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.
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.