It’s not difficult to figure out where most teams start when building their defensive game plans as they prepare to face the SMU Mustangs. After all, the Pones are led by senior center Papa Dia, whose averages of 18.5 points per game and 9.1 rebounds per game have him on the short list of candidates for this year’s Conference USA Player of the Year award.

Robert Nyakundi has hit 86 three-pointers this season, the most by any player in SMU history (photo by Travis Johnston).

But teams that focus solely on Dia often have found themselves explaining why they struggled to stop the Mustangs’ “other” scorer: redshirt junior forward Robert Nyakundi.

Dia is the headliner, but Nyakundi has become a dangerous weapon, averaging 15.4 points per game, with many of his points coming on his 86 three-pointers — the highest single-season total in SMU history and the same total he made in his first two seasons combined. While many college players have to get their feet under them and go up strong to hit from long range, toeing the three-point line is like swimming in a wading pool for Nyakundi, who effortlessly flips his shots through the net from well behind the arc.

SMU head coach Matt Doherty said Nyakundi and Matt Carroll, whom Doherty coached at Notre Dame, are the best shooters he has ever coached.

“It’s a mentality that they have,” Doherty said, “and they have to have a short memory. Just because they miss one shot doesn’t mean they don’t think the next one is going in. Reggie Miller was great at that; he could miss three in a row and he knew the next one was going in.

“It takes a certain eye and great touch. A shooter can have great mechanics, but if you don’t have that eye and that touch on your shot, you’re not going to have the confidence. With guys like Rob, it’s ‘if I’m open, it’s going down, and if it doesn’t, I’m shocked.’”

When he first arrived at SMU four years ago out of Bowie High School in Arlington, Texas, Nyakundi didn’t appear to be someone on the fast track to a spot in the SMU record book … in part because he wasn’t fast enough on the track. During preseason conditioning work, Doherty requires his big players to run a mile in 5:30. Nyakundi showed up out of shape and couldn’t finish in the mandated time. Several attempts later, he still hadn’t made the 5:30 standard; with half of the season already gone, Doherty suggested he redshirt.

But Nyakundi’s times and overall fitness level were not the result of laziness. Instead, he was suffering the lingering effects of a torn tendon on the bottom of his heel. Until he made the required time in the mile, he wasn’t even allowed to practice with his new team, but he never considered giving up.

“I was never going to quit on my team,” Nyakundi said. “When I had my heel injury, I didn’t know the significance of it. I was at home in Arlington (that summer) and I iced it, but that was it. I hadn’t been able to run and condition myself.”

As Nyakundi has grown into a consistent weapon this season, Doherty repeatedly has given ample credit to Karl Jordan, who is in his second season as strength and conditioning coach for the men’s basketball team.

“When I first started working with the team, it was hard to say what kind of condition Rob was in, because I just watched him walk into the training room all the time,” Jordan said. “Both ankles, both knees, that heel injury … He hobbled around and tried to play, but he was hurting.”

Nyakundi hobbled his way to 7.6 points per game last year and 46 three-pointers, but once fully healthy, he and Jordan worked to improve his overall conditioning.

“With shooters, things need to feel good and be lined up right,” Jordan said. “Rob was always a lifter — he enjoys lifting weights — but before he could really get into shape, it was a matter of getting him healthy.”

“It’s the old adage about ‘you can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make him drink’ with Rob,” Doherty said. “Rob is extremely dedicated to his conditioning. I got a call from one of the coaches over at UT-Arlington over the summer, saying Rob was in their weight room all the time. Karl gets a lot of the credit for Rob’s conditioning, but the credit, first and foremost, goes to Rob himself.”

The work has paid off. Entering Saturday’s regular-season finale, Nyakundi has hit 86 of 177 three-pointers; his .486 percentage is third-highest in Div. 1, and his 86 three-pointers are tied for 13th. He has scored in double figures in 23 of the Mustangs’ 29 games this season, scoring 20 or more 10 times, including a career-high 29 points Jan. 29 at Rice. Three days earlier, he lifted his team to a 59-58 win at Tulsa when he buried a three-pointer with 1.1 seconds left.

Strength and conditioning coach Karl Jordan said Robert Nyakundi is one of the hardest workers on the SMU team when it comes to conditioning (photo by SMU athletics).

Doherty said Nyakundi and Dia benefit from each other’s performance this year, pointing out that Nyakundi certainly gets some of his shots because defenses often collapse around Dia in the paint, but adding that Dia doesn’t get quite as much swarming attention from some teams because they know they have to honor Nyakundi’s dead-eye shooting from the perimeter.

Nyakundi isn’t so sure the benefit is equal.

“Definitely me,” he said, when asked who gets a bigger lift from the other. “He is the focal point of everyone’s scouting report. When we get the ball inside to him, it looks like ants on food. As good as he is, there are going to be open shots outside.”

In addition to his improved conditioning, the other significant change in Nyakundi’s game has been the Mustangs’ switch last year to a Princeton-style motion offense.

“In this offense, a ‘four’ man who can shoot is very beneficial, and Rob is as good as there is,” Doherty said. “We have several guys who can make outside shots — Mike Walker, Jeremiah Samarrippas — but when you have a ‘four’ who can shoot, that changes what the other team can do. If you have a team with two big forwards working on Papa Dia, one of them has to back off, or Rob will make them pay.”

Doherty said that in addition to his accuracy, it is the distance on Nyakundi’s shooting range that set him apart from just about any shooter Doherty has ever coached.

“We have this thing we do at the end of some practices where we shoot half-court shots,” Doherty said. “Most guys sort of heave the ball from their hip, just to get it there. Rob shoots it as a jump shot. He might jump a few feet forward when he lets it go, but he’s shooting a jump shot from mid-court … and it’s not uncommon for it to go in.”

Nyakundi said the Mustangs’ offense suits his personality, because the flexibility that allows multiple players to shoot fits with his team-first approach, which is something of a rarity among elite shooters.

“Good shots are going to show up in this offense,” Nyakundi said. “We know we don’t have to force things to get a good shot. We know we can run the whole 35 second off the shot clock if we need to, because if we run the offense right, the shots will be there.”