Before Steve Kerr was hitting clutch shots in the NBA Finals alongside Michael Jordan and coaching the Splash Brothers for the Golden State Warriors, he was playing basketball in Tucson, Arizona. The nine-time NBA champion was a four-year player at Arizona before his time playing and coaching in the pros.
As the U.S. men's basketball attempts to win a fifth straight gold, look back at Kerr's time with Arizona. Here are some facts you may not know about him:
- Kerr holds the NCAA single-season record for three-point field goal percentage. Kerr shot 57.3 percent from a distance over 38 games in his final year at Arizona, knocking down 114 3-pointers. He attempted 199 3-pointers during that season. The NCAA had only introduced the 3-point line one year before. In his only college season with the 3-point shot, he established standards that formerly stood as conference records for nearly two decades: single-season 3-point shots made (114; stood until Salim Stoudamire posted 120 in 2005), Pac-12 tournament run 3-point field goal percentage (.750, min 5 made; Marcus Williams, .833, 2006). He led the Pac-10 in free throw shooting in 1985-86 (89.9%).
- Along with fellow All-American teammate Sean Elliott, Kerr helped the Wildcats reach the Final Four of the 1988 NCAA tournament. Arizona lost to Oklahoma in the semifinals in the tournament, which Kansas went on to win.
- Before moving into a coaching role, Kerr was a color analyst and was on the call for the NCAA national championship game in 2011 in which the Kemba Walker-led UConn team defeated Butler.
- Kerr was a two-time first-team all-conference player in the Pac-10. In Kerr's junior and senior seasons, he started every game for the Wildcats. Kerr averaged 14.4 and 12.6 points per game, respectively, in those two seasons.
- Kerr graduated from Arizona in 1988 with a bachelor's degree in general studies. In May, he received an honorary Doctor of Humanities degree from Arizona.
