The 2022–23 NCAA Division I men's basketball season began on November 7, 2022. The regular season ended on March 12, 2023, with the 2023 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament beginning with the First Four on March 14 and ending with the championship game at NRG Stadium in Houston on April 3.
Rule changes The following rule changes were recommended by the NCAA Basketball Rules Committee to the Playing Rules Oversight Panel for the 2022−23 season: Flopping will now result in a Class B technical foul. Previously players called for flopping received a warning before a technical foul was assessed. Conferences (and the NIT) will continue to allow (on an experimental basis) the use of live and prerecorded video streams at the team bench. Conferences (and the NIT) who choose to use five electronic-media timeouts in the second half of their games will be able to experiment with a new format for granting those timeouts. Currently, for a game using five electronic-media timeouts in the second half, the rulebook prescribes that four of those occur in the same manner as in the first half—that is, at the first dead ball at or after the 16-, 12-, 8-, and 4-minute marks, or up to 30 seconds prior to those marks in specific circumstances. The fifth electronic-media timeout occurs when the first timeout requested by either team in the second half automatically becomes an electronic-media timeout. Competitions choosing to use this experimental rule will continue to have five electronic-media timeouts in the second half, but those will occur instead at or after the 17-, 14-, 11-, 8-, and 4-minute marks (or up to 30 seconds prior to those marks in specific circumstances), while the first team-requested timeout will no longer automatically become a media timeout.
Season headlines April 20, 2022 Oscar Tshiebwe, the consensus national player of the year in 2021–22, announced he would return to Kentucky for his senior season. He became the first men's national player of the year to announce a return to college since 2008 player of the year Tyler Hansbrough at North Carolina. Jay Wright retired as head coach at Villanova after 21 seasons, ending a tenure that saw the Wildcats make four Final Four appearances, including national titles in 2016 and 2018, and included Wright's 2021 induction to the Basketball Hall of Fame. June 20 – Darius Lee, who led Houston Baptist (now Houston Christian) in scoring and rebounding last season, was killed in a mass shooting at a gathering in Harlem. Lee, a native of the New York City neighborhood, was the only fatality among the nine victims. On October 25, Lee was posthumously named Southland Conference preseason player of the year by a unanimous vote of the conference's coaches. June 21 – Hartford, which started a transition from Division I to Division III in the 2021–22 school year, was announced as a new member of the D-III Commonwealth Coast Conference (CCC; now known as the Conference of New England) effective in 2023–24. The CCC press release also confirmed previous reports that Hartford would leave the America East Conference after the 2021–22 season; the Hawks would play the 2022–23 season as a D-I independent. June 24 – Incarnate Word, which had announced a move from the Southland Conference (SLC) to the Western Athletic Conference (WAC), backed out of this move and elected to remain in the SLC. June 30 – The Big Ten Conference announced that UCLA and USC would join from the Pac-12 Conference in 2024, immediately after the then-current Pac-12 media contracts expired. July 11 – The SLC and Lamar jointly announced that Lamar, which had previously planned to leave the WAC in 2023 to return to the SLC, would expedite this move for the 2022–23 school year. July 15 – The WAC announced that starting with the 2023 editions, its men's and women's tournaments would be seeded via a set of advanced metrics that it calls the WAC Résumé Seeding System, developed by statistics guru Ken Pomeroy alongside WAC officials. Tournament entry continues to be based on conference record. August 3 – The Colonial Athletic Association announced that Campbell would join from the Big South Conference in 2023. August 12 The NCAA, which had previously announced that the NIT semifinals and final would not be held at the traditional New York City site for at least 2023 and 2024, announced the sites for those years. The 2023 final rounds would be at Orleans Arena in Las Vegas, and the 2024 final rounds at Hinkle Fieldhouse in Indianapolis. All games before the semifinals continue to use campus sites. The Indiana University and Purdue University systems announced that Indiana University–Purdue University Indianapolis would be dissolved in 2024 and replaced by separate IU- and Purdue-affiliated institutions. The current athletic program, the IUPUI Jaguars, would transfer to the new IU Indianapolis. August 31 – The Division I Board of Directors adopted a series of changes to transfer rules. Transfer windows were adopted for all Division I sports. Student-athletes who wish to be immediately eligible at their next school must enter the NCAA transfer portal within the designated period(s) for their sport. For men's basketball, the window opens on the day after Selection Sunday and runs for 60 days. Student-athletes who experience head coaching changes, or those whose athletic aid is reduced, canceled, or not renewed, may transfer outside designated windows without penalty. Transferring student-athletes will be guaranteed financial aid at their next school through graduation. September 21 – Houston Baptist University announced it had changed its name to Houston Christian University, effective immediately. The athletic nickname of the Huskies was not affected. October 14 – Conference USA announced that ASUN Conference member Kennesaw State would join C-USA in 2024. October 24 – The AP released its preseason All-America