For those of us who have long been arguing for ways to make college basketball more entertaining, the start to the 2024-25 season arrived like Christmas in November. Check out these numbers:

  • During the first two weeks of the season, teams averaged 73.8 points per game. That is 1.6 ppg higher than at the same point last season. If it holds up, it would be the highest in the sport since 1995.
  • According to KenPom.com, teams are averaging 1.045 points per possession. That’s the highest 14-day efficiency rating since Pomeroy began tracking the stat in 1997. Pomeroy points out that while scoring tends to dip over the course of a season, efficiency tends to rise. That puts college basketball on track to exceed the 1.052 points per possession teams averaged last season, which was the highest Pomeroy had ever recorded.
  • The two-week percentages on two-point field goals (51.0 percent) and free throws (70.6) have never been higher in the KenPom era, although three-point percentage (32.9) has remained somewhat flat. The overall turnover percentage matches last year’s low of 18.0 percent.
  • I’ve half-jokingly suggested that if the winning team scores fewer than 50 points, the game should not count. According to Pomeroy, there were only seven such games last season, the fewest ever. So far this season there has only been one. On the flip side, Pomeroy reports that the scoring average of 77.39 on Nov. 7 was the third-highest single day figure of the last 30 years.

What in the name of Paul Westhead is turbo charging college basketball in such a delectable manner? Here are three factors:

Efforts to limit physical play have worked

College hoops suffered a steady decline in offensive production beginning around 2003, but when scoring dipped in 2013 to 66.9 points per game, the lowest since 1952, the stakeholders sprang into action. That summer, the NCAA’s men’s basketball rules committee passed a sweeping set of changes, most notably shortening the shot clock from 35 to 30 seconds and widening the restricted-area arc under the basket from three to four feet. In 2019, the rules committee pushed the three-point line back to the international distance of 22 feet, 1.75 inches. It was the first time in 11 years the line had been moved. The purpose wasn’t to make the shot harder but rather create more space for drivers and cutters.

On top of changing the rules, the rules committee has consistently issued points of emphasis designed to clamp down on all kinds of physical play, especially down low. There have been fits and starts over the years — there tends to be slippage once conference play begins and then again in late February — but there’s no doubt that over time, the efforts to clean up the game have been effective.

The change to the block/charge rule was revolutionary

Fans and commentators loved to hate on charges – most notably of the sort where a secondary defendary steps in the way of the driver instead of trying to block the shot. Coaches and players were more concerned with how dangerous the play was. Either way, everyone pretty much agreed that it had become way too easy to take a secondary charge. So last year, the rules committee amended the rule to state that the secondary defender had to be in legal guarding position before the driver plants his foot to take off. Prior to that, the defender just had to be there before the driver was airborne.

The impact was significant. National turnover percentage plummeted to 17.1 percent, the lowest of the KenPom era. Non-steal turnover percentage, which is where offensive fouls fall, also dropped while scoring jumped from 71.8 points per game per team to 73.7.

This season’s 14-day non-steal turnover percentage of 8.1 is likewise a record low. Though it is harder to quantify, I can report with great confidence that the number of instances where broadcasters, writers and fans whine about the block/charge call fell dramatically. That alone has made the game more enjoyable to watch.

Analytics, Analytics, Analytics

Nate Oats, a former high school math teacher, has ridden the analytics wave to great success, taking Alabama to its first-ever Final Four last year. An unprecedented number of his colleagues have followed suit. That includes not just the younger arrivals like Florida’s Todd Golden and Utah’s Kyle Smith but longer-in-the-tooth guys like Illinois’ 60-year-old coach Brad Underwood.

Over the summer, Underwood assigned several members of his staff to dive deep into the numbers and help him devise a gameplan accordingly. In the Illini’s first game, his team set a program record by launching 42 three-pointers. In their second game, they attempted 38. Illinois is taking 57.7 percent of its shot attempts from behind the arc. That ranks second in the country, per KenPom. Five years ago, the Illini were 320th in that category.

“If you don’t evolve and change, you’re getting lost,” Underwood told me. “We truly want to make it a math equation. If I could have us take every shot as a three, I would.”

He’s far from alone. Through this season’s first two weeks, teams were shooting a record high 39.9 percent of their shots from three. More space and more threes leads to more offensive rebounds, which is why offensive rebound percentage is also at its highest point in nine years — and that, in turn, leads to more points.

