Scoring 1.31 points per trip? That’ll do. (Eric Hartline — USA TODAY Sports)

It’s early in the season, but, with 21 percent of its conference games already in the books, it bears mention that the Big East is playing historically entertaining basketball. We can’t know if this is going to continue, of course, but the salient present-tense point is that the games we’ve seen so far have been outrageously high-scoring.

Teams in the league are simultaneously playing at a fast pace and scoring with a high degree of efficiency on each possession. Val Ackerman, I salute you!

This combination of speed and effectiveness has put the Big East on an entirely different level in terms of scoring.

Highest-scoring conferences
Major-conference games only, 2006-18

                         Points per 40 minutes
Big East 2018 (partial)           82.7
Big 12   2018 (partial)           78.0
Pac-12   2018 (partial)           76.1
SEC      2017                     73.9
ACC      2008                     73.9
Big East 2017                     73.7
Pac-12   2017                     73.5
ACC      2017                     73.4
Pac-12   2016                     73.4
Big East 2016                     73.2

Incredibly, the Big East is scoring almost 20 points more per 40 minutes than it did just five years ago in its last go-round as a fully Syracuse- and Notre Dame-equipped super conference (2013: 63.4).

Leading this scoring barrage is Villanova, which is scoring points at the ridiculous rate of 1.31 points per possession. The only way to beat the Wildcats thus far has been to drain 15 threes and score 1.40 points per trip. (Butler, I salute you.) So, yeah, that’s the game plan when you play Jay Wright’s guys. Write that on your pregame white board, coaches.

Through games of January 8, conference games only
Pace: possessions per 40 minutes
PPP: points per possession   Opp. PPP: opponent PPP
EM: efficiency margin (PPP – Opp. PPP)

Big East                  W-L   Pace    PPP   Opp. PPP    EM
1.  Creighton             3-1   75.4    1.11    0.96    +0.15
2.  Villanova             2-1   75.5    1.31    1.22    +0.09
3.  Seton Hall            3-0   72.7    1.17    1.11    +0.06
4.  Providence            2-2   71.4    1.12    1.09    +0.03
5.  Xavier                3-1   75.5    1.08    1.06    +0.02
6.  Butler                2-2   72.1    1.17    1.17     0.00
7.  Marquette             2-2   73.1    1.15    1.15     0.00
8.  DePaul                1-3   77.6    1.06    1.11    -0.05
9.  Georgetown            1-3   74.0    0.99    1.07    -0.08
10. St. John's            0-4   70.5    1.02    1.20    -0.18

AVG.                            73.8    1.12

Again, it’s early, and some regression to the mean is certainly a safe expectation. Still, even slicing off what we’ve seen so far in 2018 and restricting our focus solely to complete seasons, the overall trend since the introduction of the 30-second shot clock after the 2015 season is clear.

Major-conference scoring average

Yes, scoring is up. Now, cue the crotchety old guys in the back….

No one plays defense anymore! No emphasis on fundamentals! If this is your new-era basketball you can have it! Bah!

Have I got a team and a league for you, my crabby old coot rollicking fun-loving senescent one. This bunch plays at the slowest pace of any team in the ACC, and has very plainly opted to put all of its chips on defense. Each possession is a grinding and enervating death-struggle for the opposing offense, and this orange-tinged ACC team then turns around and takes its own sweet time on offense.

I’m speaking of Syracuse, of course. (Who’d you think I meant?) Jim Boeheim is placing such a premium on defense in 2018, that he customarily has not one but two never-shoot guys on the floor at the same time who are there more or less purely to stop opponents from scoring. That has translated into an average Orange offense, but it is most definitely the case that making twos against these guys is no walk in the park….

ACC                       W-L   Pace    PPP   Opp. PPP    EM
1.  Notre Dame            3-0   63.9    1.08    0.87    +0.21
2.  Virginia              3-0   62.3    1.06    0.85    +0.21
3.  Louisville            1-1   69.4    0.99    0.85    +0.14
4.  Clemson               3-0   70.8    1.02    0.91    +0.11
5.  Miami                 2-1   70.9    0.95    0.90    +0.05
6.  Syracuse              1-2   62.1    0.99    0.97    +0.02
7.  Boston College        2-2   70.1    1.05    1.03    +0.02
8.  Georgia Tech          1-1   68.3    0.90    0.89    +0.01
9.  Wake Forest           1-2   72.7    0.98    0.99    -0.01
10. Duke                  1-2   76.7    1.17    1.21    -0.04
11. North Carolina        1-2   68.6    0.98    1.03    -0.05
12. Florida State         1-2   76.6    1.08    1.13    -0.05
13. Virginia Tech         1-2   66.6    0.95    1.07    -0.12
14. NC State              1-2   72.8    0.99    1.15    -0.16
15. Pitt                  0-3   68.1    0.84    1.10    -0.26

AVG.                            69.3    1.00

Note how Duke is a one-team voice of dissent, single-handedly trying to keep offense (and, granted, questionable D) alive in a slow-paced trench-warfare ACC.

Yes, in 2018, hoops lovers of all stripes can find what they like. The small-c catholic hoops fan in your life is one happy spectator, or should be. Huzzah.