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2019–20 NCAA Division I men's basketball season

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2019–20 NCAA Division I men's basketball season
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The 2019–20 NCAA Division I men's basketball season began on November 5, 2019. The first tournament was the 2K Sports Classic and the season concluded prematurely on March 12, 2020. The 2020 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament was scheduled to end at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, Georgia, on April 6, 2020, but was ultimately canceled. All other postseason tournaments were canceled as well. Practices officially began in late September.[1]

Quick facts –20 NCAA Division I men's basketball season, Preseason AP No. 1 ...

On March 12, 2020, the NCAA announced that all remaining winter and spring championships for both men's and women's sports were canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It was the first cancellation in the NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament history. The NCAA did not name an official national champion after the tournament was canceled.

Kansas finished first in both major polls but has yet to claim a national championship for the season.[2][3]

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Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, Georgia, was planned to host the NCAA men's Final Four.
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Rule changes

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On June 5, 2019, the NCAA announced that its Playing Rules Oversight Panel had approved a suite of rules changes that its Men's Basketball Rules Committee had recommended the previous month. These changes took effect in 2019–20 for all NCAA divisions, with one exception.[4][5]

  • The three-point line was moved from its prior distance of 20 feet 9 inches (6.32 m) from the center of the basket to the FIBA standard of 6.75 meters (22 ft 2 in). The NCAA published diagrams on June 17, 2019 reflecting the new three-point line, including its distance from the sidelines near the corners of the court. In the corners, the three-point line is exactly 40+18 inches (102 cm) from the sidelines, resulting in the shortest three-point distance being essentially identical to the FIBA standard of 6.6 meters (21 ft 8 in).[6] This change took immediate effect in Division I, but was delayed to 2020–21 for Divisions II and III.
  • On offensive rebounds in the frontcourt, the shot clock is now reset to 20 seconds instead of the full 30.
  • Any derogatory on-court comments regarding a player's race, ethnicity, religion, gender, sexual orientation or disability result in a flagrant-2 technical foul and automatic ejection.
  • Two new rules apply during the last two minutes of regulation and the last two minutes of any overtime period:
    • Coaches are allowed to call live-ball timeouts. Previously, coaches were prohibited from calling live-ball timeouts at any time.
    • The list of calls that can be reviewed via instant replay expanded to include basket interference and goaltending.
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Season headlines

