Firing Blanks: No NCAA DI Player Has Averaged 30 PPG in 21st Century

Need an example showing how scoring is down in college basketball beyond the freak set of circumstances in 2008-09 when eventual NBA MVP Stephen Curry went scoreless against Loyola (Md.)? Unsure if it is a byproduct of doomed civilization stemming from eco-fascist climate change, but no NCAA Division I player has averaged 30 points per game thus far in the 21st Century (since LIU's Charles Jones in 1996-97 with 30.1 ppg).

Last year, Eastern Washington's Tyler Harvey (23.1 ppg) finished with the lowest average for the national scoring leader since Yale's Tony Lavelli posted 22.4 ppg in 1948-49. As a means of comparison to an era when scorers flourished, an average of 36 players annually posted higher scoring marks than Harvey in a six-season span from 1967-68 through 1972-73, including a high of 44 in 1969-70 when LSU's Pete Maravich nearly doubled Harvey with 44.5 ppg despite the absence of the three-point field goal.

Glenn Robinson Jr. (30.3 ppg for Purdue in 1993-94) was the only player from a power six league to pace the country in scoring in a 41-year span from 1971-72 through 2011-12 (South Carolina was independent in 1980-81 and TCU was SWC member in 1994-95). Following is a look at the high and low games for players during the season when they led DI in scoring average:

NOTE: Leaders are unofficial from 1935-36 through 1946-47.