An Announcement

Moving on from Hoop Vision.

Back in the summer of 2018, I restarted Hoop Vision with the intention of turning it into a full-time business.

From a content perspective, the idea was to cover college basketball in a way that few were doing — especially on a national scale — around the country. From a business perspective, however, the idea was much less solidified.

I had real doubts that there would be enough interest in national-focused coverage of college basketball X’s and O’s and analytics. In fact, here’s an email I sent to three national media figures, just months before the Hoop Vision launch. (I also wrote about this email in a newsletter from 2020 about the HV business.)

Over six years later, I’m happy to report that it was in fact possible to make a full-time living by running a paid newsletter. Since launching in September of 2019, this newsletter has been my biggest source of income.

I also learned that even nerdy basketball content has the ability to go viral when packaged correctly. “The Team That Doesn’t Dribble” — a 12-minute video on Bellarmine’s motion offense — now has just under 2.7 million views. As a result, ad revenue from YouTube videos emerged as a solid secondary source of income.

Between your generous support of this newsletter (many of you have been subscribers since day one) and ad revenue, I’ve been able to make a good living off of basketball analysis for years now. I am extremely grateful to you for that opportunity.

However, if you haven’t been able to tell based on the tone of this writing, changes are coming. I will no longer be writing this newsletter or focusing on Hoop Vision moving forward.

It was a tough decision to make. The 2023-24 season was my best yet in terms of newsletter growth. From the start of the season to the end of the season, paid subscribers increased by about 44%. The business was still healthy.

But on the other hand, coming up with new content and research has been significantly harder in the past couple years as opposed to when I first started. Simply put: I felt like I was running out of ideas. It’s the main reason why my output has been so low the past two off-seasons.

I’m very proud of what Hoop Vision became over these past six years, but in the end it was the right time to make a move.

What does this mean for your subscription/payment?

I’ll be working with Substack to issue prorated refunds for all Hoop Vision subscribers. For example, let’s say you bought an annual subscription to HV six months ago. In that case, you will get 50% of your $100 payment refunded back to you. Please allow some time for this refund to occur, but I can be reached at hoopvision68@gmail.com if you have any questions.

Will you have access to my old work?

The YouTube channel isn’t going anywhere. My existing catalogue of videos will remain on the internet for all to view. However, my pay-walled newsletters will no longer be available publicly once this change is finalized. If there is a particular newsletter you would like to access, send me an email and I should be able to make that happen.

What’s next for me?

I can’t say quite yet, but you will likely find out soon enough. Unlike six years ago, I’m making this move with a next step lined up.

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I would like to again issue a sincere thank you for not just consuming my work these past six years, but also financially supporting it. I truly couldn’t have done this for as long as I did without you.

By finding a loyal group of subscribers, I was able to cover the sport in a way that wouldn’t have been possible if I was solely chasing advertising dollars. I can’t thank you enough!