  • May 9, 2019 – The NCAA announced its Academic Progress Rate (APR) sanctions for the 2019–20 school year. A total of nine programs in eight sports were declared ineligible for postseason play due to failure to meet the required APR benchmark, including the following Division I men's basketball team:
  • June 3, 2019 – The Sun Belt Conference, which a year earlier had announced a series of radical changes in its men's basketball scheduling format that would have taken effect with the 2019–20 season,[7] announced that it had placed those changes on hold. The Sun Belt will proceed with one element of the plan, namely an expansion of the conference schedule to 20 games. In its announcement, the conference noted that the original plan had been based on data related to the RPI, an NCAA tournament selection metric that had been replaced by the significantly different NET effective with the 2019 tournament.[8]
  • June 18 – The ASUN Conference officially announced that Bellarmine University, currently a member of the NCAA Division II Great Lakes Valley Conference, would move to Division I and join the ASUN effective with the 2020–21 school year.[9]
  • June 20 – The Summit League announced that the University of Missouri–Kansas City would return to the conference on July 1, 2020 after seven years in the Western Athletic Conference.[10]
  • June 21 – The Boston-area sports news website Digital Sports Desk reported that the University of Connecticut (UConn) was expected to announce by the end of the month that it would leave the American Athletic Conference to rejoin many of its former conference mates in the Big East Conference in 2020.[11] The story was picked up by multiple national media outlets the next day.[12][13]
  • June 27 – The Big East and UConn jointly announced that the school would join the Big East; though the official announcements did not specify a time, it was expected that the Huskies would become members in 2020.[14]
  • July 15 – Binghamton rising sophomore forward Calistus Anyichie drowned in an incident at Buttermilk Falls State Park near Ithaca, New York. The incident was being investigated as an accident.[15]
  • July 26 – Multiple media reports indicated that UConn and The American had reached a buyout agreement that will lead to UConn joining the Big East in July 2020. The exit fee was reportedly $17 million.[16]
  • August 5
    • The NCAA issued a set of rules that outlined new certification requirements for agents who sought to represent college underclassmen who declare themselves eligible for the NBA draft but wish to maintain college eligibility while evaluating their draft prospects. The new requirements were that the agents hold a bachelor's degree; have been certified by the NBA players' union, the National Basketball Players Association (NBPA), for at least three years; hold professional liability insurance; and pass an in-person exam administered each November at the NCAA headquarters in Indianapolis. The bachelor's degree requirement was immediately dubbed the "Rich Paul Rule", as it was widely viewed as preventing Paul, who represents LeBron James, Anthony Davis, Ben Simmons, and Draymond Green, among others, from representing underclassmen because he does not have a bachelor's degree.[17]
    • The Horizon League announced that Purdue University Fort Wayne would leave the Summit League to join the Horizon League in July 2020.[18]
  • August 12 – After widespread criticism by media and NBA players, the NCAA amended the so-called "Rich Paul Rule" regarding agent certification. Agents such as Paul who do not hold bachelor's degrees but meet all other NCAA requirements will be allowed to represent underclassmen if they are in good standing with the NBPA.[19]
  • September 30
    • California governor Gavin Newsom signed the Fair Pay to Play Act into law, which upon taking effect in 2023 will prohibit public colleges and universities in the state from punishing their athletes for earning endorsement income. The bill places the state in direct conflict with the NCAA's current business model, which prohibits college athletes from receiving such income. At the time the bill was signed, several other states were proposing similar laws.[20]
    • A group of Louisville Cardinals players who were not involved in the NCAA rules violations that caused the team to be stripped of its 2013 national title and 2012 Final Four appearance reached a confidential settlement of a lawsuit against the NCAA. One portion of the settlement was authorized to be revealed—while Louisville's team records remained vacated, all honors and statistics for these players were restored. Most notably, Luke Hancock, who was a plaintiff in the suit, was once again officially recognized as the Most Outstanding Player of the 2013 Final Four.[21]
    • Officials at Tarleton State University, current members of the Division II Lone Star Conference, announced that the school had accepted an invitation to join the Western Athletic Conference. Full details, including the joining date, were expected to be revealed in the following days, but were delayed by more than a month.[22]
  • October 4 – Officials at the University of St. Thomas, a Minnesota school that will be expelled from its longtime athletic home of the NCAA Division III Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC) in 2021, announced that the school had received an invitation to join the Summit League upon its MIAC departure. In order for St. Thomas to directly transition to the Summit, it must receive a waiver of an NCAA rule stating that Division III schools can only transition to Division II.[23]
