The 2015–16 NCAA Division I men's basketball season began on November 13. The first early-season tournaments to begin were the Puerto Rico Tip-Off and the Charleston Classic. The season ended with the 2016 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament, whose Final Four took place at NRG Stadium in

Houston, Texas Houston ( ) is the List of cities in Texas by population, most populous city in the U.S. state of Texas and in the Southern United States. Located in Southeast Texas near Galveston Bay and the Gulf of Mexico, it is the county seat, seat of ...

, on April 2, 2016, with the national championship game following on April 4. Practices officially began on October 2, 2015.

Rule changes

The following rule changes were proposed by the NCAA Men's Rules Committee for the 2015–16 season, and officially approved by the NCAA Men's Playing Rules Oversight Panel: * Reducing the shot clock from 35 to 30 seconds (same as the women's game). * Providing offensive players the same verticality protections as defensive players. * Extending the restricted-area arc from 3 feet to 4 feet from the basket. * Reducing the number of team timeouts from 5 to 4, with a limit of no more than 3 timeouts in the second half. * Ending the practice of coaches calling timeouts from the bench in live-ball situations. * Tightening the 10-second backcourt rule, under which the offensive team has 10 seconds to advance the ball from the backcourt to the frontcourt. The following situations, all of which resulted in a reset of the 10-second count under previous rules, no longer reset the count: ** The defense deflects the ball out of bounds. ** A held ball situation in the offensive backcourt in which the possession arrow favors the offense. ** A technical foul against the offensive team during possession in its own backcourt. * Eliminating the five-second "closely-guarded" rule while the ball is being dribbled. * Allowing for technical fouls to be called on players who are determined to have faked a foul while reviewing for a flagrant foul. * Allow video replay of shot-clock violations throughout the game. Previously, this type of review was limited to only the final 2:00 of the game and in overtime. * "Class B" technical fouls, such as hanging on the rim and delay of game, now result in one free throw by the non-violating team instead of the previous two. * Requiring that a timeout taken 30 seconds or less before a scheduled media timeout break (which are at 16:00, 12:00, 8:00, and 4:00 of each half) become the media timeout. This particular change had been made in NCAA women's basketball effective with the 2013–14 season. * Stricter enforcement of resumption of play after timeouts, and reducing from 20 seconds to 15 seconds the time allowed to replace a disqualified (fouled out) player. Teams will receive a delay-of-game warning after the first violation, and a Class B technical foul for each subsequent violation. * Dunking will be allowed during team warmups and halftime. * An experimental rule allowing players six personal fouls instead of five will be used in all national postseason tournaments except for the NCAA tournament.

Season headlines

* May 27 – The NCAA announced its Academic Progress Rate (APR) sanctions for the 2015–16 school year. A total of 21 programs in 9 sports were declared ineligible for postseason play due to failure to meet the required APR benchmark, including the following four Division I men's basketball teams: ** Alcorn State ** Florida A&M ** Stetson ** Central Arkansas * June 29 –

Wisconsin Wisconsin ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest of the United States. It borders Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake Michigan to the east, Michig ...

head coach Bo Ryan announced he would retire at the end of the 2015–16 season. * August 13 – Ryan backed away from his previously announced retirement plans, saying that he was open to staying on beyond this season and that he would make his decision in the coming months. * September 29 – The NCAA announced penalties against SMU following an investigation into a wide array of violations: ** The Mustangs were banned from postseason play for 2015–16. ** Head coach Larry Brown was suspended for nine games. ** SMU lost nine men's basketball scholarships from 2016–17 through 2018–19. Since the team had only 11 scholarship players for 2015–16, two short of the NCAA limit of 13, the two unused scholarships counted toward the penalty. ** The men's basketball program was hit with three years' probation. * October 2 – Yahoo! Sports revealed that the

University of Louisville The University of Louisville (UofL) is a public university, public research university in Louisville, Kentucky, United States. It is part of the Kentucky state university system. Chartered in 1798 as the Jefferson Seminary, it became in the 19t ...

was investigating allegations made in a soon-to-be-published book whose author, a self-described

madam Madam (), or madame ( or ), is a polite and formal form of address for Woman, women in the English language, often contracted to ma'am (pronounced in American English and this way but also in British English). The term derives from the French la ...

