averaging 8.3 steals per game.
