Dear NYC Buckets readers,
When I first started this website back in March 2011, it was a way to connect with a city and an area I was moving back to after a number of years away. It allowed me to keep doing something that I loved, covering college basketball, in a new city. It was a passion project.
What I didn’t expect is that I would still be writing on that site seven years later. I also didn’t expect I’d meet and have the chance to work with so many great writers. Ryan Restivo and Ryan Peters helped to really get the site going in the early days. Kevin Whitaker came on and took our coverage of the Ivy League to another level. Vincent Simone has stepped up to become a go-to voice for the MAAC and Long Island. Ray Curren has traveled all of the Northeast for us since the end of The Mid-Majority. Nelson Castillo came on this season to add another veteran NEC voice to our coverage. There have been so many other writers, such as Sam Blum and Matt Giles, who have contributed and made the site better.
It has been a great run. We’ve had more than 2 million visitors to the 3,500 plus posts that have gone up during that time. In fact, yesterday we set a site record with more than 60,000 page views. We’ve covered leagues like the NEC, MAAC, and Ivy League in a way almost no other sites on the internet do (though shout out to A Daly Dose Of Hoops and Ivy Hoops Online). We’ve covered buzzer beaters, CIT championships, NIT bracketology, NCAA tournaments, and heartbreak every March.
During those seven years, our lives have also changed. I’ve gotten married, found a job in media, and turned a lot of the reasons I love writing NYC Buckets into a full-time career. (I don’t cover college basketball, but I do use data for reporting in lots of fun and interesting ways.) Other writers have had significant life changes too: moves, children, and more.
We’ve continued to cover games, but there’s less time and with it less of an opportunity to write about this game we love. And that’s why the 2017-18 college basketball season will be the last one for NYC Buckets. We’ll keep our coverage going until every team we cover is eliminated from every piece of the postseason. After that the site will still be accessible (at least for a while, we’re still figuring out the details), but there will be no new content.
There are so many people who helped make this a successful run. (I will list a bunch shortly.) But first I’d like to thank you, the readers. It was your eyeballs, questions, Twitter debates, and ideas that kept us coming back and writing more. I hope you’ll stick with us through this final crazy month of the season.
And now for those other thank yous.
Thank you to all the coaches who have taken the time to talk to us. We’d personally like to thank Jim Engles, Kyle Smith, Glenn Braica, Bashir Mason, Jack Perri, Jim Ferry, Jeff Boals, Steve Masiello, Tim Cluess, Rob Krimmel, Tim O’Shea, Jamion Christian, Andy Toole, Greg Herenda, Howie Dickenman, Anthony Latina, Donyell Marshall, Derek Kellogg, Steve Pikiell, John Dunne, Tom Moore, Baker Dunleavy, Sydney Johnson, Jimmy Patsos, Mike Maker, Reggie Witherspoon, and all the assistants we’ve had the opportunity to chat with.
Thank you to the sports information directors. They are some of the unsung heroes in college athletics. Dave Gansell, Michael Kowalsky, Thomas Chen, Brian Morales, Brian Beyrer, Stephen Gorchov, Kevin Ross, Pete McHugh, Catherine Snedecor, Dan Lobacz, Stephen Dombrowksi, Joe DiBari, and everyone at the MAAC, NEC, America East and Ivy League offices opened their schools and leagues to us.
Thank you to the local media. I’ve really enjoyed getting to know the entire New York scene. I appreciate that Zach Braziller, Howie Kussoy, Jerry Beach, Josh Newman, Jerry Carino, Tony Graham, Roger Rubin and Adam Zagoria welcomed the site to NYC. Thank you to Jaden Daly, Norman Rose, Russell Steinberg and the entire team at Mid-Major Madness for keeping us on our toes. Thank you to the national writers, John Gasaway, Ken Pomeroy, Kyle Whelliston, Matt Norlander, Rob Dauster, Troy Machir, Raphielle Johnson, Patrick Stevens, and Andy Glockner, for promoting our work to a larger audience. (Also, a special shoutout to “CBB Analytics Twitter” — I hope you know who you are.)
Finally, thank you to all the players who let us tell their stories. It was a privilege to share your talents with the world.
