Murray State and Greenville scored 268 combined points in a single 40-minute college basketball game yesterday.
Murray State beat Greenville 173-95. That score was so grotesque, I thought it was an error by ESPNs graphics people. Nope, it really happened, and the score wasn’t the weirdest thing about the game.
Here are statistical anomalies that could only exist in a game with such extreme scoring:
- All 14 Murray State Racers played between 12-18 minutes. I love this because it shows that the coach got his walk-ons in early and often. Coaches will often wait until a minute or two are left in a blowout to cycle in the team’s hardest workers.
- Greenville shot 74 three-pointers! That’s almost two per minute, which is astounding. Former Houston Rockets coach Mike D’Antoni drools over nights like this. In the game in which his Houston Rockets broke the all-time record for made three-pointers in an NBA game (27), they heaved up 57 attempts – 17 fewer than Greenville! As you might have guessed, the Panthers hit only 20 threes – good for 27%.
- All 14 Racers scored at least seven points and all attempted at least five shots. Love it when teams spread the wealth.
- Murray State out rebounded Greenville 79-31. The leading rebounder for the Racers had 10. Greenville’s leader tallied five. Eight players for Murray State had at least five!
- The Racers converted 77 field goals. That’s almost two made buckets per minute.
- Greenville had 15 fewer field goals total than Murray State has assists!
- No Greenville player fouled out. Be honest, if you were on the business end of an 88-point whooping, wouldn’t you foul out to spare yourself the indignity of continuing by fouling out? If not fouling out for that reason, wouldn’t you get angry enough to make Murray State pay for their pace with a bruise here and there?
These are weird times, and wacky looking box scores will be everywhere throughout this season as rosters are impacted by COVID, but this one will certainly stand up as the most bizarre.