Caleb Grill hardly needs the rim

The graduate guard has ripped nets all season long, igniting Mizzou and demoralizing its opponents. Should he keep up his blistering 3-point pace, Grill could find himself amongst all-time greats by season’s end.

Caleb Grill has always been on the move.

The Wichita, Ks. native started at Iowa State in 2019 before transferring to UNLV after just one season with the Cyclones. After turning into a regular starter with the Runnin’ Rebels, he voyaged back to Ames after a year in Las Vegas. There, he became one of the deadliest 3-point shooters in college basketball … only to be dismissed following the 2022-23 season. The reason? According to ISU coach T.J. Otzelberger, failing to meet the program’s expectations; Grill later revealed he’d been struggling with his mental health that season.

Last year, he found a fresh start at Mizzou, though it turned rotten when he went down with a season-ending wrist injury against Wichita State on Dec. 3. After recovering from his ill-fated dunk attempt against the Shockers, he entered the 2024-25 campaign with one more chance to move, this time into a prominent role with a high-major squad.

Instead of merely sparking embers on the court, Grill’s hands have become balls of fire that set rims and nets ablaze like a game of NBA Jam. If his life were a movie, we’d be in the epic montage part where he’s figuring everything out to the tune of the Rocky IV soundtrack. He’s recaptured the deadeye 3-point ability that not only cyclone’d him to success at Iowa Sate, but one that Mizzou sorely lacked a season ago, when the Tigers shot a meager 31.9% from downtown (No. 278 nationally).

“I’m just thankful he’s representing us and we’re not playing against a kid like that,” head coach Dennis Gates said. “He’s a talented young man, and I’m thankful he’s in our lives.”

There are plenty of ways to understand Grill’s greatness from beyond the arc this season. One is the fact that he’s made 43 of his 89 3-point attempts so far; in other words, he’s shooting 48.3% from 3 on 5.9 attempts per game — an elite clip among a litany of shooters that’ve caught the attention of college basketball lovers from Seattle to Miami, where supporters of the Hurricanes have tried to find any reason to watch the sport amidst their team plummeting past the bottom of the ACC standings and towards the Earth’s core.

Kentucky’s Koby Brea, who transferred from Dayton over the offseason, took his silky stroke to Lexington, as he’s hitting almost 48% of his shots from beyond the arc. Villanova’s Eric Dixon has turned himself into a Big East Player of the Year candidate in part due to a deadly 3-point shot that didn’t exist during his first two seasons in Philadelphia. The fifth-year everything-man is shooting a ridiculous 46.2% from 3 on 7.2 attempts per game. At the mid-major ranks, Mitch Mascari (Drake), John Pouladikas (Yale) and Fletcher Abee (UNC Asheville) have all shot above 43% from beyond the arc for teams that have decent chances at dancing in March Madness a few weeks from now.

But none of those players are atop the sport in 3-point shooting. The one that stands above them all is No. 31 in black and gold … at least according to several websites that track college basketball statistics. Not only that, but he’s connected frequently in a certain type of way: 28 of Grill’s 43 makes have been clean swishes, which seems pretty good!

Should Grill finish the season sporting his current numbers — making at least 48% of his 3s on at least six attempts per game — he would enter a club that hasn’t admitted too many members over the past 20 seasons.

Grill also has a chance at making Mizzou history. Some lines in the record books might be difficult to replace; for example, Clarence Gilbert holds the all-time single-season 3-point record with 118 makes in 2001-02. Grill would need to average about seven 3s per game the rest of the way to match that number. It’s not that per game volume will hold him back; per CBB Analytics, 84.2% of his field goal attempts this season have been 3-pointers. In all likelihood, however, the five-and-a-half games Grill missed due to a neck injury he suffered against Lindenwood on Nov. 27 might cost him a shot at that record.

But even if he doesn’t catch Gilbert’s number from over two decades ago, he could still enter the pantheon of all-time Mizzou 3-point seasons. Only five players have eclipsed the 45% mark on at least 100 3-point attempts in a season — Brain Grawer (1998-99), Jason Sutherland (1995-96), Kim English (2011-12), Kobe Brown (2022-23) and Mark Smith (2018-19).

Obviously, not all seasons are created equal; while Smith shot exactly 45% from downtown six years ago, he did so on just 109 3-point attempts. The year prior, Kassius Robertson sunk 43.2 of his triples on 243 attempts. Even though Smith shot a higher percentage than Robertson, many would likely agree that Robertson had a better 3-point shooting campaign than Smith.

Regardless, Grill is well within striking distance of Mizzou’s 3-point summit.

From what’s been written so far, Grill’s numbers are historically impressive. But his impact goes far beyond the box score, even further than some of his attempts from almost half court.

Elite 3-point shooters possess a unique double-sided energy that permeates all who watch. For those that want them to score, every touch is an opportunity for euphoria. Their existence with a ball in-hand is exciting. For those who don’t which that same success upon them for whatever reason, a shot attempt is essentially a knife careening toward the heart.

