The NCAA adopted new changes to men’s basketball June 8 heavily favoring a faster pace and a higher volume of offense.

Division-1 men’s basketball scoring dropped to 67.6 points per game in the 2014-2015 season, which is one of the lowest scoring years in recent history.

Eastern’s men held opposing offenses to an Ohio Valley Conference second best 64.7 points per game while scoring just more than 63 per game.

The NCAA is reducing the shot clock by five seconds this year, allowing teams 30 seconds to get a shot off. This will increase the number of possessions per game, which will likely increase the number of shots taken through 40 minutes.

Eastern experienced a 30-second shot clock this year when it played in two games of the Collegeinsider.com Tournament, which was an experimental change for postseason tournaments in the 2014-2015 season.

This could increase the number of points scored per game, but a drop in field goal percentages could be a possibility because teams may feel a bit more rushed to find a shot or get into their offensive sets.

The Panthers another second best conference ranking defense in terms of field goal percentage, holding offenses under 42-percent shooting. Eastern was also a top-5 conference team for 3-point field goal percentage defense.

Teams will now be allowed just 15 seconds to replace a disqualified player, which is another five-second reduction from the previous allotment.

Coaches will now only be allowed to call timeouts during dead-ball situations, forcing teams to rely on the awareness of players on the court. Teams are being given one less timeout per game going into the 2015-2016 season.

The only experimental rule adopted for the upcoming season is the allowing of six person fouls as opposed to the previous five before disqualification. This rule will go into play during 2016 postseason tournaments, but will not be used during the Division-1 men’s basketball championship.

Eastern won it’s first postseason tournament game as a Division-1 program this past season against Oakland University in the first round of the CIT.

Jehad Abbed can be reached at 581-2812 or Jaabbed@eiu.edu