  • October 22 – The Associated Press preseason All-American team was released. Michigan State guard Cassius Winston was the lone unanimous selection (65 votes). Joining him on the team were Marquette guard Markus Howard (57 votes), Louisville forward Jordan Nwora (47), Seton Hall guard Myles Powell (46), and Memphis center James Wiseman (32).[24]
  • October 29 – The NCAA board of governors voted unanimously to begin the process of changing institutional rules so that college athletes can profit from their names, images, and likenesses, while still maintaining a distinction between college and professional sports. The proposal calls for each of the three NCAA divisions to draft new rules consistent with this mandate, with a target date of January 2021.[25]
  • November 8 – The NCAA ruled incoming Memphis freshman star and preseason All-American James Wiseman ineligible because his family had received moving expenses from current head coach Penny Hardaway in 2017, a year before Hardaway was hired by the school. Despite his not having been employed by Memphis at the time, the NCAA considered Hardaway to be a Memphis booster because the former NBA star had donated large amounts to the school's athletic program more than a decade earlier. Memphis and Wiseman received an injunction to halt the NCAA's ruling from a local judge, and Wiseman played in the Tigers' season opener later that day.[26]
  • November 12 – The Western Athletic Conference officially announced Tarleton State's entry into the league effective July 1, 2020.[27]
  • November 14 – In the next major development in the Wiseman story, he dropped his lawsuit against the NCAA, and Memphis declared him ineligible and withdrew him from play. The school also announced it would seek reinstatement from the NCAA.[28]
  • January 11 - Clemson's 79-76 victory over North Carolina was the first time ever that Clemson won at Chapel Hill.[29] Before that result, Clemson was 0-59 against North Carolina in Chapel Hill.
  • January 21 – The Kansas StateKansas game was marred by a bench-clearing brawl. In the final seconds of a game that Kansas would win 81–60, State's DaJuan Gordon went up for a layup that was blocked by Kansas' Silvio De Sousa. After the block, De Sousa stood over Gordon, leading to an altercation that escalated into a bench-clearing melee. During the brawl, De Sousa and several other players threw punches, and De Sousa held a chair above his head until it was taken from him by a Kansas assistant. Kansas did not wait for the Big 12 Conference to take action, announcing the next day that De Sousa would be suspended indefinitely, pending the Big 12 review of the incident.[30]
  • January 22 – The Big 12 issued suspensions for four players involved in the previous night's Kansas State–Kansas brawl. De Sousa drew the longest suspension at 12 games. Kansas teammate David McCormack was suspended for 2 games, while Kansas State's James Love and Antonio Gordon were respectively banned for 8 and 3 games.[31]
  • February 7 – The Big South Conference officially announced that North Carolina A&T State University would leave its longtime home of the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference for the Big South effective with the 2021–22 school year.[32]
  • February 18 – The NCAA announced that it was considering a proposal that would allow student-athletes in all sports a one-time waiver to transfer to a new school without having to sit out a season. This would place all NCAA sports under the same transfer rules; currently, first-time transfers are only required to sit out a season in baseball, men's and women's basketball, football, and men's ice hockey. The existing criteria for the waiver would be extended to these five sports—namely, a player must receive a transfer release from his or her previous school, leave that school academically eligible, maintain academic progress at the new school, and not be under any disciplinary suspension.[33]
  • Responses to the COVID-19 pandemic:
    • March 10
    • March 11
    • March 12
      • All Division I conference tournaments that had yet to be completed were canceled, even those in progress.[39]
      • Some schools—most notably Duke and Kansas—suspended all athletic travel indefinitely. Both the Blue Devils and the presumptive top overall seed Jayhawks had been expected to decline NCAA tournament bids before the cancellation of the tournament.[39]
      • The NCAA announced that all remaining winter and spring championships would be canceled for both men's and women's sports in all divisions.[40] It is the first cancellation in the history of the NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament.[40]
    • March 13
      • The Florida Senate passed a resolution declaring Florida State national champions for the 2019–2020 season. The resolution, introduced by Republican Joe Gruters, passed by a vote of 37–2.[41]
    • March 16
      • The NCAA recognises the 1943 research of the Helms Athletic Foundation that ranked teams each season prior to the 1939 founding of the NCAA men's basketball tournament. In college football, which the NCAA does not sanction an official championship tournament in the FBS subdivision, teams that finished first in final polls were declared the mythical national championship winner, and the NCAA lists in that sport the teams ranked as the best by various selectors. The AP Poll and Coaches Poll are both recognised in football that way. Kansas finishes first in the final Coaches Poll standings.[3]
    • March 18
      • Kansas finishes first in the final AP Poll, the other major wire service poll that in college football was declared a selector for the national championship, effectively naming a consensus national championship.[2]