As I noted above, there is still a concern that referees will allow things to slip once we get into the teeth of conference play. Still, there is widespread agreement on how the game should be played and what it should look like. The NCAA’s head ref would love to keep it going and he’s far from the only one.

“I talked to a lot of coaches and everyone seems to feel like the game is in a really good place right now,” Chris Rastatter, the NCAA’s Coordinator of Men’s Basketball Officiating, told me. “I go to a lot of games to evaluate the refs and I find myself just sitting up there and enjoying the product. The players are bigger, stronger and faster and the shooting has never been better. Now we need to make sure we finish the right way, but everyone is definitely pleased with how we’ve started.”

OTHER HOOP THOUGHTS

  • UConn has quite the odd schedule. The Huskies are opening up against four teams ranked No. 336 and below on KenPom before heading to the Maui Invitational, where their first game is against Memphis. Later on they will start December with three tough nonconference games against Baylor, Texas and Gonzaga before diving in to their Big East schedule. So it’s a little hard to evaluate this team, but if you’re Dan Hurley, you’d like to see Aidan Mahaney get going. The 6-foot-3 junior guard who transferred from Satin Mary’s is shooting just 25 percent (22.2 percent from three) and averaging 4.3 points. You can’t say he’s having a hard time adjusting to the higher competition given the schedule UConn has played. Mahaney is playing a different role for this team than he did his previous two seasons, so it will take a few games to get comfortable. I’m guessing it’s only a matter of time until he has a breakout game.
  • It’s an understatement to say that Kyle Neptune needs a win in a major way Tuesday night when his Villanova Wildcats host Penn. Nova has already lost to one Ivy League team (Columbia) en route to a 2-3 start. There’s no mystery what the problem is here – perimeter defense. That was always a staple of Jay Wright’s teams, but this season Villanova ranks 274th nationally in effective field goal defense, 322nd in three-point defense and 281st in non-steal turnover defense. During Friday’s 70-60 loss to Virginia in Baltimore, the Wildcats let Cavs guard Isaac McKneely get loose for 23 points on 6 for 6 three-point shooting. On the flip side, Miami transfer Wooga Poplar, a 6-foot-5 senior guard, has seen his shooting percentages decline across the board. Villanova has to play a resurgent Maryland team at the Barclays Center on Saturday, so the Cats can ill afford another stinker on Tuesday.
Kyle Neptune’s Villanova Wildcats are 2-3 heading into Tuesday’s home game against Penn.
Getty Images
  • It looks like Providence is going to have Bryce Hopkins back any day now. The 6-foot-7 senior forward was having a Big East Player of the Year-caliber season when he tore his ACL last January. Hopkins has been working his way back slowly and has been participating in small-group workouts the last several days. Friars coach Kim English said on Saturday that Hopkins might make his season debut against Delaware State on Tuesday. It would helpful if he could get one game under his belt before the team heads to The Bahamas for the Battle 4 Atlantis next week.
  • I realize the so-called recruiting experts miss sometimes, but as someone who watched Xavier Booker play quite a bit of AAU ball, I continue to scratch my head as to why he is not more impactful at Michigan State. The 6-foot-11 forward was the highest-rated recruit Tom Izzo has brought to East Lansing in a long time, yet after averaging 3.7 points in 9.2 minutes as a freshman, Booker is putting up just 3.5 points in 15.5 minutes this season. He is making 39.3 percent of his shots and grabbing 1.8 rebounds. Izzo started Booker the first three games but brought him off the bench for Saturday’s win over Bowling Green. It’s one thing for a high school senior to have trouble adjusting his freshman season, but Booker has now had a full off-season to improve and prepare and it’s still not happening for him.
  • Tell you what, I think Indiana is on to something. After steamrolling two weak opponents, the Hoosiers played their first top 100 team in South Carolina on Saturday and came away with an easy 87-71 win. Indiana has lots of wing scorers but the real difference is at point guard, where Washington State transfer Myles Rice has replaced the oft-injured, woefully miscast Xavier Johnson. Rice had a game-high 23 points against the Gamecocks to go along with three assists (as well as three turnovers) and four rebounds. We’ll see just how good this team is at the Battle 4 Atlantis, where Indiana will open against Louisville and compete in a field that also includes Arizona and Gonzaga.
  • Speaking of Gonzaga, how about this crazy stat: Through three games Zags point guard Ryan Nembard has 30 assists and just two turnovers. That, my friends, is what you call a ratio.
  • Duke freshman Patrick Ngongba finally made his season debut Saturday, playing 11 minutes and grabbing six rebounds during the Blue Devils’ blowout of Wofford. The 6-foot-11 forward was ranked 24th in his class in the Recruiting Services Consensus Index, but he has been slow in coming back from a foot injury he sustained as a senior in high school. Foot injuries are tricky, especially in big men, so I expect Jon Scheyer to work Ngongba into his rotation very slowly. But if Ngongba continues to progress he could be an important piece off the bench during the second half of the ACC season.
  • Syracuse got some feel-good recruiting news when Kiyan Anthony, the 6-foot-5 guard from Colorado who is the son of Orange legend Carmelo Anthony, committed to play for Adrian Autry. This is a program that needs all the good news it can get. In its first two games, Syracuse beat Le Moyne and Colgate at home by a combined six points and then needed double overtime to beat Youngstown State. Things are about to get a lot harder for Autry’s crew as they prepare to face Texas on Thursday at Barclays Center and open December with back-to-back road games at Tennessee and Notre Dame.
  • When I spoke to Ohio State coach Jake Diebler last week, he stressed to me the importance of getting his frontcourt duo of Aaron Bradshaw and Sean Stewart going. The Buckeyes torched the nets from deep during their first two games, but their lack of inside punch caught up with them Friday at Texas A&M. Ohio State made just 8 of 30 from three while Bradshaw and Stewart combined to score eight points on 3 of 13 shooting. Both players had excellent high school pedigrees but had minimal impacts last season at Kentucky and Duke, respectively. Some times – most of the time, actually – high rankings can be a heavy albatross. Both of these players are capable of having productive seasons for the Buckeyes, but it appears that it’s going to take longer than many of us thought.
  • Finally, a pivot to the women’s game as UConn coach Geno Auriemma will almost certainly make history Wednesday night when his Huskies play FDU at Gampel Pavilion. If UConn wins, Auriemma will pass Tara VanDerveer for the most wins in the history of men’s and women’s Division I basketball. Auriemma has been a lightning rod for controversy over the years – much of it by design – but the job he did creating that program from literally nothing is virtually unparalleled in college sports. There’s also no arguing that he has been one of the most important forces in growing the women’s game into what it has now become. Yes, it has been a whopping eight years since he last won a title (imagine!) but Auriemma definitely has a team that can win it all, provided the Huskies can stay healthy. At any rate, it will be a great night for Auriemma and a great moment for college basketball.

