This week marks one year since the launch of Hoop Vision PLUS!
Since launching, we have learned a lot about what it takes to build an independent sports media venture. Some of our original ideas worked, some not so much — but we’re proud to say year one was a success!
In our detailed business update from July, one of the things mentioned was how our coverage has changed over time. The initial gut instinct was to focus on the most popular teams with the biggest fan bases, but Hoop Vision really started to take off after embracing the esoteric.
Which brings us to our preseason content plan…
October is generally the time of year where college basketball media outlets go all-in on rankings. The top teams, shooters, freshmen, transfers, dunkers, duos, young coaches, old coaches…you name it.
It’s not exactly a mystery why: Rankings generate clicks. They bring in a variety of different fanbases and spark (usually spirited) debate. To be fair, there are even some old Hoop Vision rankings buried on the internet from years ago.
But for all their merits, those sort of rankings don’t really fit into the current iteration of Hoop Vision.
So starting on Monday (September 28th), our preseason coverage will focus on depth. Every Monday, we will be publishing a new team preview.
The mission for these previews is to make them both interesting (well, interesting for all us basketball nerds) and informative, even if you’re not a direct fan of the particular team being covered.
These previews are not just an accounting of the pieces added and lost from last season. They will include:
The defining X’s & O’s characteristics of each team/coach
How this year’s players fit into that style of play
How the team fits into the larger context of college basketball
…all grounded in the usual Hoop Vision film study and analytics.
If it’s a team we’ve already covered at length in the past, it will give us a chance to dive even deeper. Just like last year’s: How do you score against Texas Tech?
But we will also cover some teams which may have been underrepresented in our coverage over the past year — starting next week with Villanova. We just finished charting every Jeremiah Robinson-Earl shot attempt from last season in preparation for the ‘Nova preview:
The HV Weekly newsletter will move back to our in-season Friday schedule and remain free for our entire mailing list — nothing changes there.
However, the Monday team previews will be exclusively for our Hoop Vision PLUS subscribers.
For our current subscribers, thank you as always for your support! We will be working very hard to continue to earn that support.
If you are not a current subscriber, we would love to have you aboard! We believe you can’t find our level of depth and consistency anywhere else on the internet.
Hoop Vision PLUS subscriptions are $100/year or $10/month. For coaching staffs, we also offer a group rate.
Cheers to another year!