team. Reigning national player of the year Oscar Tshiebwe and Gonzaga's Drew Timme were unanimous choices, joined by Armando Bacot of North Carolina, Marcus Sasser of Houston, and Trayce Jackson-Davis of Indiana. November 2 – ESPN reported that Gonzaga athletic director Chris Standiford and Big 12 Conference commissioner Brett Yormark had met the previous week in the Dallas area regarding a possible Gonzaga move to that conference as a full but non-football member. The report also indicated that Gonzaga had at least some level of talks with the Big East Conference and Pac-12 Conference in the preceding months. November 14 – Albany head coach Dwayne Killings, athletic director Mark Benson, and the university were sued by former Great Danes walk-on Luke Fizulich, who claimed that Killings had physically assaulted him before a game in the 2021–22 season, and had also interfered with his continued enrollment at Albany and hindered his chances of transferring to another school. The suit claimed that the university had decided to fire Killings after the incident, but changed the punishment to a five-game suspension under pressure from local business and civil rights leaders, and charged the university with showing preference to the African-American Killings due to his race. November 17 – During a meeting in San Francisco, the Regents of the University of California, the governing board of the University of California system, set a date of December 14 for a special meeting to make a final determination on UCLA's planned move to the Big Ten. December 14 – The UC Regents approved UCLA's move to the Big Ten. Additionally, conditions were made to mitigate athletes such as investing $12 million in beneficial services including nutritional support and charter flights to reduce travel time. UCLA must also pay the University of California, Berkeley an additional $2 to $10 million due to the move affecting the latter's athletic program, with the precise total being made once the Pac-12 completes its upcoming media rights deal. January 15 – Alabama junior reserve forward Darius Miles was one of two men arrested and charged with capital murder in connection with a shooting early that morning near the Alabama campus in Tuscaloosa in which a woman was killed. February 9 – The Big 12 Conference announced that it had reached an agreement with Oklahoma and Texas that allowed the two schools to leave for the Southeastern Conference in 2024 instead of the originally announced 2025 schedule. Approval by the two schools' governing boards was seen as a formality. March 20 – St. Francis Brooklyn announced that it would terminate its athletic program after the spring 2023 semester. May 10 – Le Moyne announced it would reclassify to Division I from Division II and join the Northeast Conference effective July 1, 2023. May 12 – Western Illinois announced it would leave the Summit League for the Ohio Valley Conference effective July 1, 2023.
Milestones and records During the season, the following players reached the 2,000 career point milestone – Virginia forward Jayden Gardner, Marshall guard Taevion Kinsey, Liberty guard Darius McGhee, Xavier guard Souley Boum, Oral Roberts guard Max Abmas, Coppin State guard Sam Sessoms, Texas guard Marcus Carr, Arizona State guard Desmond Cambridge, Tennessee State guard Jr. Clay, San Diego State guard Matt Bradley, Gonzaga forward Drew Timme, Memphis guard Kendric Davis, LSU forward KJ Williams, Purdue Fort Wayne guard Jarred Godfrey, Indiana forward Trayce Jackson-Davis, Wyoming swingman Hunter Maldonado, Texas Tech forward Kevin Obanor, Wake Forest guard Tyree Appleby, Fordham guard Darius Quisenberry, Penn State guard Jalen Pickett, DePaul guard Umoja Gibson, Texas forward Timmy Allen, NC State guard Jarkel Joiner, Loyola Marymount guard Cameron Shelton, and Furman guard Mike Bothwell.
November 26 – California lost 67–59 to Clemson to start the season 0–7, becoming the first major-conference team in the last 40 years to start a season with that record. The Golden Bears fell to 0–12 before defeating UT Arlington 73–51 on December 21. November 28 – #18 Alabama defeated #1 North Carolina in 4 overtimes, 103–101. It was the second 4-overtime game in UNC history (Tulane, 1976) and the first time Alabama beat a top-ranked opponent since 2004 (Stanford). November 29 – Louisville became the second major-conference team in recent history to have started a season 0–7, losing 79–54 to Maryland. The Cardinals would slump to 0–9 before defeating Western Kentucky 94–83 on December 14. The Cardinals' start was the worst for any team in ACC history. November 30 – Yuri Collins of Saint Louis recorded 20 assists in a win over Tennessee State, setting a school record and tying for the fourth most in a single game in Division I history. December 1 – Antoine Davis of Detroit Mercy became the all-time leading scorer in the Horizon League, surpassing Alfredrick Hughes' previous record in UDM's 75–66 win over Purdue Fort Wayne. December 10 – Antoine Davis became the 11th NCAA Division I men's player with 3,000 career points, scoring 36 in an 82–80 loss to Charlotte to bring his total to 3,001. December 21 – Eastern Illinois defeated Iowa 92–83 on the road as a 31.5-point underdog according to Las Vegas sports books. This was the largest point-spread upset in D-I men's basketball in at least the previous 30 years. January 7 – Virginia defeated Syracuse, giving head coach Tony Bennett his 327th win at the school, breaking a school record previously held by Terry Holland. In the same game, Virginia forward Jayden Gardner grabbed his 1,000th rebound, putting him on a short list of Division I players with both 2,000 points and 1,000 rebounds. January 14 Antoine Davis hit 11 three-pointers in UDM's 87–75 win over Robert Morris to give him 513 career threes, surpassing the previous D-I record of 509 by Wofford's Fletcher Magee.