Man, college basketball season is right around the... - Stuckinstasis

Oct 23, 2009
Man, college basketball season is right around the corner. All of my favorite writers are surfacing again to offer their thoughts and insights on the coming months of action. The deeper I get, the more I realize that the college basketball blog-and-website writers are quite interconnected. This guy references that guy, these folks link to those folks, and those people collaborate with these people. It is quite amazing and not unlike the respect-laden world of punk rock webzines. I miss those days - working with competing websites to give the fans a better glimpse into a world we were fortunate enough to have access to. With the exception of AP.net, all of us worked together; we linked to stories and reviews, we e-mailed each other to give props for a particularly awesome piece, and we picked each other up after our various ventures would fail or need revitalization. Most importantly, we came together as a community on a message board which still lives today, but in a largely different state with a lot of the old-timers nothing more than lurking in the distance. I long for those days and often wonder if I could ever again find the time to try to break into this group of writers, perhaps with something I’ve been sitting on for far too long. I know the readers are out there (heck, all it takes is a simple link), but I don’t want to start something without being entirely committed. And, let’s face it, there’s no heaping pile of CDs or concert tickets waiting to compensate me like in the glory days of music reviewing (2002-2006, roughly). No, I sit here with a dream of getting to know the RTC masters, the Katz’s, the Eamonn Brennan’s, the Winn’s and Goodman’s, and, alas, the Whelliston’s. With the experience in punk rock, I have little doubt that it could happen with the right amount of work, but as you grow older priorities change. When I was a 15 year-old runt writing about bands in my living room, I fooled the upper-echelon of twentysomething punk writers into thinking I was a seasoned vet, well worn on the punk show circuit, a handful of Warped Tour memories under my belt…when in fact I had not once been to a show. I so often concealed my age and spent tons of money “catching up” with all of the early punk and emo acts I had missed out on on the account of still being a kid because you can’t get free CDs from labels if the CDs came out five years ago. With basketball, I have that frame of reference, but it was not until last year that I truly delved into the depths of the game and its intricacies. The nature of college hoops truly reveals itself during the summer, where one can learn about off-season programs, recruiting, and…the NBA Draft. The summer is where the legend of John Wall was born; and perhaps now, with his eligibility in question, is where his legend will fall a bit. It was a pleasure following along in the summer months for the first time, but it only increased my desire to get in on the action myself. But in order to standout, you have to work hard. And have time. Neither of which I can say I am willing to do at this moment. Oh well, at least I got a brief essay out of the idea.

Man, college basketball season is right around the corner. All of my favorite writers are surfacing again to offer their thoughts and insights on the coming months of action. The deeper I get, the more I realize that the college basketball blog-and-website writers are quite interconnected. This guy references that guy, these folks link to those folks, and those people collaborate with these people. It is quite amazing and not unlike the respect-laden world of punk rock webzines. I miss those days - working with competing websites to give the fans a better glimpse into a world we were fortunate enough to have access to. With the exception of AP.net, all of us worked together; we linked to stories and reviews, we e-mailed each other to give props for a particularly awesome piece, and we picked each other up after our various ventures would fail or need revitalization. Most importantly, we came together as a community on a message board which still lives today, but in a largely different state with a lot of the old-timers nothing more than lurking in the distance. I long for those days and often wonder if I could ever again find the time to try to break into this group of writers, perhaps with something I’ve been sitting on for far too long. I know the readers are out there (heck, all it takes is a simple link), but I don’t want to start something without being entirely committed. And, let’s face it, there’s no heaping pile of CDs or concert tickets waiting to compensate me like in the glory days of music reviewing (2002-2006, roughly). No, I sit here with a dream of getting to know the RTC masters, the Katz’s, the Eamonn Brennan’s, the Winn’s and Goodman’s, and, alas, the Whelliston’s.

With the experience in punk rock, I have little doubt that it could happen with the right amount of work, but as you grow older priorities change. When I was a 15 year-old runt writing about bands in my living room, I fooled the upper-echelon of twentysomething punk writers into thinking I was a seasoned vet, well worn on the punk show circuit, a handful of Warped Tour memories under my belt…when in fact I had not once been to a show. I so often concealed my age and spent tons of money “catching up” with all of the early punk and emo acts I had missed out on on the account of still being a kid because you can’t get free CDs from labels if the CDs came out five years ago.

With basketball, I have that frame of reference, but it was not until last year that I truly delved into the depths of the game and its intricacies. The nature of college hoops truly reveals itself during the summer, where one can learn about off-season programs, recruiting, and…the NBA Draft. The summer is where the legend of John Wall was born; and perhaps now, with his eligibility in question, is where his legend will fall a bit. It was a pleasure following along in the summer months for the first time, but it only increased my desire to get in on the action myself. But in order to standout, you have to work hard. And have time. Neither of which I can say I am willing to do at this moment. Oh well, at least I got a brief essay out of the idea.

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