Are refs behind the NBA's sudden scoring decline?
- - Are refs behind the NBA's sudden scoring decline?
Jeff Tracy and Kendall BakerJanuary 15, 2026 at 6:55 AM
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🚨 Headlines
🏈 Well, that was quick: John Harbaugh and the Giants are reportedly working to finalize an agreement to make him New York's next head coach.
⚾️ Suárez to Boston: The Red Sox have signed LHP Ranger Suárez to a five-year, $130 million contract after the southpaw compiled a 3.38 ERA across eight years with the Phillies. With Suárez off the board, just four of our Top 10 free agents remain unsigned.
🏈 Moore spurns draft: Oregon QB Dante Moore will return to Eugene for his junior season rather than declare for the NFL Draft, where he was considered a potential top-two pick. He'll be backed up by former Nebraska starter Dylan Raiola, who committed to the Ducks on Monday.
🏀 Hoops portal change: The NCAA has shortened the basketball transfer portal to just 15 days following the men's and women's respective national championship games, meaning it will no longer be open during March Madness.
🏈 Class of 2026: Mark Ingram, Aaron Donald and Ndamukong Suh headlined the College Football Hall of Fame's Class of 2026, which includes 18 players and four coaches.
🏀 Are refs behind the NBA’s sudden scoring decline?
(Grant Thomas/Yahoo Sports)
Free throws have suddenly plummeted across the NBA this month, which has consequently suppressed scoring totals and led to a relentless cascade of bets cashing the under on point totals. Are referees behind this sudden scoring decline?
From Yahoo Sports' Tom Haberstroh:
Team trips to the charity stripe have fallen from 26.1 free throws per 100 possessions in October to 24.6 in November to 23.1 in December to finally 21.7 in January, representing a nearly 20% decline from October to January in free-throw rate. The end result is games are seeing about eight points on average being wiped away in the month of January.
In the long run, sportsbooks are quite efficient in predicting point totals and typically see over/under bets cash closely around 50% on either side, just as it had in October, November and December this season. But in the month of January, unders have cashed a remarkable 64.7% of the time, with normally sharp bookmakers wildly underestimating the mark on a nightly basis.
(Yahoo Sports)
The 2024 parallel: This wouldn't be the first time the NBA saw a midseason change in how tightly the games were being called, Tom writes:
In early March 2024, I reported that teams were seeing a precipitous drop in scoring, anchored mostly by a sudden decline in free throws granted by officials. Were officials told to allow more physicality? There were weeks of denials, with the league office discrediting the notion that they secretly decided to let the players play more.
In April, the league changed its tune. After the board of governors meeting, commissioner Adam Silver announced that they had made "a bit of an adjustment" in how the game was being officiated in order to bring more balance. "I think there was a sense earlier in the season that there was too much of an advantage for the offensive players," Silver said.
Translation: The league pulled the strings to give certain advantages back to the defense. Which, by the way, I'm not arguing is a bad decision. The league kept it a secret and didn't tell anyone outside of the referees. Not the teams. Not the media. And sportsbooks were, just as they are now, trying to list accurate over/unders without complete information.
Did the league office make another adjustment on the fly? According to several head coaches and executives, a league memo hasn't been sent out to alert the stakeholders the game was being officiated any differently. But many insiders have expressed skepticism that there is an explanation beyond an officiating alteration like the one seen in 2024.
Read the full story.
🎾 The 100th Grand Slam of the century
(Davis Long/Yahoo Sports)
When the Australian Open begins on Sunday in Melbourne, the 100th Grand Slam of the 21st century* will officially be underway. The first 99, as you may have heard, were dominated by just a handful of men.
By the numbers: The Big Three of Novak Djokovic (24), Rafael Nadal (22) and Roger Federer (20) have won 66 of the 99 men's major titles this century, and the Big Two of Carlos Alcaraz (6) and Jannik Sinner (4) have added 10 more.
Yes, five players are responsible for 77% of this century's Grand Slams, which is hard to even comprehend. Andy Murray (3), Stan Wawrinka (3), Andre Agassi (2) and Lleyton Hewitt (2) are the only other men who've won multiple titles, while 13 have won exactly one each.
How's that compare to the women's side of things? Serena Williams (22) has claimed nearly a quarter of the titles but no other player has won more than seven (Justine Henin), and another nine women have won between three and six.
So, who's going to win No. 100? Odds are very high it will be either Alcaraz or Sinner, who've combined to win every Slam in the past two years, but can anyone dethrone them? Americans Ben Shelton and Taylor Fritz have been knocking on the door for a while; world No. 3 Alexander Zverev reached the final in Melbourne a year ago; and you can never count out Djokovic, who may be 38 (and not in perfect health) but reached every major semifinal last year.
*2000 or 2001? "This century" is usually referred to as starting in 2000, but technically that year belongs to the 20th century. The 21st century began on Jan. 1, 2001.
💯 Big numbers
Indiana coach Bob Knight (L) and players Scott May and Quinn Buckner hold the national championship trophy. (AP Photo)🏆 50 years
In 1976, Bob Knight's Indiana Hoosiers completed the most recent undefeated season in Division I men's basketball. Exactly 50 years later, Curt Cignetti's Hoosiers have a chance to complete the most recent undefeated season in Division I football.
