NEW ROCHELLE, N.Y. — It was after one of Iona’s easiest practices of the season, in which the team spent about 45 minutes working on — gasp! — its halfcourt offense, when Coach Tim Cluess ambled over to a folding chair in the empty gym, crossed his legs and began to enumerate the reasons he disdained the current state of college basketball.

“The product stinks,” he said.

The scoring average in Division I is as low as it has been since the 1950s, and Cluess has about a dozen theories why. He can be cagey about issues surrounding his team, like injuries and the daily particulars, but on the topic of basketball in general, Cluess is not reticent about letting off a little steam.

His vexations include N.C.A.A. rules restricting summer workouts (“Let them play as much as they want”), the nap-inducing 35-second shot clock (“Go 24, don’t go 30”) and the declining skills of players coming out of Amateur Athletic Union leagues (“How many guys can shoot the ball nowadays?”).

But mostly, his blame for the trickling pace of the game focuses on too-zealous coaches unwilling to loosen the grips on their players, which is why Cluess might be considered college basketball’s resident libertarian. The Gaels (24-6) are the only Division I team to average 80 points a game in the last four seasons. And their record over that span is 91-39.