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Billy Dat
02-05-2013, 04:53 PM
I am always consuming college basketball media on the web and thought it might be interesting to hear what resources, writers and personalities you guys like the best. I’ll start by focusing on some of the national writers with recurring weekly columns that I make sure to check each week, and a podcast I’d like to advocate. I’d be interested in hearing about your go-to sources.

Weekly Review Columns by National Writers

ESPN

Jason King – “King’s Court” – new edition posts every Wednesday
Most recent - http://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/story/_/id/8895166/six-teams-exceeded-expectations-college-basketball
Fun Gimmicks – Weekly report card, all time line-ups from different programs, favorite college town restaurants, Rapid Fire lists
Comment – This is a relative newcomer and King breaks a sweat to deliver a ton of interesting info each week.

Andy Katz – Monday edition of his weekly blog
Most recent - http://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/blog/_/name/katz_andy
Fun Gimmicks – none
Comment – Katz is seemingly omnipresent, and I find him a bit annoying, but he is the face of ESPN College Basketball reporting and the Monday morning lengthy bulleted blog post is usually a great way to get caught up on the weekend action

Misc.
I also read anything Jay Bilas writes and especially like the draft stuff he does every week with Chad Ford. John Gassaway is also an excellent college basketball writer at ESPN.

Sports Illustrated

Luke Winn – “Power Rankings” – posts every Thursday
Most recent - http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/college-basketball/news/20130130/college-basketball-power-rankings/index.html
Fun Gimmick – the extraordinary effort he puts into researching interesting trends and presenting them visually within the piece. He’s very into look and feel.
Comment – Winn basically slid over into the SI College Hoops catbird seat when Grant Wahl started focusing exclusively on soccer. Wahl was awesome – his weekly Mailbag was my favorite weekly college hoops piece – but Winn has carved out new territory and is great in a different way.

Seth Davis – “Fast Break” – posts every Monday
Most recent - http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/college-basketball/news/20130203/fast-break-indiana-michigan/?sct=uk_wr_a2
Fun Gimmick – Weekly “Best of” the week awards, detailed explanation of his AP Ballot
Comment – It’s easy to forget that Seth started as a writer and not a TV personality. I’m not sure I’d be as interested if he wasn’t a Duke alum but I think he does a nice job with the column and it’s always interesting to see how he treats Duke.

Yahoo

Pat Forde – “Forde Minutes” – posts every Monday
Most recent - http://sports.yahoo.com/author/pat-forde/
Fun Gimmick – the column is essentially an annotated commentary on 40 (get it, Forde) players, coaches, teams and trends of note that week. I like the recurring “Coaches who earned their comp car” and “Coaches who should ride the bus to work this week” feature.
Comment – Forde takes lots of shots at Duke but he does it with a smile. As a resident of Kentucky he takes a lot more shots at Big Blue which I do appreciate.

Podcasts –

CBS Sports.com ‘Eye on College Basketball”

http://www.cbssports.com/collegebasketball/blog/eye-on-college-basketball/tag/2020983/podcasts

This is an area where I wish there was more variety. However, CBS Sports.com puts an an excellent podcast hosted by Matt Norlander, a fairly young writer (under 30) who sort of affects a laid back hipsterish vibe while guiding more boisterous voices like writers Jeff Goodman and Gary Parrish (a great, contrasting 3 man combo when they get going), Seth Davis, Doug Gottlieb and even some ESPN guys like Jay Bilas and Fran Frashilla. It is actually shocking to hear paid ESPN personalities on a CBS property, they must be going soft in Bristol. I also read Norlander, Parrish and Goodman on a regular basis.


I also listen to ESPN’s twice a week college hoops pod with Andy Katz and Seth Greenberg. It’s not as good as the CBS Sports.com one, and Greenberg used to really drive me crazy, but he constantly makes fun of Katz which brings me a lot of joy.

sporthenry
02-05-2013, 04:58 PM
I’d be interested in hearing about your go-to sources.


You and this board. I spend more time reading this board than anything else and I figure you guys will link all relevant articles. I still visit ESPN more than I should so I always check in on their page. I really should branch out to SI and CBS but am glad Forde left ESPN.

Wheat/"/"/"
02-05-2013, 05:00 PM
I am always consuming college basketball media on the web and thought it might be interesting to hear what resources, writers and personalities you guys like the best. I’ll start by focusing on some of the national writers with recurring weekly columns that I make sure to check each week, and a podcast I’d like to advocate. I’d be interested in hearing about your go-to sources.