I hope you enjoy the final month of the season together with us.
We all still love college hoops, especially the mid-major game. If you ever want to chat find us on Twitter.
Thanks again,
-John, NYC Buckets Editor in Chief
NYC Buckets Archive 
Say it ain’t so!! My son is about to turn 14 and he’s been reading this site for the past 5 years and it has developed his love of the MAAC and NEC. We now never miss a MACC tournament and make the trek to many MAAC and NEC gyms because we love the mid major game so much.
Life changes are something that can eat away at your time so nobody can fault you, but we will miss you and tremendous coverage of the game.
On behalf of my son we thank you for all the information, stories and predictions you have posted over the years and we wish you nothing but the best of luck in the future.
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God Speed!!! Thank you for provide a forum and a voice for us NEC and other Mid-Major fans of the East! The site was treasured by us and will be missed!
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You had a great site and gave mid majors, the NIT and smaller college basketball tournaments a voice they needed. You will be missed.
Note: Final opinion on the CBI and CIT.
– The CBI still fills its brackets but the number of teams with losing records seems to be increasing.
– The CIT started with 32 teams, last year had 26 and this year looks like 20
Do you think there is still a future for these tournaments? Good mid-majors that are not invited to the NCAA and NIT do not seem to be embracing them.
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I’ll miss this site a bunch, John. You did it right.
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Thanks so much for all of your hard work and time that made following the NEC so much more enjoyable. All the best to you and your crew.
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Will really miss the site at tourney time.
Thanks for your hard work and always timely responses.
Godspeed.
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Thank you for all your coverage over the years. I really appreciated your coverage of the NEC as there are not many places to go for NEC information. Good luck with your future endeavors !!
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Great job and thanks.
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Thanks so much you guys will be missed!
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This is disappointing to hear. Hopefully somebody/something else can step up to fill the void. All the best in your future endeavors. Enjoyed your website immensely the last several years.
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Thanks for all the coverage over the last few years! It was unrivaled in terms of NEC news and opinions. I’ll miss reading all of the season previews and awards predictions posts. Good luck to all!
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Much much goodwill sent your way.
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John-
thank you for all your efforts over the past 7 years. wishing you the best of luck in all your future endeavors.
NYC Buckets will be missed by many.
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NYC Buckets ( Big Apple Buckets )
You have no idea how much you will be missed !
Your Readers Thank You !
The NEC Thanks You !
And I Thank You !
Good Luck, Great Job ! Thx
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Guys,
Hate to see you go, but we are all so very grateful for your fantastic coverage of non-Power 5 basketball. Your coverage of the Ivy League was terrific and will be missed, especially at this time of year!
Best of luck to you all on your journeys.
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Thank you for all you have done. While not really local to the northeastI have tuned in to this steevery year for NIT bracketology and even asked a question here and there. Your hard work not being there will most certainly leave a void in the coverage of the game at the level we embrace.
I do have one question pertaining to the future. I have seen you mention that you are one of just a handful of NIT bracketologists. Do you have a suggestion on where people like me can turn next February and March?
Thanks again for all you have done and best of luck in all of your future endeavors.
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I’m still debating whether I will do NIT bracketology next season at another site (without all the other commitments). But whether I do or not, I would recommend checking out All Things NIT: https://allthingsnit.wordpress.com, which is a new site on the scene. Also, Bracket Project posts an NIT bracket projection a few times during the season prior to Selection Sunday. http://bracketproject.blogspot.com. And D-Ratings has a bracket that is regularly updated: https://www.dratings.com/predictor/bracketology/
It’s not the nearly 200 people who do NCAA bracketology, but that should give you a nice subset of opinions moving forward.
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John: Is there any chance of salvaging this? To be frank, I really don’t care about any other conferences other than the NEC. I know that both Nelson and Ryan were heavily invested in the covering the NEC (as LIU and SHU alumni, respectively). Is there any possibility of keeping this alive going forward with NEC coverage only? If Nelson and Ryan could contribute occasionally that would be great and that would also allow them to have a personal life. Being a NYC Buckets follower over the years (and a St. Francis Brooklyn fan), I think that a lot of the opinion banter that went on was due to discussions by NEC fans more than any other Conference. So, I think that trying to keep this going as an NEC-centric site might be possible because of that NEC interest. I’d like to hear from some of the other readers as to whether they agree or not. Let’s try to keep this dialogue going if possible. What do you think? Worth a shot?
