Welcome to a season of celebrating points
It's going to be a long year for the olds
There’s a certain subculture of old-heads that college hoops attracts in a way that the NBA does not1. This group longs for the days where the shot clock and three-point line didn’t exist. They think the modern player sucks at fundamentals and can’t make free throws. They bemoan any sort of progressive rules changes to keep up with the improving talent coming into the game. Any shot that goes up before eight passes have been made is a bad one.
For the people that yell at clouds, the first week of the season has been a nightmare. Averaging 76.5 points per game, this was highest scoring first week since at least the mid 1990’s and possibly going as far back as the early 1970’s. It’s been a long road to recovery for a sport that was averaging 67 points a game as recently as the 2015 season, when wrestling matches in the paint and offensive fouls delighted the old-heads. Back then, people wishing to be entertained called for reducing the shot clock, pushing the 3-point line back, the continuation rule, and revising the standards for charges.
Eventually those changes were made and here we are. Saturday’s Celebration of Points™ was the apex of these efforts. It began with a nationally televised game between Alabama and St. John’s in which the Crimson Tide won 103-96; a free-flowing, uptempo affair that finished with 84 possessions. Red Storm head coach Rick Pitino, an old-head himself and a defense-focused coach who hasn’t finished in the top 50 in adjusted tempo since 2003, is averaging 84 possessions per game through two contests. And it’s not the opponent that’s causing this. St. John’s has had the eighth-fastest offensive possessions in the country so far.
The rest of the day featured one high-scoring contest after another, concluding with Gonzaga’s 83-68 win over Oklahoma, which actually brought the day’s scoring average down. The lowest-scoring game of the day was Houston’s 65-48 win over Towson, where noted old-head Kelvin Sampson has quite a bit of work to do to get Houston’s offense to the level that will earn a one-seed in March.
Overall, the day averaged 78.9 points per game involving two D-I teams. This is not only the highest figure of the last 30 seasons for any day featuring at least 50 games, it smashed the previous record…set five days earlier. Here are the top ten scoring days since the 1997 season:
1. 11/8/25 78.9
2. 11/3/25 76.8
3. 11/19/19 76.1
4. 1/18/24 75.6
5. 11/8/24 75.5
6. 12/17/16 75.4
7. 11/16/15 75.3
8. 11/7/25 75.3
9. 11/17/17 74.8
10. 11/4/24 74.8
If you’re curious, the worst day for scoring was on November 25, 2014 when teams averaged 64.9 points on National Old-Heads Day™. The olds everywhere celebrated every mid-range brick, charge taking away a highlight-reel dunk, and shot-clock violation. It was a day when Bradley beat Texas A&M Corpus Christi 52-38 and Northwestern beat Miami (Ohio) 55-46. The highest-scoring game was Detroit’s 82-79 win over Toledo, which had just three more points than the average game on Saturday.
The neat thing about college basketball is that there are so many games that after a week of play, we largely know where the game is headed statistically in a given season. And this season figures to be the highest-scoring season in 30 years, possibly going as far back as 1991. Not only that, but barring something crazy it will have the best offensive rating ever, beating a record that was set last season, which beat the record set the season before last.
What’s worse for the old-heads is that free throw shooting is practically guaranteed to crush the previous record set…last season, which broke the record set the season before that, which broke the record set the season before that, which broke the record set the *season before that*, which broke the record set the *season before that*. You get the idea. After this season, the nine-best seasons of free throw shooting will have occurred in the last nine seasons.
Furthermore, the olds’ classic lament that reducing the shot clock would result in more in more one-on-one play does not hold up to the statistical light, either. Teams assisted on 53% of made baskets last week, nearly matching the figure of 2015, the last season before the shot clock was reduced to 30 seconds. A look at the data since that season, comparing games from the first week:
At this point, the olds are complaining because they like to complain. And hey, we all have some nostalgia for the way sports were when we were 12. But any objective look at the data will tell you this sport is in the best place it’s been for quite some time.
The irony is that when the old-heads were coming of age, the game was even higher-scoring than it is today. Defense wasn’t especially better considering it didn’t need to guard a three-point line. And there was worse shooting and more fouls. Not that it wasn’t fun. It was pretty fun! It was all we knew. But no thanks going back to that.
Of course, the game isn’t perfect. Even with a more organized coach’s challenge system this season, game times seem to still routinely run well over two hours. Fouls are up in the first week. But the total package is much better than it was a decade ago.
It’s been that long since Jay Wright advocated for a 24-second shot clock, and the day will come when that happens, along with the move to quarters. There will inevitably be other changes needed as the game evolves in ways we can’t predict. But if there’s one thing the start to this season proves, it’s that the old-heads can only hold the game back for so long.
To be sure, this exists in the NBA as well. Although it seems to be limited to mostly former big men that complain about 3-pointers and long for the days when players could openly brawl and simply get a delay-of-game warning.