FIVE GAMES THIS WEEK I’M PSYCHED TO SEE

  1. Purdue at Marquette, Tuesday, 9 p.m., FS1. This will be the Boilermakers’ first game away from Mackey Arena. Many experts have called Braden Smith the best point guard in the country for good reason, but the Golden Eagles have an outstanding point guard of their own in Kam Jones, a 6-foot-4 senior who is averaging 24.0 points, 5.0 assists and 2.0 steals.
  2. Illinois vs. Alabama in Birmingham, Wednesday, 9 p.m., SEC Network. Now that Brad Underwood has joined Nate Oats on the analytics bus, it will be interesting to see if he can exploit a potential mismatch at center, where Tide senior 6-foot-11 center Cliff Omoruyi brings a traditional, near-the-rim skill set.
  3. Baylor vs. St. John’s at The Bahamas, 7 p.m., CBS Sports Network. This is a precursor to Feast Week as these two teams meet at the Continental Tire Baha Mar Championship, where the field also includes Tennessee and Virginia. Rick Pitino didn’t have much fatherly sentiment for his son Richard, as the Red Storm defeated Richard’s New Mexico Lobos at Madison Square Garden on Sunday.
  4. Nebraska at Creighton, Friday, 8 p.m., FS1. I’m sure the Cornhuskers will be eager to avenge last year’s embarrassing 89-60 loss in Lincoln, but it won’t be easy against Ryan Kalkbreener and the Bluejays.
  5. Duke at Arizona, Friday, 10:30 p.m., ESPN2. This is Duke’s first visit to McKale Center in 33 years. It’s the Blue Devils’ bad luck to be facing an Arizona squad that will have had a full week to stew and recover from Friday’s loss at Wisconsin.