The college basketball world is finally catching on to what I have been saying for the past four years on TV, on radio, on social media, to my mom, to my fiancée (Syracuse softball coach Leigh Ross, since you asked) and to my dog, if I had a dog: Shoot the dang ball!
Wednesday was a huge night in college hoops, and especially in the state of Indiana. Indiana at Purdue and Duke at Notre Dame ... fantastic. You had the completely insane Paint Crew student section at Purdue, and an old-school, Digger Phelps-era type student section at ND. In South Bend you had two stars in Jerian Grant of the Irish and Jahlil Okafor of Duke giving it to each other for 40 minutes. Players played with joy, students screamed, taunted and had a blast, and I was riveted to my TV.
Guess what happened in those games? Teams scored big. Say it ain't so. Purdue rang up 83 on IU and did it by out-fast-breaking and outpacing a team that has been described as the most entertaining in the country. Duke and ND played in the 70s. It was the scoring that helped make for as entertaining a night as possible in college hoops. How did this happen? All four coaches got out of the way. They didn't micromanage every possession until it ended in a late-clock, high ball screen followed by a questionable shot.
There's lots of debate on why college scoring is down. It isn't the shot clock. It isn't the lack of skill by players.