The Biggest Takeaways from the 2015-16 NCAA Basketball Season so Far

Give or take a game or two, we now sit at the halfway point of the 2015-16 college basketball season.

The season has already given us plenty of memories for the scrapbook. Oklahoma-Kansas' triple-overtime thriller, for instance, UCLA gaining vengeance on Kentucky or Marcus Paige outdueling Melo Trimble in Chapel Hill. 

That's what we've seen. But what have we learned?

As a wide-open field rollicks its way through the winter and into the heart of conference play, what are the main takeaways they carry with them? What are the key forces shaping this 2015-16 season?

Let us now identify and view those forces, and the lessons they've imparted. They appear in no particular order.

Seriously...This Thing Is Wide Open

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Kansas head coach Bill Self

For evidence, you don't need anything more complex than the AP Top 25 poll.

As of right now in Week 10, the 2015-16 poll has included a total of 19 teams in the Top 10 throughout the season, including four different teams in the top spot.

Compare that with the same time period for 2014-15, which saw only 15 Top 10 teams and one (Kentucky) in the pole position. At this time in the 2013-14 campaign, 18 teams had cycled through the Top 10; three different programs had spent time at the top.

Look also to the tendency of this season's top teams to topple. Current No. 1 Kansas fell at West Virginia on Tuesday—the same day third-ranked Maryland went down at Michigan. On Thursday, Michigan State, which has spent more time on top than any other team this season, lost to Iowa, again.

Only one team in the Top 25—No. 10 SMU—remains undefeated.

You get the idea. There is parity and chaos, and it's anyone's trophy right now. And the quality of play isn't too bad, either. Hey, speaking of which...

Those Rules Changes Were Important

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Providence point guard Kris Dunn (with ball)

More points, more assists, more possessions. More everything that makes college basketball awesome. 

The new 30-second shot clock is speeding up the game. As ESPN data miner and independent blogger John Gasaway pointed out (h/t ESPN.com's Eamonn Brennan), those five little seconds saved are having a huge effect.

"An average offense is now scoring 73.5 points per 40 minutes in major-conference play," Gasaway wrote. "This is an 11 percent increase over last season, and anything in this neighborhood would be easily the highest such number I’ve tracked in the decade or so that I’ve been parsing such figures."

But it's not just the shot clock. The elimination of the five-second rule and the wider arc underneath are really loosening things up, as is the stepped-up enforcement of existing rules governing hand-checking and other hallmarks of physical defense. 

According to KenPom.com, fouls are up but so is overall scoring. Team assists per game are way up, and 16 of the country's top 20 scorers are in the backcourt.

Looks like we have a higher-octane game on our hands. That's a rising tide that will lift all boats, especially in such a crowded and competitive field.

The Injury Bug Could Devour Us All

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Michigan State's Denzel Valentine

Into each life, some rain must fall. So far this season, it's a rain of injuries. Just tendons and discolored muscle fibers falling from the sky and flopping on people.

That churn among the nation's elite teams? Parity is the key driver, but injuries have played a supporting role.

At the top, Michigan State star Denzel Valentine missed four games because of minor knee surgery. He doesn't appear to have shaken all the rust off yet, either, shooting just 39.1 percent from the floor in his two games back—well below his 45 percent season average. Both of the Spartans' losses came after Valentine's surgery.

Take Duke, where Amile Jefferson's broken foot and indefinite absence staggered an already-swaying frontcourt. And that's just the first name on the ACC's collective frontcourt MASH unit. Another foot issue is keeping Louisville center Mangok Mathiang on the sidelines from before Christmas until at least late February, and UNC big Kennedy Meeks missed seven games with a knee bruise.

Just a few days ago, Arizona announced that standout Allonzo Trier will miss four to six weeks with a broken hand. It's just the latest blow to a star-crossed Arizona lineup.

Xavier point guard Edmond Sumner is expected to return Thursday from a scary New Year's Eve injury that saw him carried off the court on a stretcher.

The list goes on.

Injuries are an inevitable part of sports, but the nation's better teams seem to be taking it on the chin this season, even harder than usual.

It May Not Be a Mid-Major Kind of Year

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Wichita State's Ron Baker (left) and Fred VanVleet

Fans of the underdog—so, anyone with a pulse—surely enjoyed the mid-major storylines of the past few seasons.

Wichita State's captivating run in 2013-14 ended in the tourney's first weekend, but not before a No. 1 poll ranking and an unforgettable 35-0 record (their first defeat came to Kentucky in the Big Dance).

But they're 11-5 this year and struggling through injury problems—remember I mentioned those in the last slide? 

The Butler Bulldogs, of course, have had their own share of success, reaching the tournament last season and not terribly far removed from their back-to-back national title game appearances. But at 12-4 and dropping down the Big East standings, it doesn't look like there's a ton of Indiana magic in store for Butler this season.

Gonzaga—arguably the mid-major that started this whole thing—is looking good this year coming off an Elite Eight run last season that ended because they played eventual national champion Duke. At the same time, though, they're not looking like a powerhouse, sitting at 13-3 after a bruising nonconference slate. 

Sure, SMU is 15-0 and quietly flourishing under coach Larry Brown down there in the American Athletic Conference. That could have the makings of a nice mid-major type of run. But SMU is ineligible for the postseason, so the Mustangs are out of the picture.

As it stands, the glass slipper is looking like it may stay in mothballs until next winter.

Talent (and Experience) at Every Turn

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Buddy Hield

Unless we see a frisky and targeted meteorite touch down in Louisiana, Ben Simmons will go first overall in June's NBA draft.

But Simmons is just the tip of the iceberg.

Take a look at the Wooden Award watch list, hot and fresh out the kitchen on Wednesday. 

Simmons, who has the every-tool game we were told to expect, is there, and deservedly so. You know who's not? Brandon Ingram, the high-upside Duke superfrosh who is playing well for the Blue Devils—just not well enough to make this watch list.

Oklahoma guard Buddy Hield appears, as does Kentucky freshman sensation Jamal Murray, the only other freshman on the list. Plenty of seasoned players are there, however, and that's in contrast to last year's bumper crop of diaper dandies, as well as the one-and-done domination we've come to expect in recent years.

The veterans are making their presences felt in college, and that's carrying over to NBA mock draft boards.

Sure, the young guns are always going to dominate the lottery, but college non-freshmen take up 39 slots on the latest DraftExpress 2016 mock. Weigh that against the 33 college non-freshmen taken on draft night 2015. Seniors like Hield, Valentine and Michigan's Caris LeVert are solid first-round projections for June.

I won't go through the entire Wooden list, and hey, who knows who will emerge with the hardware? What I do know is there's a deep contingent of talented and experienced players at the college level this year. Enjoy it.

Editor's note: A previous version of this article implied Southern Methodist University could make an NCAA tournament run, but SMU was banned from postseason competition for rules violations. We regret the error.