After a year in which College Basketball was dominated by the usual big dogs including Kentucky, Wisconsin, and Duke, a new age of College Basketball hit the hardwood this year. Before Kentucky got run off the floor against a struggling Ohio State at the Barclays Center, many people knew this season would be one to remember. Ever since the 2013 NCAA Tournament that included “Dunk City”, the Florida Gulf Coast Eagles, and the upstart Mercer Bears, there has been no one month so exhilarating. When Kentucky took the floor last year, their top rated recruiting class and seven draft picks carried them to a 31-0 regular season, however they couldn’t overcome Jahlil Okafor and Tyus Jones as Duke captured their fifth national championship. However this season has seen five number one ranked teams upsetted and not one team recapture the crown after being knocked off contributing to the unrest this year in College Basketball, some unrest that no one saw coming. There seem to be three key factors that are affecting the game seem to lie at the recent rule changes, the lack of a dominant team, and an under-performing freshmen class.

Beginning this year, the NCAA introduced some new rules that increased the speed of the game. The biggest factors of the rule include the new 30 second shot clock, the increased arc in the paint, and the coaches’ ability to call timeouts. Many officials thought the place of play last year was too slow, so they reduced the shot clock by five seconds in order for players’ not to hold on to the ball for too long. For teams such as Indiana and Oklahoma who fire up over 20 threes per game, the new rule makes little difference because they’re naturally adjusted to letting loose after ten seconds down the floor, but for Wisconsin, who normally uses over 20 seconds of the clock, it’s a big adjustment in a year without quality offensive weapons. The new shot clock has certainly adjusted the mindsets for many teams, and the teams who shoot many three pointers tend to have the majority of the success.

Also, another situation that has affected the game this year, the lack of a powerful and dominant team. Coming into last year everyone knew and couldn’t deny that Duke, Kentucky, and Wisconsin were the ones to beat and they lived up to the hype. However this year, North Carolina, Duke, and Kentucky came in with all the glory, but haven’t quite claimed that glory. North Carolina is still number two as of January 22nd, but Duke and Kentucky have combined for four losses in the last two weeks, and both have dropped out of the Top 15. The teams that were supposed to be top of the game have fallen to the middle line and the ones that weren’t supposed to be great have really jumpstarted their games. Enter Iowa, after an embarrassing preseason loss against Augustana (Division 2 program from South Dakota), Iowa has jumped out in Big Ten play with wins over Michigan State (x2) and Purdue on route to  a top ten ranking last week. For a majority of the pack, at least one loss a week is a regularity at this point and I don’t see an end soon to this trend.

Finally, if you can even explain the last month in College Basketball, you can blame the craziness on the lack of efficient freshmen. Of course when you talk freshmen you look straight at Ben Simmons and it’s hard not to when he stands 6’9” and 225 lbs and can control the ball better than most of your point guards, but behind him where do you really point your finger at. Skal Labissiere of Kentucky has been as big of a disappointment as Enes Kanter was, and he didn’t even play a single game at Kentucky. Labissiere has averaged 2.8 fouls per game while only grabbing 2.5 boards per game during SEC play, a number set out for walk on centers at your local MAC school, not the number for the second ranked freshman coming out of highschool. Although Kansas is a top five team in the nation, their recruiting class has gotten awfully familiar with the bench as Cheick Diallo and Carlton Bragg, two five star recruits see less than ten minutes a game respectively. The only other bright spots in the Freshmen class come out of College Park, Durham, and Bloomington. Diamond Stone has really lived up to the status of his name including a 39 point coming out party after a non conference slaight where he did little to nothing. For Brandon Ingram it took a couple of injuries and a beat down at the hands of Kentucky to turn the tide of their season, and Ingram has dropped over 20 points per game since en route to a top 25 ranking. As for Bryant, the emotional side of the game has gotten to him quite a few times including screaming matches with Yogi Ferrell and a technical foul in the first game of the season for taunting, but has turned that immaturity and the fiery passion into the second best field goal percentage in the nation at 71%. What those three factors tell you is that the lack of stability this year can be placed on the backs of rule changes, lack of dominant teams, and the disappointing campaigns out of freshmen.