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Hi Dan,
I really appreciate the note, but unfortunately these last few weeks will definitely be the end for NYC Buckets. (We will have some new pieces before then. I hope to have an NEC piece based off of tonight’s action.) It has been a long time coming and the best for everyone at the site. I’ve really appreciated your commentary and insight into the St. Francis program over the years. One of my frustrations with this season though is that while I was able to watch NEC Front Row, I didn’t make it to a live NEC league game until the tournament. I don’t feel like that’s enough to provide the level of coverage we strive for here on the site. I’m not sure if Ryan will choose to write in a less frequent form somewhere else, but if he does I’m sure we’ll let you know. I would also recommend checking out Patrick Tonero’s work on Mid-Major Madness. He became an important voice for the league this season: https://www.midmajormadness.com/northeast-conference. Thanks again for all your comments over the years!
-John
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I believe that the level of coverage that you guys gave this year, although disappointing, was certainly better than no NYC Buckets at all. Too bad that we readers did not hear about this possibility a bit earlier. Maybe we could have been able to provide a little extra support and resource in order to get you through this. Nevertheless, here’s wishing all of you at NYC Buckets nothing but the best both professionally and personally. Your coverage was certainly appreciated and will be missed. Please let us know if you or your colleagues will be contributing elsewhere. Again, thank you so much for a truly great 7-year run. It was fun!
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You guys were and still are amazing! Relied on your site so much for my Canisius message board and conversely, really appreciated your willingness to share the information I provided through the years in a bigger and more significant venue. Thank you and good luck!
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John,
It was a pleasure to write several articles over the last few years on this site and I hate to see it go but with changes that happen in life, you’ve made your mark on NYC and the beloved MAAC, NEC and Ivy. It was an honor.
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You guys did a great job. You kept us connected to the real insights of college hoops. We will miss you.
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I may turn this into a post, but I wanted to leave a comment here about some of the sites and resources I would recommend checking out to continue following the leagues we’ve covered here at NYC Buckets.
MAAC:
A Daly Dose Of Hoops: http://dalydoseofhoops.blogspot.com (does some NEC coverage as well)
Josh Newman’s coverage of Monmouth: https://www.app.com/staff/19761/josh-newman/
Kyle Franko’s coverage of Rider: http://www.trentonian.com/Staff/540
Ivy League:
Ivy Hoops Online: http://ivyhoopsonline.com
City of Basketball Love (mostly Penn, but smart): http://www.cityofbasketballlove.com
NEC:
Mid-Major Madness (NEC category): https://www.midmajormadness.com/northeast-conference
America East (it is a beat writer world):
Alex Abrami’s coverage of Vermont: https://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/sports/
Mark Singelais’s coverage of Albany: https://m.timesunion.com/author/mark-singelais/
Basically anything Patrick Stevens writes about mid-majors is worth reading. Follow his Twitter feed: https://twitter.com/D1scourse
Jerry Beach is a Hofstra legend: http://defiantlydutch.blogspot.com
I may continue doing NIT bracketology next season, but if not I would check out:
All Things NIT (new, eager player on the scene): https://allthingsnit.wordpress.com
D-Ratings: https://www.dratings.com/predictor/bracketology/
Bracket Project: http://bracketproject.blogspot.com
There’s so many more I could list, but those are some of the best.
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Sad to see it end. It was a great source of data the forgotten Mid-Majors ; MAAC, NEC etc. Thanks again…. Dave Lefeber.
niagarasports.net
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NOOOOOOOO. There are so few places to go to read coverage of the MAAC, and now we have one less. It’s so sad!
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This is a sad day for NEC Fans. I enjoyed all the comments by everyone and I am hoping some kind of Blog can keep us together. Again I thank NYC Buckets for all its greeat work
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Thank you for all of your superb work over the years! Best wishes to you in all of your future endeavors. Cheers!
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