Office hours, April 2023
Provide an idea, but also stick around for a quality video
Hi! Happy April. I’m typing this minutes before I leave to go for my twice-a-week embarrassment session (going to the gym and reminding myself how much better I was three years ago at weightlifting). I shared this on Twitter earlier today:
But something I’ve noticed in the stats for this site is that Twitter really doesn’t generate very much traffic. The majority of views this Substack gets are from the automated emails sent out with each post, which is both a remarkable achievement on Substack’s behalf and probably a wise reminder of how much/little Twitter actually matters to the bottom line.
Still, I’m looking for some offseason content ideas to fill out the next six months with. If I had to estimate it as of now, I have about 3-4 of those months covered with various posts and series I’ve had in mind for a little while. The post schedule should be somewhere around 1-2 times per week, because I think letting this newsletter die for six months would be a terrible idea. (Plus, I enjoy researching and doing work in this sport during the offseason.)
So: I would like to hear from you. What are some ideas or stories you would like to see more reporting or research on, both in the men’s and women’s college game? What’s something you’ve noticed in a basketball game you’d like to read more about? Is there a coach you’d like interviewed? What I can reveal is that I have a couple interviews set up and a what went right/wrong series on some 2022-23 all-stars/no-shows. Beyond that, the basketball world is wide open.
Any idea is an idea I will at least look into, even if it may not end up being written about. You’ll get full credit for the concept in the post, too, which should go without even being mentioned but is apparently pretty hard in journalism. Leave your idea either in the comments here or in an email (statsbywill at gmail dot com) and I’ll at minimum give it a basic look.
As a bonus, for getting to the end of this 350+ word post, here is a video I watched again recently that I’ve found a lot of joy in. I think I need to get to Iowa sometime soon?
best,
WW
This is more of a pre-season thing than an off-season thing, but some sort of roster breakdown for the Lady Vols would be interesting. Especially since they had an empty 2023 signing class, and with Justine Pissott transferring, an empty 2022 class as well. IMO, Harper is going to need to bring a few recruits for 2024 or two seasons from now is going to be rough
How about some deep dives into shooting mechanics, potentially including balance, rhythm, most important muscle groupings, catch height (for catch-and-shoot 3's), pass entry angles or by types (whether a pass outward from in/near the paint vs. a pass from outside the arc (again focused on catch-and-shoot 3's, of course), of maybe some other aspects?
Some deep dives into correlations between FT and 3-pt %-ages, maybe w/ age progressions, to see if there's much of anything predictive to glean there?