, claimed that she had been paid thousands of dollars by former Louisville graduate assistant and director of basketball operations Andre McGee to provide women to

dance Dance is an The arts, art form, consisting of sequences of body movements with aesthetic and often Symbol, symbolic value, either improvised or purposefully selected. Dance can be categorized and described by its choreography, by its repertoir ...

for and have sex with Cardinals players and recruits. * November 10 – The

Associated Press The Associated Press (AP) is an American not-for-profit organization, not-for-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association, and produces news reports that are dist ...

preseason All-American team was released. Gonzaga forward Kyle Wiltjer was the leading vote-getter (51 votes). Joining him on the team were Iowa State forward Georges Niang (46 votes), Providence guard Kris Dunn (43),

Oklahoma Oklahoma ( ; Choctaw language, Choctaw: , ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Texas to the south and west, Kansas to the north, Missouri to the northea ...

guard Buddy Hield (40) and

LSU Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, commonly referred to as Louisiana State University (LSU), is an American Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Baton Rouge, Louis ...

forward Ben Simmons (28). * December 15 – Bo Ryan announced his retirement after a win against Texas A&M–Corpus Christi, effective immediately, with associate head coach Greg Gard assuming the title of interim head coach. * December 23 – The NCAA announced penalties against

Hawaii Hawaii ( ; ) is an island U.S. state, state of the United States, in the Pacific Ocean about southwest of the U.S. mainland. One of the two Non-contiguous United States, non-contiguous U.S. states (along with Alaska), it is the only sta ...

for significant violations of NCAA rules: ** Former head coach Gib Arnold, who had been fired shortly before the 2014–15 season, received a three-year show-cause penalty. An assistant involved in the violations received a two-year show-cause. ** The Rainbow Warriors were banned from postseason play in 2016–17. ** The team lost two scholarships in both 2016–17 and 2017–18; it had previously announced a reduction of one scholarship for each of those seasons. * January 13 ** The NCAA Division I council approved the following changes to its rules regarding declaration for the NBA draft: *** Declaration for the draft no longer results in automatic loss of college eligibility. As long as a player does not sign a contract with a professional team outside the NBA, or sign with an agent, he will retain college eligibility as long as he makes a timely withdrawal from the draft. *** NCAA players now have until 10 days after the end of the NBA Draft Combine to withdraw from the draft. For 2016, the withdrawal date was May 25, about five weeks after the previous mid-April deadline. *** NCAA players may participate in the draft combine, and are also allowed to attend one tryout per year with each NBA team without losing college eligibility. *** NCAA players may now enter and withdraw from the draft multiple times without loss of eligibility. Previously, the NCAA treated a second declaration of draft eligibility as a permanent loss of college eligibility. **

Missouri Missouri (''see #Etymology and pronunciation, pronunciation'') is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking List of U.S. states and territories by area, 21st in land area, it border ...

admitted to major NCAA violations dating to 2011. While the NCAA had yet to announce its findings, Missouri voluntarily imposed the following sanctions: *** The Tigers would not participate in any postseason play this season, including the SEC tournament. *** All 23 of the Tigers' wins in the 2013–14 season were vacated. *** The Tigers lost one scholarship in each of the next two seasons, and restrict recruiting in 2016–17. * February 6 ** Louisville self-imposed a 2016 postseason ban. * March 10 ** The

Ivy League The Ivy League is an American collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference of eight Private university, private Research university, research universities in the Northeastern United States. It participates in the National Collegia ...

announced that it would institute men's and women's conference tournaments effective with the 2016–17 season. The top four teams in the regular-season standings qualify for each tournament. While the tournament winners receive automatic bids to the NCAA men's and women's tournaments, the official conference champions continue to be determined solely by regular-season results. The inaugural editions were held March 11–12, 2017 at the Palestra in

Philadelphia Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...