Milestones and records

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Conference membership changes

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Two schools joined new conferences for the 2019–20 season. Both moved between Division I and Division II, with one joining Division I and the other leaving Division I.

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In addition, two existing Division I teams assumed new athletic identities.

After the 2018–19 school year, Long Island University (LIU) merged the athletic programs of its two main campuses—the Division I LIU Brooklyn Blackbirds and Division II LIU Post Pioneers—into a single program that now plays as the LIU Sharks.[72] The Sharks inherited the Division I and Northeast Conference memberships of the Brooklyn campus, with some sports to be based in Brooklyn and others at the Post campus in Brookville, New York. Specific to basketball, LIU announced that the unified men's and women's teams in that sport would be based in Brooklyn.

On July 1, 2019, the University of Missouri–Kansas City (UMKC) announced that its athletic program, formerly known as the UMKC Kangaroos, would officially become the Kansas City Roos, with "Roos" having long been used as a short form of the former "Kangaroos" nickname.[73]

Arenas

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New arenas

  • Robert Morris moved into the new UPMC Events Center after playing last season at the Student Recreation and Fitness Center, a facility at the school's North Athletic Complex. The Colonials played their first game there on November 12, 2019 however the Colonials lost their first game in the new arena losing to crosstown rival Pitt 71–57.

Arenas closing

  • James Madison played its final season at the JMU Convocation Center, home to the Dukes since 1982. The final game at the arena was a women's game on February 29 in which the Dukes defeated Delaware 69–64. JMU opened Atlantic Union Bank Center for the 2020–21 season.[74]
  • This was Liberty's final season playing games full-time at the Vines Center, home to the Flames since 1990. The school opened the adjoining Liberty Arena, with less than half of the capacity at Vines Center, for the 2020–21 season. The Vines Center will continue to be used for games in which attendance is expected to exceed 4,000.[75]
  • This was intended to be High Point's final season at the Millis Athletic Convocation Center, home to the Panthers since 1992. They planned to open the new Nido Quebin Arena and Conference Center for the 2020–21 season.[76] However, construction delays brought on by COVID-19 led High Point to delay the new arena's opening until 2021–22.[77]

Arena name change

The CFE Arena in Orlando, Florida, the home arena of the UCF Knights, was renamed the Addition Financial Arena, effective May 1, 2019. This is due to CFE Federal Credit Union rebranding to Addition Financial.[78]

Temporary arenas

  • Immediately after the 2018–19 season, Duquesne began an extensive renovation of the on-campus Palumbo Center. When the venue reopens, expected for the 2020–21 school year, it will be renamed UPMC Cooper Fieldhouse, via a partnership between the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center and the family foundation of late Duquesne star Chuck Cooper, the first African American selected in an NBA draft. At the time of announcement, the final capacity of the renovated venue had not been determined, but Duquesne's athletic director expected it to have about the same capacity as the pre-renovation Palumbo Center (4,390). Duquesne split its home games between three venues in 2019–20: PPG Paints Arena, La Roche University's Kerr Fitness Center, and Robert Morris University's new UPMC Events Center.[79][80]
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Season outlook

Pre-season polls

The top 25 from the AP and USA Today Coaches Polls.

More information AP, Ranking ...
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Regular season

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Early season tournaments

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Upsets

An upset is a victory by an underdog team. In the context of NCAA Division I Men's Basketball this generally constitutes an unranked team defeating a team currently ranked In the Top 25. This list will highlight those upsets of ranked teams by unranked teams as well as upsets of #1 teams. Rankings are from the AP poll.

Bold type indicates winning teams in "true road games"-i.e., those played on an opponent's home court (including secondary homes, such as Intrust Bank Arena for Wichita State).

More information Winner, Score ...

In addition to the above listed upsets in which an unranked team defeated a ranked team, there were six non-Division I teams to defeat a Division I team this season. Bold type indicates winning teams in "true road games"—i.e., those played on an opponent's home court (including secondary homes).

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Conference winners and tournaments

Each of the 32 Division I athletic conferences ends its regular season with a single-elimination tournament. The team with the best regular-season record in each conference is given the number one seed in each tournament, with tiebreakers used as needed in the case of ties for the top seeding. The winners of these tournaments receive automatic invitations to the 2020 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament.

More information Conference, Regular season first place ...
  1. Unlike the vast majority of NCAA Division I conferences, the Big East classifies its career scoring leaders strictly by performance in regular-season conference games. Bell had been the conference's all-time scoring leader when all games were considered.
  2. Top seed in conference tournament.
  3. Ineligible for the NEC tournament due to transition from NCAA Division II.

Statistical leaders

Source for additional stats categories

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Postseason

All post-season tournaments were cancelled prior to completing the qualification process.

Conference standings

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Award winners

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2020 Consensus All-America team

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Major player of the year awards

Major freshman of the year awards

Major coach of the year awards

Other major awards

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Coaching changes

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A number of teams changed coaches during the season and after it ended.

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See also

Notes

  1. Season prematurely ended on March 12, 2020 after sporting events had been cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

References

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