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Reconciling tempo-free preseason ranking methodologies

Ken Pomeroy and Dan Hanner both released preseason rankings for all (or almost all in the case of Hanner) 347 Division-I men's college basketball teams in the last couple of days. Both are based on tempo-free efficiency data to varying degrees, and both provide endless (and often meaningless) fodder for bloggers like this one and […]

Eshaunte Jones Mounts His Comeback

Remember when Northern Kentucky upset West Virginia last season on a 25-foot shot from junior Eshaunte Jones with 1.1 seconds left? No? Well that happened at a Nov. 4 exhibition game, and Northern Kentucky was playing as a Division-II team. The Mountaineers would go on to beat a lot of quality opponents in their 19-win […]

No surprises in preseason Horizon League picks

The Horizon League today announced the results of its preseason polls at the league's men's basketball media day in Rosemont, Ill., which I attended. Detroit junior Ray McCallum Jr. was selected as the Preseason Player of the Year for the second straight season, despite the fact that last season's Player of the Year, Valparaiso's Ryan Broekhoff, […]

Texas Tech makes it official: Chris Walker will serve as interim coach for season

In a press conference Thursday, Texas Tech, it has been confirmed, will announce what everyone already suspected: Associate Head Coach Chris Walker will take over for the resigned Billy Gillespie as head coach of the Red Raiders on an interim basis. Walker, who was hired last season away from his development, recruiting and scouting duties as […]

DePaul wants to actually play in Chicago: The options

Contrary to what you may have thought you knew about DePaul's men's basketball team, they've been playing their home games for the past 32 years in a Chicago suburb about 15 miles from campus. The Allstate Arena is actually located in suburban Rosemont, and the Blue Demons have struggled to get fans into the arena's […]

Position rankings: Horizon League point guards

The Horizon League has always had a reputation for turning out great point guards. Norris Cole was the pre-eminent example in the 2010-2011 season, and last season there was Kaylon Williams. Only four players in the nation dished assists at a higher rate (with an assist in 43.8 percent of his possessions) than Williams did. […]

Walk-ons to watch 2012-2013

They slip under the radar, and they rarely get headlines, but often they're the hardest-working players on the floor, because every minute, every possession and every point is precious when you're a walk-on. They're usually considered team motivators and men of character that improve team focus. Case in point: Kentucky's Sam Malone. Malone spent his […]

The 189 most followed D-I basketball coaches on Twitter

I attempted to use every method possible for selecting the most verified account for all ~345 Division-I head coaches using a combination of Google searches and Twitter User searches. Still, there are some oddities, like Thad Matta, who seems to have several accounts, none of which seem genuinely verifiable. Still, I pulled together here the […]

What Milton Doyle means for Loyola Chicago

It's been Chicago's scourge for some years now: The city's best recruits inevitably skip town to attend out-of-state schools despite five Division-I programs located within city limits. Milton Doyle's commitment to Loyola Chicago, which was reported last night, is a step in the right direction and an indication that Chicago's colleges may still have some […]

Abilene Christian is quietly assembling a low-major dream team

  They represent five basketball programs from five different D-I conferences, and they've all chosen to spend their final season of eligibility at a D-II school. And while Abilene Christian last week officially announced its move to the Southland Conference and D-I play in all sports, they won't have any part of it since that […]

Life post-Shurna: Can Northwestern maintain their momentum?

Last season was supposed to be the year for the Northwestern Wildcats. After wins over the likes of Seton Hall, Illinois and Michigan State, "Chicago's Big Ten team" was poised for their first NCAA Tournament appearance in program history behind senior John Shurna's third full-time season in Bill Carmody's Princeton-style frontcourt. But it wasn't meant […]

The Horizon League’s Top 15 impact players 2012-2013

With the official start of team practices less than two months away, and overseas trips already over and done with, I took a look at the top 15 impact players to watch in the Horizon League for the 2012-2013 season. My selection process was rigorous but hardly scientific; much consideration was given to tempo-free metrics […]

Can New Orleans’ revived program compete in the Southland?

When Hurricane Katrina struck the gulf coast in 2005, it took with it the University of New Orleans' Division I basketball program. It took a few years, but in 2010 the Privateers, a charter-member of the Sun Belt Conference, withdrew from Division-I play citing a severe lack of financing. Their former conference even voted to […]

Tempo-free made bite-size: Points per player possession

Tempo-free analysis isn't really catching on with traditional media types. But college basketball's so-called sabermetrics are catching on in other places. It's no longer just Brad Stevens and "Internet People" that rely on the enhanced metrics provided by tempo-free analysis, but increasingly large audiences are willing to pay to access such information on as they […]

By the numbers: Is Oakland perfect for the Horizon League?

Starting in 2013-2014 Butler is gone, off to the A-10. But long before the Bulldogs were expected to leave the league, Oakland had already been on the radar for many Horizon League watchers, especially as the Golden Grizzlies basketball team quickly grew from Division II power to budding D-I mid-major performer in the Summit League […]

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