. * April 8 – The NCAA announced penalties against Southern Miss for a wide array of violations occurring during the tenure of former head coach Donnie Tyndall. The NCAA's findings indicated that mere weeks after Tyndall became head coach, he directed program staffers to complete fraudulent coursework so that several recruits would ostensibly be eligible to play. It was also found that Tyndall had arranged for cash payments to recruits, fabricated documents in an attempt to cover up the payments, and deleted emails relevant to the investigation. ** Tyndall received a 10-year show-cause, and even after it expires in 2026, he will be suspended for 50% of his next full season as an NCAA coach. Three of his assistants receive 8-year, 7-year, and 6-year penalties. At the time, Tyndall planned to appeal his penalty. ** The NCAA accepted the school's self-imposed two-year postseason ban, but placed the Golden Eagles on three years' probation. All wins in which ineligible players participated were vacated, and the Golden Eagles lost four scholarships over the next three seasons.

Milestones and records

*During the season, the following players reached the 2000 career point milestone – Evansville guard D. J. Balentine, High Point forward John Brown, Hofstra guard Juan'ya Green, Louisiana–Lafayette forward Shawn Long, Iowa State forward Georges Niang, Old Dominion guard Trey Freeman,

guard Buddy Hield, Stony Brook forward Jameel Warney, Louisville guard Damion Lee, Fresno State guard Marvelle Harris,

Army An army, ground force or land force is an armed force that fights primarily on land. In the broadest sense, it is the land-based military branch, service branch or armed service of a nation or country. It may also include aviation assets by ...

swingman Kyle Wilson. and Iona guard A. J. English. *November 26 – Michigan State head coach Tom Izzo wins his 500th game. *November 28 – Davidson head coach Bob McKillop wins his 500th game. *November 28 – BYU's Kyle Collinsworth records his seventh career triple-double, giving him sole possession of the NCAA record. * January 26 –

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States between the East Coast of the United States ...

beats Wake Forest on a 9–1 run in the final fifteen seconds, including a buzzer beater three-point bank shot from Darius Thompson, in a comeback highly noted for its statistical improbability. *February 1 –

Duke Duke is a male title either of a monarch ruling over a duchy, or of a member of Royal family, royalty, or nobility. As rulers, dukes are ranked below emperors, kings, grand princes, grand dukes, and above sovereign princes. As royalty or nobi ...

's streak of 167 appearances in the AP Poll ended as the 5th longest streak of all time. * February 5 – Yale's Brandon Sherrod, who entered the Bulldogs' game against Columbia one shy of the Division I record of 26 consecutive field goals made, makes his first five field goal attempts in Yale's 86–72 win to set a new record of 30. * February 8 – The 2015–16 Villanova Wildcats became the program's first team to reach number one in the AP Poll by climbing to the top of the 2015–16 NCAA Division I men's basketball rankings. *March 16 – In BYU's 97–79 victory over UAB in the first round of the NIT, Collinsworth posts his sixth triple-double of the season, tying his own single-season record from last season and extending his NCAA career record to 12.

Conference membership changes

After a tumultuous four years in which over 80 Division I schools moved to new conferences—some more than once—only two schools joined new conferences as full members for 2015–16: Another change in membership involved the

Western Athletic Conference The Western Athletic Conference (WAC) is an NCAA Division I conference. The WAC covers a broad expanse of the Western United States with member institutions located in Arizona, California, Texas, Utah and Washington (state), Washington. Due to ...

