Skip to main content

Why I Was Gone and Why I'm Back

 Hi there. You may remember this blog from many moons ago. I haven't posted anything on here in well over a year, and I've been largely absent from Twitter as well. A lot has happened in that time. I graduated from college, got a job (working in basketball funnily enough), and lived in Atlanta for a few months. During that time, I almost completely fell out of love with college basketball, for a number of reasons. Since I started working a full time job, my free time became much more sparse and I wasn't finding myself wanting to throw on games during that time, preferring to play video games, watch TV or movies, other sports, or just relax and do nothing. I was basically down to watching just Syracuse games, along with a maybe one or two others during the week. Part of it was this very blog. I felt an obligation to watch as many games as I could, be an expert on all the teams, have opinions on every player. Watching college basketball started to feel like work. I felt like I couldn't miss any big games and needed to be watching college basketball from 6-12 every night. Beyond that, the transfer portal made college basketball a year round endeavor, and keeping up with ever-changing rosters was its own challenge. Much has been made of the portal and I want to be 100% clear: I like the portal. I'm all for ease of player movement and these guys making money through NIL. I think it is great for the players and that's the most important thing in my mind, the players make this sport what it is. However, from my end, tracking who was going to be playing where made the work needed to be prepared for the season arduous, and in order to to be as prepared as I wanted, it took a ton of effort, even when there were no games on. All of this and more led to me just wanting no part of college basketball recently. So you may be wondering why I'm writing this at all. Well, it's March Madness time. And there is nothing more fun that reignites my passion for college basketball quite like these few weeks in March and April. It is the best sporting event of the year, period, and I'm going to be locked in on it throughout the tournament. Will I be writing? I have no clue. I'll probably be tweeting. I do have to say, it's daunting to reengage like this. I haven't been watching and already don't recognize a large portion of players. I don't know what my future holds. I just know that I'm loving watching college basketball again. 

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Virginia Season Preview

2022-23 Record: 25-8, 15-5 ACC (1st) Coach: Tony Bennett, 15th Season Departures: Armaan Franklin, G (Graduation) Jayden Gardner, F (Graduation) Kihei Clark, G (Graduation) Ben Vander Plas, F (Graduation) Kadin Shedrick, C (Transfer) Francisco Caffaro, C (Transfer) Isaac Traudt, F (Transfer) Arrivals: Dante Harris, G (Transfer from Georgetown) Andrew Rohde, W (Transfer from St. Thomas) Jacob Groves, F (Transfer from Oklahoma) Jordan Minor, F (Transfer from Merrimack) Elijah Gertrude, G (Freshman) Blake Buchanon, F (Freshman) Anthony Robinson, C (Freshman) Projected Starting Lineup PG: Reece Beekman SG: Isaac McKneely SF: Andrew Rohde PF: Ryan Dunn C: Jordan Minor Roster Breakdown The Cavaliers have won the ACC regular season championship in four of the last six years, and Tony Bennett will be hoping to maintain that level while losing some program stalwarts, like Kihei Clark  and Jayden Gardner . Four of the five starters from last season have departed the program, but point guard ...

Top 25 Breakdown 1/28/19

It was another exciting week in college basketball, with the SEC/Big 12 Challenge providing some excellent game, and conference play continues to go on. We are slowly but surely approaching Selection Sunday, which is both exciting and disappointing, but I have my updated as I really think I'm starting to get a good feel for where a lot of these teams are going to be for the rest of the season. As always, I'm always down to discuss my rankings and all things college basketball on Twitter @ThreePointRange, so be sure to let me know your thoughts. Top 25 1. Tennessee (1) Record: 18-1, 6-0 Last Week: W 88-83 (OT) @ Vanderbilt, W 83-66 vs West Virginia This Week: 1/29 @ South Carolina, 2/2 @ Texas A&M 2. Duke (2) Record:17-2, 6-1 Last Week: W 79-64 @ Pittsburgh, W 66-53 vs Georgia Tech This Week: 1/28 @ Notre Dame, 2/2 vs St. John's 3. Virginia (3) Record: 18-1, 6-1 Last Week: W 68-45 vs Wake Forest, W 82-55 @ Notre Dame This Week: 1/29 @ North Carolina State...

Southland Tournament Preview

Season in Review Ranking fourth to last in KenPom's conference rankings, the Southland has very little to offer, especially after you consider what happened to Stephen F Austin. In one of the most shocking seasons in the nation, the Lumberjacks, a perennial power in the conference who have made four of the last five tournaments, struggled to a 7-11 conference record including losing their last four, and missed out on the conference tournament. Stepping up in their absence was Sam Houston State, and the Bearkats rolled through the conference, going 16-2 and winning the league by two games. Bracket Contenders Sam Houston State  (21-10, 16-2) The Bearkats have quietly been one of the more consistent mid-major programs under coach Jason Hooten, winning double digit conference games every year since 2014, and 20+ games every year but one in that span. However, that has coincided with Stephen F Austin's dominance of the conference, and especially the conference tournament...