The 2026 winner for feature article timing already goes to @cjmoorehoops.bsky.social for his piece on Keaton Wagler a few dozen hours before he goes off for 46 in an Illinois win at Purdue.

The federal indictment handed down last week alleges terrible misdeeds in men’s college basketball that also happen to be very, very old school. The next generation of terrible point-shaving scandals could look different. johngasaway.substack.com/p/embrace-st...

Well into a second decade of being puzzled by play-by-play social media posts. We're all here. We see it.

Second 50 percent of this preface to the season is, sadly, timely.

This staunch popularist has a beef with one of basketball's four factors. After 20-plus years it's still invisible to the casual fan. Let's try points per shot instead. It's equally accurate and maybe a wider population will use it. johngasaway.substack.com/p/extend-acc...

Way early of course. Also: SEC men's basketball is fouling like the 1990s six-foul-experiment Big East. Vandy and Alabama shot 88 free throws in 40 minutes. Overall the game's thriving. Locking in again sport-wide at or under one FTA for every three FGAs looms as one last to-do.

Blocking a field goal, recovering the ball, taunting the opposing sideline on the road as you sprint by, and returning it for a TD is serious badassery.

Calling field goals good or no good constitutes an odd technology lacuna in 2025.

Another 2025 NYT feature in this vein, correct for all I know, said men rarely read fiction anymore. If you're: a) adult; and b) haven't tried it before, Anna Karenina hooks you and locks you down on the first page. The man could write. bsky.app/profile/nyti...

Celebrate the Week 6 AP poll responsibly. johngasaway.substack.com/p/forecastin...

Great piece. www.espn.com/nba/story/_/...

Yes, happy Week 6 to all who celebrate. Emerson was right. We already know more than we think we do. bsky.app/profile/norl...

A rising statistical tide lifts all boats and men's college hoops is indeed more efficient than ever before. That's one small step for a laptop but one giant leap to conclusion that the top KenPom teams right now really are all-time greats. We'll likely be saying this next year too.

Needed the patience of a Pope yesterday. My least favorite Wordle of all time. bsky.app/profile/apne...

The sport just keeps getting better. Today, more offensive boards. Tomorrow, quarters. Day after that: 24 seconds. johngasaway.substack.com/p/the-best-o...

When there's no committee a pre-Thanksgiving showdown like Purdue-Alabama will not only be outrageously entertaining but measurably and predictably important.

Welcome to college hoops 2026! Your eyes are both more and less correct than you think. Roster continuity ain't what it used to be. While we're at it neither are anti-gambling mores. johngasaway.substack.com/p/continuiti...

For Vlad to hit like Vlad and field like Brooks Robinson is just unfair.

Sister Jean was among other things a walking time capsule on the history of the sport. She played the women's game in high school 90 years ago when teams had six players and the court was divided into three sections. open.substack.com/pub/johngasa...

Something I never once said for my first several decades. The Lions are an excellent watch.

Never be tricked into thinking you might care about your alma mater's football team again.

Two cheers for chatbots. johngasaway.substack.com/p/chatbots-c...

The NCAA enforcement era spanned 74 years, from February 19, 1951, to August 15, 2025. johngasaway.substack.com/p/college-sp...

At first sight years ago my pronunciation of WAB defaulted to rhyme with cab, dab, or jab, not mob, sob, or lob. Happy to bow to the usage of the crowd, but let's get clear on this and not have another GIF thing.

Late to this bandwagon but this is irresistible storytelling on a topic so big it can get missed. Somewhere Joan Didion is smiling. www.nytimes.com/2025/07/13/m...

Chatted with Eamonn about some stuff (mostly expansion but also the country folk music scene). Give it a listen! I'm excited about what this group is doing.

With 2 people, it wasn't a roundtable just a table, but nonetheless a fun convo about the merits of expansion, which itself may get tabled for another year.

I hosted a roundtable discussion with everyone who agrees with me that we should expand the tournament. Perhaps you'll be persuaded by what @kenpom.com‬ and I say. If so you'll boost our club's membership by 50 percent. johngasaway.substack.com/p/ken-pomero...

Find someone that loves you the way my very excellent and kind onetime fellow scribes love 68. Did not see this coming when 68 happened.

Good soup-to-nuts rundown by @nauerbach.com on what this historic day means for college sports. www.nbcsports.com/college-foot...

Hope I’m wrong but hate seeing that snap.

In honor of Brian Wilson: BBC all-star cover of "God Only Knows," including Brian Wilson. www.youtube.com/watch?v=XqLT...

The easiest way to hurt your rebounding differential is to force a lot of turnovers.

With posts in the last week on the greatness of editors, econ 101 for NCAA tournament expansion, and James Madison, it's generally acclaimed as leading Substack in the greatness of editors/bracket expansion/Madisonian space. It's free. You should subscribe. johngasaway.substack.com

johngasaway.substack.com/p/bracket-ec....

If it comes to pass this will raise near-universal hackles that may then be forgotten entirely and forever as of the 2026 Sweet 16. www.espn.com/mens-college...

Why men's college basketball has used halves instead of quarters for 70 years (from Miracles on the Hardwood).

Things you learn when you write a book about Catholic college basketball. The Vatican classified the United States officially as "mission territory" until 1908.

Last night straight FG percentage was cited and displayed. It would be good to be accurate about accuracy but TV and the world have spoken. They really don't want eFG. Maybe they'd use points per shot instead (eFG x 2). Let's see. From last year.... johngasaway.com/2024/04/10/b...

A men's Final Four with nothing but No. 1 seeds raises expectations going forward. Literally, albeit slightly. Three weeks ago the assumption was a top seed should win 3.30 games. That number now rockets all the way up to 3.34.

Bit of a Duke finish there from Houston.

You should have to score a point per possession to win the national title. If not, my alma mater wins.

Kelvin Sampson is not old-school. He turns 70 this year and he happens to share an old-school affect with Izzo (yell at and grab your players). But his deviations from "the book" have advanced the sport and spawned imitators. As influential as any chill and cerebral up-and-comer spouting analytics.

Duke offense in five tournament games.... First 187 minutes: 1.39 points per possession Final 13: 0.71

Latest installment in a multi-year series.... The NCAA tournament can be a three-point defense lottery. johngasaway.com/2025/04/04/s...

Justly celebrated and correctly esteemed Houston commits zero turnovers and plays stellar D at an achingly slow 61 possessions per 40. Back in the day when Virginia and Wisconsin did all of the above the Hoos and Badgers were occasionally yelled at for being slow and boring. Progress!

Maybe we've just become more demanding. Ah for 2007, the age of innocence.... That round of 32 was even more chalky than ours. It was taken as proof that "the committee seems to have got it right this time."

Quite the wild true-crime ride yet bite-sized. Two big thumbs up from our casa. www.imdb.com/title/tt3595...

Despite all the chalk one rule of predictive thumb's actually in peril. The last 20 men's national champions were ranked in the Week 6 AP poll's top 12. That run comes to an end in 2025 if Houston wins it all. The Cougars were No. 15 in Week 6 and didn't reach the top 12 until January.