Weekly Review Columns by National Writers

ESPN

Jason King – “King’s Court” – new edition posts every Wednesday
Most recent - http://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/story/_/id/8895166/six-teams-exceeded-expectations-college-basketball
Fun Gimmicks – Weekly report card, all time line-ups from different programs, favorite college town restaurants, Rapid Fire lists
Comment – This is a relative newcomer and King breaks a sweat to deliver a ton of interesting info each week.

Andy Katz – Monday edition of his weekly blog
Most recent - http://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/blog/_/name/katz_andy
Fun Gimmicks – none
Comment – Katz is seemingly omnipresent, and I find him a bit annoying, but he is the face of ESPN College Basketball reporting and the Monday morning lengthy bulleted blog post is usually a great way to get caught up on the weekend action

Misc.
I also read anything Jay Bilas writes and especially like the draft stuff he does every week with Chad Ford. John Gassaway is also an excellent college basketball writer at ESPN.

Sports Illustrated

Luke Winn – “Power Rankings” – posts every Thursday
Most recent - http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/college-basketball/news/20130130/college-basketball-power-rankings/index.html
Fun Gimmick – the extraordinary effort he puts into researching interesting trends and presenting them visually within the piece. He’s very into look and feel.
Comment – Winn basically slid over into the SI College Hoops catbird seat when Grant Wahl started focusing exclusively on soccer. Wahl was awesome – his weekly Mailbag was my favorite weekly college hoops piece – but Winn has carved out new territory and is great in a different way.

Seth Davis – “Fast Break” – posts every Monday
Most recent - http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/college-basketball/news/20130203/fast-break-indiana-michigan/?sct=uk_wr_a2
Fun Gimmick – Weekly “Best of” the week awards, detailed explanation of his AP Ballot
Comment – It’s easy to forget that Seth started as a writer and not a TV personality. I’m not sure I’d be as interested if he wasn’t a Duke alum but I think he does a nice job with the column and it’s always interesting to see how he treats Duke.

Yahoo

Pat Forde – “Forde Minutes” – posts every Monday
Most recent - http://sports.yahoo.com/author/pat-forde/
Fun Gimmick – the column is essentially an annotated commentary on 40 (get it, Forde) players, coaches, teams and trends of note that week. I like the recurring “Coaches who earned their comp car” and “Coaches who should ride the bus to work this week” feature.
Comment – Forde takes lots of shots at Duke but he does it with a smile. As a resident of Kentucky he takes a lot more shots at Big Blue which I do appreciate.

Podcasts –

CBS Sports.com ‘Eye on College Basketball”

http://www.cbssports.com/collegebasketball/blog/eye-on-college-basketball/tag/2020983/podcasts

This is an area where I wish there was more variety. However, CBS Sports.com puts an an excellent podcast hosted by Matt Norlander, a fairly young writer (under 30) who sort of affects a laid back hipsterish vibe while guiding more boisterous voices like writers Jeff Goodman and Gary Parrish (a great, contrasting 3 man combo when they get going), Seth Davis, Doug Gottlieb and even some ESPN guys like Jay Bilas and Fran Frashilla. It is actually shocking to hear paid ESPN personalities on a CBS property, they must be going soft in Bristol. I also read Norlander, Parrish and Goodman on a regular basis.


I also listen to ESPN’s twice a week college hoops pod with Andy Katz and Seth Greenberg. It’s not as good as the CBS Sports.com one, and Greenberg used to really drive me crazy, but he constantly makes fun of Katz which brings me a lot of joy.

The Sporting News.... (http://aol.sportingnews.com/ncaa-basketball)

Great for all sports.

(Ok, full disclosure, they're my bass fishing sponsors, still, they are one of the best sites in sports media.)

Mtn.Devil.91.92.01.10.15
02-05-2013, 05:12 PM
This is a great idea for a thread. I've already seen most of these resources, and there are a few that I will be checking out.

The other one I would suggest, is Shane Ryan at Grantland. (http://www.grantland.com/contributor/_/name/shane-ryan) Many of you might remember his work from "Seth Curry Saves Duke."

He sometimes provides sharp insight and breakdowns, and his affection for Duke is evident.

Go Duke!

Mike Corey
02-05-2013, 05:24 PM
Aside from this board and the Duke sites (TDD and DukeHooopBlog), I try to always catch whatever Luke Winn has to say, and try to avoid whatever Seth Davis has to say.

The rest is just a hodgepodge of what is shared here and on the Twitter.

gep
02-05-2013, 05:24 PM
You and this board. I spend more time reading this board than anything else and I figure you guys will link all relevant articles. I still visit ESPN more than I should so I always check in on their page. I really should branch out to SI and CBS but am glad Forde left ESPN.

