With college basketball season quickly approaching, I wanted to talk about something very important that will be happening this season, The 800 Games Project.
One of the college basketball sites on the Internet, The Mid-Majority is going to change its style a little bit this season and Kyle Whelliston needs everyone that can contribute to offer their impressions, reactions and words to the site this season. Like things Whelliston does, this is going to be an experiment.
But I think it will be successful, because at its heart The 800 Games Project is designed to dig into the soul of mid-major college hoops – exactly what The Mid-Majority was intended to do in the first place. The point of Kyle’s site has been to feel what’s happening around the game, just as much as it is to know who won or lost.
I certainly intend to contribute to the project. (Maybe even on the first night of the season when William & Mary takes on St. John’s.) Personally, it will be a challenge. As someone who so often gets wrapped up in the numbers, sometimes I miss the fact that people, young people in fact, are playing these games. Those people have stories.
That’s why one of the goals for me this season is to concentrate more on those people. Whether it’s a 300-word mini-essay about Bill Herrion in my America East preview or deeper features this season, I want to write more about the people behind the stats. Yes, the narrative will be driven in part by wins, losses, points, rebounds, blocks and steals. But there’s more to it than numbers and this season I want to find that extra piece.
I’m hoping participating in The 800 Games Project can start pushing me in that direction and I hope you’ll join the journey and contribute if you can. I’m sure the college basketball world will be a richer place because of it.
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