“Speed Reading” Scoreboard for Basketball Fans

A Potential Innovation That Better Serves an Audience

Was playing around with this idea in my head for a few days. Did a quick post on X (formerly twitter) that got a good response. Well, good for me anyway…usually stathead ideas kinda float off into the ether there. THIS one might have some legs.

I was thinking it would be REALLY helpful if a listing of final scores in basketball put the made three-pointers totals in parenthesis right after the score. Remember how baseball used to emphasize “runs, hits, and errors” when you were a kid (or when your father or grandfather was a kid)? Seeing or hearing more than just “runs” helped add some context and depth to your understanding of the game. For basketball as it’s played in 2025, seeing or hearing made three pointers would help paint a much more vivid picture.

Let’s see what Tuesday night’s results look like in that format from major college conferences. Sometimes, it won’t tell you much of anything new. Just skim over those cases. It only takes a second to read, less to skim.

SEC

Florida (-14.5) beat Oklahoma 85-63 (12-7)

LSU (-2.5) beat South Carolina 81-67 (13-7)

Mississippi State (-2.5) beat Texas A&M 70-54 (9-8)

What do you see there? Florida did most of its work from three-point land. But, a lot of garbage time in that one. LSU did MORE than its scoreboard margin work from far away. And, if you’ve been following the league, you know that 13 is a lot of makes for a crappy team like LSU. That feels much more like a “lucky” win/cover (in terms of a bad team playing over its head) than a statement victory. Mississippi State impressed in “real basketball” with a blowout victory that wasn’t fueled much by trey differential.

In one extra second of glancing, you know A LOT more about LSU’s victory…and then about Mississippi State’s victory. Bang for your buck!

Big East

Connecticut (-8.5) beat Villanova 66-59 (4-8)

Marquette (-18.5) beat Seton Hall 80-56 (9-4)

Xavier (-7.5) beat Butler 76-63 (8-6)

UCONN almost covered despite only making four treys. There was a lot of grumbling on X (formerly twitter) when UCONN fell behind in that game. Everybody loves to blast that arrogant coach! (Me too, honestly…everyone would be anti-smugness and anti-arrogance if it didn’t sell so well.) If the Huskies won a game by 7 while losing treys by 12 points…that means plus 19 points in 1’s and 2’s. Still an impressive UCONN performance, even if it doesn’t look that way on the final scoreboard. Trey notation adds some context to the result (and helps explain why UCONN struggled to score much of the night).

Big 10

Michigan State (-4) beat Purdue 75-66 (4-9)

Wisconsin (-4) beat Illinois 95-74 (10-10)

Minnesota (+11.5) beat UCLA 64-61 (8-6)

Can’t you see Izzo’s coaching for Sparty? Important win over a quality opponent despite making only four treys. Real basketball! Smash mouth, even. Sparty was plus 24 points on 1’s and 2’s. Great result for Wisconsin too. A 21-point win even though treys were a wash. For Minnesota, its “upset” may have gotten over the top from those six extra points on treys. Certainly a clean cover.

Big 12

TCU (+7.5) beat Texas Tech 69-66 (6-9)

Iowa State (-19) beat Colorado 79-65 (10-4)

Utah (-11.5) beat Arizona State 80-65 (11-8)

BYU (-3) beat Kansas 91-57 (14-9)

Great upset for TCU against a talented opponent. Owned the paint. Kansas was obliterated in all facets. Lost treys by 15 points, everything else by 19.

ACC

Pittsburgh (-11) beat Syracuse 80-69 (10-14)

Boston College (+1.5) beat Virginia Tech 54-36 (3-3)

I guess that 3-3 jumps out more than anything. Rare to see a current-day game have such lousy three-point shooting/low volume. I don’t know anything about BC or VT this season. I sure wouldn’t expect much from them in a big game after seeing that.

How about Pitt! Won by 11 points despite getting outscored by 12 on treys. That’s plus 23 points inside the arc…helping to explain why the Panthers were such big favorites to begin with. Syracuse needed a bit of a trey miracle just to push expectations. Orange will look really bad when treys aren’t falling like that.

At worst, this kind of shorthand is no harm, no foul. If it doesn’t add much context, you only spent a split second glancing anyway. But…those extra split-second glances per game probably added minutes of understanding. And, if you knew stuff about the teams entering the night…you’d have an even better sense of what was normal and what was an outlier. (SEC followers know that’s five straight games with double digit makes for Florida).

I like this a lot. I’m under no illusions that wire services or other news providers will start doing things this way. I’ll keep playing around with it on these pages. Can’t promise anything. Takes awhile to look up all the trey counts. I don’t always have those “awhiles” floating on the daily schedule. When I do, I’ll try to do NBA and the major conferences. Would certainly seem manageable for March Madness.

If any of YOU are content providers who think this would be interesting to add to YOUR output, let me know and I’ll link this audience to your reports.

Thanks for reading this bonus quickie. See you again soon.