Stephen Curry, the greatest 3-point shooter that has ever touched a basketball, took this feeling to the extreme. It started in the mid-2010s and, despite the Warriors descending from heir dynastic ways of recent years past, the feeling still persists in a delightful way …

“Nothing else feels like it does when Steph becomes wreathed in flames and just starts experimenting, exploring the studio space to see how far he can push the boundaries of what we understand to be true about how the ball finds the net,” The Ringer’s Dan Devine wrote in April 2021. “It’s what we’re searching for night after night—the moment that makes you leap out of your seat and start speaking in tongues, the fleeting glimpse of forever we hope against hope we might catch every time we tune in.”

… as well as a not-so-delightful way.

“His movement is constant, and they track every twitch and quiver, knowing the dangers of hesitation and indecision,” ESPN’s Tim Keown wrote a few weeks ago. “Lose sight of him for a second and risk humiliation.”

Caleb Grill is not Stephen Curry. No one has been, is, or will ever be Stephen Curry. But the effect Grill has on the floor is a similar type to the one that Curry possessed, even if not nearly at the same level.

For one, Grill is undaunted by defenders in close proximity to him. NFL Hall of Fame running back Gale Sayers famously said that all needed just 18 inches of daylight to break a big run. Grill, on the other hand, creates daylight from total darkness. He’s willing to shoot over anyone from almost anywhere, and a lightning-quick release allows him to do so. That included a shot against Ole Miss where he was being guarded by Malik Dia in the left corner. For reference, Dia is about 6-foot-9 and had his hands up while guarding Grill. These all seem like things that are naturally not conducive to 3-point success, so of course, Grill swished a 3-pointer while getting fouled.

Grill also possesses ridiculous range. He’s comfortable firing away from well beyond the 3-point line. He’s made a comfy home on the deep parts of both wings, taking advantage of defenders that turn their backs to him when the ball is in the paint.

Gates has become known for giving his players green lights to shoot if they’re open. Grill is no exception.

“He has a mental toughness about him, a belief and confidence about him that resonates no matter the situation,” Gates said. “I give all our guys green lights to make plays, so I want our guys to be aggressive on that side.”

Lastly, when Grill gets going, he can explode into one of the hottest infernos in college basketball. He’s made at least five 3s in a game four times this season, including seven against Pacific and eight against Eastern Washington. The only players that I think could hypothetically get hotter are Caleb Oven, Caleb Stove-Top and Caleb Griddle.

Exhibit A of his effect on defenses came against Florida. After he drilled two triples, the Gators scrambled to cover him, only for Grill to knock down another triple.

From this, an interesting question arises: is Grill’s peak as a shooter higher than anyone in Mizzou history? It’s definitely up there, but probably not No. 1.

That title would most likely go to Gilbert, who heat-checked more than a dad with the living room thermostat. In the 2001-02 season alone, he registered four games with at least seven 3-pointers, including 12 (!) against Colorado. My personal favorite heat-check from Gilbert was when he almost blew the roof off of the Hearnes Center against Kansas in 2000. Despite the valiant efforts of Jeff Boschee to stick with Gilbert, he still sent the home crowd into a frenzy.

As seen above, the hotter a 3-point shooter gets, the more likely it becomes that a defense diverts more attention to that player. That inherently opens up everyone else; many of Curry’s best passes were the result of defenses paying too much attention to him and not enough attention to his teammates. The simple threat of a shot creates gravity that sucks in defenders, and the offensive players they abandon often benefit.

That’s exactly what happened against Arkansas earlier this season; Trevon Brazile and Zvonimir Ivisic leapt towards an open grill, vacating the paint. The open area was filled by a streaking Pierce, who got an easy dunk off of a sweet pass from Grill.

It’d be false to say Grill has been perfect; in fact, quite the opposite has played out. There have been several attempts of his that have missed badly, including an airball against Florida. He shot 0-for-3 against Auburn and 1-for-5 against Texas. He missed his first seven triples to start the season; the seventh came against Howard, a one-handed airball with 20 seconds left on the shot clock that left Grill face-down in disappointment.

The bigger storyline, however, has been the bounce-back; after that shot against the Bison, Grill has made over 52% of his 3-point attempts. Part of the revival stemmed from, according to Gates, focusing on other parts of the game besides offense. He crashes the boards frequently and has been a pest on defense, averaging 1.5 steals per game.

“His game isn’t just on the offensive end,” Gates said. “He rebounds, he gets extra basketball opportunities, he throws his body around.”

Whether Grill cements himself alongside MU greats remains to be seen. 11 regular season games and an indefinite amount of postseason contest lie ahead on the schedule for him to either continue his ascent, plateau or fall off. But as long as Grill’s shot diet continues to be 3-pointers for breakfast, lunch and dinner, a historic season will stay cooking.