Ohio State's Jon Diebler made nine straight three-pointers Wednesday night, in the Buckeyes' 83-55 win over Florida Gulf Coast (play-by-play sheet). He also missed five shots from behind the arc, yielding the following sequence (H = hit, M = miss):

M M H H H H H H H H H M M M

Given that a player has gone 9-for-14 on three-point shots (or achieved whatever hit rate on whatever athletic endeavor), it may be interesting to some to inquire into how many possible ways nine successes can be distributed within 14 attempts. The number would have to be pretty big. For a few examples, which just scratch the surface, a player might have made his or her first nine shots; first eight plus the 10th shot; shots 1-5 and 11-14; or shots 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, 12, 13, and 14. Using the "n choose k" principle (in this case, 14 choose 9), one finds that there are actually 2,002 possible ways (online calculator).

Further, of the 2,002 possible ways to embed nine successes in 14 attempts, only six involve hitting nine shots in a row: Hitting the first nine shots (1-9), shots 2-10, shots 3-11, shots 4-12, shots 5-13, and shots 6-14.

Pretty rare, huh? It should be acknowledged, however, that because I chose to (a) analyze this particular shooting sequence entirely based on its unusual nature; (b) focus on a number of specific details (i.e., asking what are the odds of a player who went 9-for-14 making the nine shots consecutively); and (c) not analyze a representative cross-section of games, I am probably overstating the rarity of the occurrence.