Taking it to the hoop — to score the basketball

AS BASKETBALL “grows” and “evolves” with TV’s sideline replay review monitors’ help, its stupefying new normal asks that we just sit there, blankly staring at the insufferable.

Although the final 1:36 of Tuesday’s Maryland-Penn State on Big Ten Network was never closer than six points, it lasted a brutal 12 minutes.

The next game on BTN, IllinoisNorthwestern, had to be picked up five minutes in — but in plenty of time for analyst Jon Crispin to tell us that Northwestern guard Bryant McIntosh must “concentrate on scoring the basketball.”

At 21-15, Illinois, midway through the first half, play-by-player Dave Revsine noted that in spite of Northwestern’s slow start, “It’s still a two-possession game.” Quick, shoot two 3s!

Geno Auriemma’s Connecticut women’s team had it won extra early Tuesday on SNY. They led Cincinnati, 89-38, with 7:40 left.

Still, Auriemma must have been worried UConn’s No. 1 ranking and winning streak were in peril, as he played his starters a minimum of 29 minutes each. Among the 10 young women he played, one — a senior described in player profiles as a superior student — first entered with two minutes left and UConn up, 94-46. He does such a lot. Stat of the Week: As was widely reported and repeated, the Falcons, when up 25 in the Super Bowl, had a 98.7 percent to win.

Although Mike Francesa concluded the Patriots thus had only a “2.3 percent chance to win” (I’m not good at carrying the one, either), that this football genius found the stat so significant as to be worth repeating is telling.

This stat tells us there are no variables in games; they’re all alike, including the coaches ( Bill Belichick or Rex Ryan) and quarterbacks ( Tom Brady or Mark Sanchez).

So now the knee-jerk, foresight-deprived folks at Major League Baseball are considering the removal of standard elements of baseball to speed the pace of games — again trying to cure the indolent pace their bright ideas helped create.

Hey, Rob Manfred! Here’s an idea that wouldn’t mess with the game: Eliminate just 30 seconds of commercial time per inning.

What’s that? Can’t be done? Why? Oh.