Chasing perfection: Since 1976, five Division I men's basketball teams have gone through the regular season undefeated. Ironically, the next to do so was Indiana State in 1979, led by Larry Bird, who had transferred from Indiana. The Sycamores, though, lost in the '79 final to Magic Johnson and Michigan State. Most recently, in 2021, Gonzaga was 31–0 heading into the title game before losing decisively to Baylor. (via Sports Illustrated)
🎟️ 911 days away
Registration for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics ticket draw opened Wednesday and will remain open through March 18. Tickets will start from $28, and every discipline and session will be on sale. Though the 2028 Games are still years away, a full schedule has already been released.
How it works: The first step in the ticket-buying process involves registering on the LA28 website. Fans who register will then be placed into a ticket draw. If you are selected as part of that draw, you earn a time slot during which you'll be able to purchase tickets.
(Yahoo Sports)🇺🇸 62 of 100
Americans make up 62 of the top 100 highest-paid athletes in 2025, according to Sportico's annual list. But the top 15 includes athletes from 12 different countries, and a total of 28 countries are represented in the top 100.
By sport/league: The NBA had the most athletes in the top 100 (40), followed by the NFL (22), soccer (13), MLB (9), golf (6), boxing (4), racing (4) and tennis (2).
🏀 3 unbeatens
And then there were three. Texas handed Vanderbilt its first loss of the season on Wednesday, leaving No. 1 Arizona, No. 8 Nebraska and unranked Miami (OH) as the only remaining undefeated teams in men's Division I hoops.
Dropping like flies: There were six undefeated teams left entering last weekend before Michigan lost to Wisconsin, Iowa State got steamrolled by Kansas and Vandy took an "L" in Austin.
🏈 Another spin of the NFL coaching carousel
(Giphy)
There will be at least nine new NFL head coaches next season — with the Browns, Cardinals, Dolphins, Falcons, Giants, Raiders, Ravens, Steelers and Titans all looking to fill vacancies. That's one shy of the record 10 new head coaches we saw in 2022.
Here's the wild part: Of those 10 hires from 2022, eight have already been fired.
Bears: Matt Eberflus ❌
Broncos: Nathaniel Hackett ❌
Buccaneers: Todd Bowles (still standing)
Dolphins: Mike McDaniel ❌
Giants: Brian Daboll ❌
Jaguars: Doug Pederson ❌
Raiders: Josh McDaniels ❌
Saints: Dennis Allen ❌
Texans: Lovie Smith ❌
Vikings: Kevin O'Connell (still standing)
Bottom line: The NFL coaching carousel has spun before. It's spinning now. And I can assure you, the NFL coaching carousel will spin again.
📺 Watchlist: Thursday, Jan. 15
The Magic pose in front of Berlin’s Brandenburg Gate. (Garrett Ellwood/NBAE via Getty Images)🇩🇪 NBA in Berlin
The Grizzlies and Magic face off today in the NBA's first-ever regular-season game in Germany (2pm ET, Prime). The two teams will remain in Europe through Sunday, when they'll play the first game in London since 2019.
More on Prime: There's also a star-studded doubleheader in the states this evening, with Kevin Durant's Rockets hosting Shai Gilgeous-Alexander's Thunder (7:30pm) and Steph Curry's Warriors hosting Jalen Brunson's Knicks (10pm).
⛳️ Sony Open
The PGA Tour's 2026 season begins today in Hawaii (12pm, ESPN+; 7pm, Golf), where 120 golfers will compete for a $9.1 million purse at Honolulu's Waialae Country Club.
Headliners: No Scottie or Rory just yet, but the field does feature four of the world's top 10 players in No. 5 Russell Henley, No. 6 J.J. Spaun, No. 7 Robert MacIntyre and No. 8 Ben Griffin, as well as Jordan Spieth, Collin Morikawa, Keegan Bradley and more.
🏀 No. 4 Texas at No. 2 South Carolina
This top-five matchup between SEC heavyweights is quickly becoming one of the nation's best women's college basketball rivalries. The Longhorns (18-1), coming off their first loss this season, were responsible for the Gamecocks' (17-1) only loss so far.
Best of the rest: No. 9 Louisville at No. 23 Notre Dame (6pm, ACC); No. 25 Illinois at No. 8 Michigan (7pm, Peacock); No. 24 Nebraska at No. 15 Michigan State (7pm, BTN)
More to watch:
🏒 NHL: Flyers at Penguins (7pm, ESPN); Maple Leafs at Golden Knights (9:30pm, ESPN)… Philly and Pittsburgh have split the first two games in this season's Battle of Pennsylvania.
🏒 NCAA Men's Hockey: No. 4 Michigan State at No. 2 Wisconsin (9pm, BTN)… The Big Ten has four of the nation's top eight teams, with No. 1 Michigan and No. 8 Penn State joining the Spartans and Badgers.
Today's full slate.
🏈 Super Bowl trivia
Bart Starr drops back to pass during Super Bowl I. (James Flores/Getty Images)
59 years ago today, the Green Bay Packers won the first AFL–NFL World Championship Game, known retroactively as Super Bowl I.
Question: Who did they beat?
Bonus points: What was the final score?
Answer at the bottom.
⚾️ Fantasy baseball is here!
(Grant Thomas/Yahoo Sports)
Yahoo Fantasy Baseball is officially live for the 2026 MLB season! Sign up now and get ahead on making your league plans.
Quick links: Top 250 players | Fantasy Baseball 101
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Trivia answer: Packers 35, Chiefs 10
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Source: “AOL Sports”