(WAC). This did not involve a school moving to a new league, but rather a change in identity of a Division I school. During the summer of 2015, the University of Texas–Pan American (UTPA) and the University of Texas at Brownsville (UTB) merged to form the new University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV). The UTPA athletic program was inherited by UTRGV, which retained UTPA's WAC membership. Following UAB's decision to drop

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

at the end of the 2014 season, its future membership in Conference USA (C-USA) beyond 2014–15 was initially uncertain, as league bylaws require all member schools to either sponsor FBS football or be committed to establishing an FBS program. Due to ongoing efforts by boosters and other supporters to raise funds to bring UAB football back, C-USA indicated that UAB would be allowed to remain in the league for the 2015–16 season, but not beyond that time unless football was reinstated. On June 1, 2015, UAB initially announced that the football program would be reinstated in 2016, later pushing back the return of football to 2017; this was sufficient to satisfy C-USA, which announced that it would keep UAB as a member. The 2015–16 season was the last for Coastal Carolina in the

Big South Conference The Big South Conference is a collegiate athletic conference affiliated with the NCAA's Division I. Originally a non-football conference, the Big South began sponsoring football in 2002 as part of the Football Championship Subdivision (FCS), ...

. On September 1, 2015, the university and the Sun Belt Conference jointly announced that the Chanticleers would join the Sun Belt in July 2016, initially as a non-football member. The

football team A football team is a group of players selected to play together in the various team sports known as football. Such teams could be selected to play in a match against an opposing team, to represent a football club, group, state or nation, an All-st ...

will join the Sun Belt in 2017, the second year of its transition from FCS to FBS football.

New arenas

* The Omaha Mavericks left their home since 2012, the off-campus Ralston Arena, for the new on-campus Baxter Arena. The Mavericks' first game in the new arena was on November 13 against the UC Santa Barbara Gauchos, with the Mavericks losing 60–59. * The Ole Miss Rebels also opened a new arena, but unlike Omaha, the move was from one campus venue to another. Tad Smith Coliseum, home to the Rebels since 1966, was replaced by The Pavilion at Ole Miss. The new arena, with a capacity of 9,500, opened on January 7, with the Rebels defeating

Alabama Alabama ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Deep South, Deep Southern regions of the United States. It borders Tennessee to the north, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the east, Florida and the Gu ...

74–66.

Season outlook

Pre–season polls

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

Regular season

Early season tournaments

Conferences

Conference winners and tournaments

Thirty-one conference regular seasons concluded with a

single-elimination tournament A single-elimination knockout, or sudden-death tournament is a type of elimination tournament where the loser of a match-up is immediately eliminated from the tournament. Each winner will play another in the next round, until the final match-up, ...

. The teams in each conference that won their regular-season titles were given the number one

seed In botany, a seed is a plant structure containing an embryo and stored nutrients in a protective coat called a ''testa''. More generally, the term "seed" means anything that can be Sowing, sown, which may include seed and husk or tuber. Seeds ...

in their respective conference tournaments. Conference tournament winners received an automatic bid to the 2016 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament. For the final time, the

was the only

NCAA Division I NCAA Division I (D-I) is the highest division of intercollegiate athletics sanctioned by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) in the United States, which accepts players globally. D-I schools include the major collegiate athlet ...

conference that did not hold a conference tournament, instead sending its regular-season champion to the NCAA tournament.

Conference standings

Informal championships

Villanova finished with a 4–0 record in head-to-head competition among the Philadelphia Big 5.

Statistical leaders

Source for additional stats categories

Postseason

NCAA tournament

Tournament upsets

For this list, a "major upset" is defined as a win by a team seeded 7 or more spots below its defeated opponent. Final Four – NRG Stadium,

National Invitation tournament

After the NCAA tournament field was announced, the NCAA invited 32 teams to participate in the National Invitation Tournament. The tournament began on March 15, 2016 with all games prior to the semifinals were played on campus sites.

NIT Semifinals and Final

Played at

Madison Square Garden Madison Square Garden, colloquially known as the Garden or by its initials MSG, is a multi-purpose indoor arena in New York City. It is located in Midtown Manhattan between Seventh Avenue (Manhattan), Seventh and Eighth Avenue (Manhattan), Eig ...

in New York City on March 29 and 31 The semifinals and final were held on March 29 and March 31 at Madison Square Garden in New York City.

Vegas 16 tournament

After the NCAA tournament field was announced, eight teams were invited to participate in the first-ever Vegas 16 Tournament. The tournament began on March 28, 2016, with all eight teams playing in the opening round. The semifinals was played on March 29, and the championship game on March 30. All games were played at Mandalay Bay Events Center in

Las Vegas Las Vegas, colloquially referred to as Vegas, is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Nevada and the county seat of Clark County. The Las Vegas Valley metropolitan area is the largest within the greater Mojave Desert, and second-l ...

