Correlations Drought Impact Influenced Games Conferences Compare Coaching Drought Killers

What's a Drought Worth?

When a team goes scoreless for 3+ minutes, the opponent keeps scoring unanswered points. Drought Impact measures exactly how many points opponents scored during each team's scoreless stretches — a direct read on how much going cold hurts.

Metric: drought impact = unanswered opponent points during scoreless stretch

Tier:AllP4G5Other

Avg Drought Impact

14.2

Avg opp pts scored during droughts

Median Drought Impact

13.6

Half of droughts cost more

Max Single Drought

60.3

Costliest this season

Total Droughts

17,278

2025-26 season

Impact Distribution

Unanswered opponent points per drought. Green = low impact, red = game-swinging.

Who Pays the Most?

Average opponent points scored during a team's scoring droughts (min. 5 droughts this season).

Most Exposed

Highest average points surrendered per drought

Lowest Drought Cost

Lowest average points surrendered per drought

Top 5 teams by avg points surrendered during droughts.

Frequency vs. Cost

Each dot is a team. Right = more frequent droughts. Up = higher average cost per drought. Teams in the top-right are most drought-vulnerable; bottom-left are most resilient. Logos shown for the 15 most extreme outliers.

High frequency + High costLow frequency + High costLow frequency or Low costLeague average

Games That Turned on a Drought

Close losses (≤15 pts) where drought-surrendered points made up the largest share of the opponent's total score. Sorted by points given up.

Team	vs.	Longest Drought	Pts Surrendered	Severity	Final
Northern Arizona Lumberjacks	Montana State Bobcats	4:28	42 pts	Decisive Factor	L 65–76
Stonehill Skyhawks	Wagner Seahawks	6:13	39 pts	Decisive Factor	L 57–68
North Dakota Fighting Hawks	North Dakota State Bison	4:36	39 pts	Decisive Factor	L 62–70
Gonzaga Bulldogs	Saint Mary's Gaels	3:41	39 pts	Decisive Factor	L 59–70
Tennessee Tech Golden Eagles	West Georgia Wolves	4:19	39 pts	Decisive Factor	L 59–61
George Washington Revolutionaries	Florida Gators	3:55	38 pts	Decisive Factor	L 70–80
Maine Black Bears	Rutgers Scarlet Knights	5:38	38 pts	Decisive Factor	L 60–72
UNC Asheville Bulldogs	NC State Wolfpack	4:05	37 pts	Decisive Factor	L 63–75
Nevada Wolf Pack	San Diego State Aztecs	4:34	37 pts	Decisive Factor	L 57–71
Seattle U Redhawks	Pacific Tigers	4:41	37 pts	Decisive Factor	L 58–61

Severity = opponent points scored during team's droughts ÷ opponent's total score. See Influenced Games for severity thresholds and the full game list.

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About This Metric

Drought Impact measures the actual point differential change during scoring droughts. When a team goes scoreless for 3+ minutes, their opponent often scores unanswered points, widening the gap.

This metric shows exactly how many points the opponent scored during each team's drought periods. A drought with 10 points allowed means the score differential worsened by 10 points (team scored 0, opponent scored 10).

This is a direct measurement, not an approximation. It captures the real game impact of going cold — the actual scoring runs that opponents capitalized on.