All the games in the 2021-22 NCAA college basketball season are worth watch, each game offers different intensity depending on the season stage. Basketball fans say that college basketball games are more entertaining than the regular season in the NBA. But college basketball games only last 40 minutes, far less than the 96 minutes a professional NBA game can last.
Players in college programs in the NCAA play two halves divided into 20 minutes each. Another important difference with the NBA is the shot clock, in college basketball players have 30 seconds to try to score, while in the NBA the shot clock has 6 seconds less.
It is very rare for NCAA basketball teams to score 100 points or more in a game, the games are so intense that the defenses are faster than in a NBA professional game. Coaches teach players how to move faster in a high run 40-minute NCAA basketball game.
Is 40 minutes enough for a college basketball game?
Both halves last 20 minutes each, but that doesn’t mean the game is going to end in exactly 40 minutes. The NBA and NCAA games have some similarity in terms of the duration of the events since in both categories, professional and college, games can last up to 2 hours or more including television breaks and team timeouts.
The halftime between each half does not exceed 15 minutes in NCAA basketball, the same amount of time applies to the NBA. In the NCAA the two halves are played with the same intensity unlike in the NBA where usually the second half is a little more entertaining than the first.