DBR. I get all of my info with links from here... :cool:

Wheat/"/"/"
02-05-2013, 05:46 PM
ZagsBlog (http://zagsblog.com/) is good for hoops insight around the northeast. He gets a few scoops on the big sites from time to time too.

NashvilleDevil
02-05-2013, 09:36 PM
It used to be Jumbo. I'm still looking for someone to replace him.

Durham Thunder
02-05-2013, 11:47 PM
Jay-Will seems like he hates working with Seth Greenberg.

davekay1971
02-06-2013, 12:01 AM
Jay-Will seems like he hates working with Seth Greenberg.

Wouldn't you? It's Uncle Fester.

I want ESPN to put Bilas and Williams together for the Jay and Jay Basketball Show. It'd be great - seeing 2 former Duke guys intelligently discussing college hoops, all the while knowing that somewhere the Tarheel and Terp fans are sitting on sweat-stained, smelly, threadbare recliners in their equally sweat-stained, smelly, threadbare tighty-whities and (respectively) Earnhardt/UnderArmour shirts, and throwing their (again, respectively) Natty Light cans/Boone's Farm bottles at the TV in anger.

(sounds painfully weak to say "no offense, Wheat, I don't mean you"...but really, all in good humor, Wheat, and I don't mean you!)

Wheat/"/"/"
02-06-2013, 08:01 AM
Wouldn't you? It's Uncle Fester.

I want ESPN to put Bilas and Williams together for the Jay and Jay Basketball Show. It'd be great - seeing 2 former Duke guys intelligently discussing college hoops, all the while knowing that somewhere the Tarheel and Terp fans are sitting on sweat-stained, smelly, threadbare recliners in their equally sweat-stained, smelly, threadbare tighty-whities and (respectively) Earnhardt/UnderArmour shirts, and throwing their (again, respectively) Natty Light cans/Boone's Farm bottles at the TV in anger.

(sounds painfully weak to say "no offense, Wheat, I don't mean you"...but really, all in good humor, Wheat, and I don't mean you!)

Its all good, but it's boxers, no briefs for me...

About Jay, when I first heard him he was terrible. I thought that there was no way he'd make it as a commentator. But he's gotten a whole lot better and now I enjoy listening to him cover a game.

And BTW, Bilas is still my favorite.

Dev11
02-06-2013, 09:27 AM
Podcasts are much preferred to articles, as I can more easily hide what I'm doing :)

That said, I want to echo praise for the CBS podcast with Norlander, Parrish, and Goodman. It's a healthy mix of basketball from all over the nation and funny off-tangent discussion. In the past month, I've learned plenty about bar-fighting and late night etiquette in Las Vegas that I otherwise would not have.

Shane Ryan used to do a podcast with a few other basketball nuts called "The Walk-Ons," but it ended so that Ryan could pursue another sports podcast that I don't enjoy as much. Too bad.

I've tried the ESPNU podcast but I find the CBS ones better. I think the CBS guys get a little more slack to talk about whatever they want. ESPN sticks more to their script.

Billy Dat
02-06-2013, 10:27 AM
The Sporting News.... (http://aol.sportingnews.com/ncaa-basketball)

Great for all sports.

(Ok, full disclosure, they're my bass fishing sponsors, still, they are one of the best sites in sports media.)

Good call, Wheat. I forgot about Mike Decourcy whose opinion I always value
http://aol.sportingnews.com/ncaa-basketball/story/2013-02-01/march-matters-most-mark-lyons-value-to-be-judged-in-the-tournament

As for those who like Shane Ryan, I have never really been a fan. I appreciate that he is a Duke fan, but I often observe a lack of alignment between what he thinks and what I think, and I find he makes some sweeping statements that ring false, like last year when he said Tyler Zeller was probably the most hated Heel by Duke fans in some time - who felt that way?

On the other hand, I do always read his Grantland colleague, Mark Titus, and his weekly power rankings. This is more of a masochistic exercise because Titus loves to stick it to Duke, but I also think he's funny. It's one of those bad relationships where I keep hoping he'll say something nice and he keeps treating me badly...I'm gonna go see Dr. Finklestein and I'm gonna tell him we have a whole new bag of issues. We can forget about mom for a while.

Billy Dat
02-14-2013, 10:34 AM
Didn't see this one coming...

Dennis Dodd ‏@dennisdoddcbs
Congratulations to http://CBSSports.com 's Gregg Doyel and Scott Miller, both named APSE top 10 columnists. 3 x for Doyel.