Nevada Nevada ( ; ) is a landlocked state in the Western United States. It borders Oregon to the northwest, Idaho to the northeast, California to the west, Arizona to the southeast, and Utah to the east. Nevada is the seventh-most extensive, th ...

. The Vegas 16 Tournament was never held again.

College Basketball Invitational

The ninth College Basketball Invitational (CBI) Tournament began on March 15, 2016. This tournament featured 16 teams who were left out of the NCAA tournament and NIT.

CollegeInsider.com Postseason tournament

The eighth CollegeInsider.com Postseason Tournament began on March 14 and ended with that championship game on March 29. This tournament places an emphasis on selecting successful teams from " mid-major" conferences who were left out of the NCAA tournament and NIT. 26 teams participated in this tournament.

Award winners

Consensus All-American teams

The following players are recognized as the 2016 Consensus All-Americans:

Major player of the year awards

* Wooden Award: Buddy Hield,

* Naismith Award: Buddy Hield, Oklahoma * Associated Press Player of the Year: Denzel Valentine, Michigan State * NABC Player of the Year: Denzel Valentine, Michigan State * Oscar Robertson Trophy ( USBWA): Buddy Hield, Oklahoma * ''Sporting News'' Player of the Year: Buddy Hield, Oklahoma

Major freshman of the year awards

* Wayman Tisdale Award ( USBWA): Ben Simmons,

Major coach of the year awards

* Associated Press Coach of the Year: Bill Self,

Kansas Kansas ( ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Nebraska to the north; Missouri to the east; Oklahoma to the south; and Colorado to the west. Kansas is named a ...

* Henry Iba Award ( USBWA): Chris Mack, Xavier * NABC Coach of the Year: Bill Self, Kansas * Naismith College Coach of the Year: Jay Wright, Villanova * ''Sporting News'' Coach of the Year: Tubby Smith, Texas Tech

Other major awards

* Bob Cousy Award (Best point guard): Tyler Ulis,

Kentucky Kentucky (, ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north, West Virginia to the ...

* Jerry West Award (Best shooting guard): Buddy Hield, Oklahoma * Julius Erving Award (Best small forward): Denzel Valentine, Michigan State * Karl Malone Award (Best power forward): Georges Niang, Iowa State * Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Award (Best center): Jakob Pöltl,

Utah Utah is a landlocked state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is one of the Four Corners states, sharing a border with Arizona, Colorado, and New Mexico. It also borders Wyoming to the northea ...

* Pete Newell Big Man Award (Best big man): Jakob Pöltl, Utah * NABC Defensive Player of the Year: Malcolm Brogdon,

* Senior CLASS Award (top senior): Denzel Valentine, Michigan State * Robert V. Geasey Trophy (Top player in Philadelphia Big 5): DeAndre' Bembry, Saint Joseph's * Haggerty Award (Top player in

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

metro area): Isaiah Whitehead, Seton Hall * Ben Jobe Award (Top minority coach): Dana Ford, Tennessee State * Hugh Durham Award (Top mid-major coach): James Jones, Yale * Jim Phelan Award (Top head coach): Greg Gard,

* Lefty Driesell Award (Top defensive player): Vashil Fernandez, Valparaiso * Lou Henson Award (Top mid-major player): Thomas Walkup, Stephen F. Austin * Lute Olson Award (Top non-freshman or transfer player): Denzel Valentine, Michigan State * Skip Prosser Man of the Year Award (Coach with moral character): Zach Spiker,

* Academic All-American of the Year (Top scholar-athlete): Jarrod Uthoff,

Iowa Iowa ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the upper Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders the Mississippi River to the east and the Missouri River and Big Sioux River to the west; Wisconsin to the northeast, Ill ...

* Elite 90 Award (Top GPA among upperclass players at Final Four): C. J. Cole, Oklahoma