On Wednesday, November 13, 2013 the blog kicked off. Three short, yet very very long seasons ago the topics of conversation were inbounding issues, lack of feeding the post, and how Bruiser & Co were holding Tavon Allen back and needed to play him more.
Two out of three ain't bad.
We've covered the team live from Baltimore to Madison Square Garden to Boulder, Colorado and points in between. The team we were covering was never particularly good, and without significant troublemakers off the court it'd seem hard to have material for 281 posts, yet material has always been there. When it did seem lean, friends and fellow Drexel supporters would always step up and would write on a message board, put up a facebook post, send an email or text at just the right moment to inspire the next post. When real life kept me from the keyboard, guys like Scott Kier, Mark Walush, Ryan Koechig, Eric Resnick, Nate Hemerly or Pamitha Weerasignhe were there in what started as support roles and has developed into much more. And very few words have gone up without at some point being bounced off of great friend and travel partner Bill Treichel.
The Drexel base is the reason this blog exists. But it's the friends that we've made on our travels that are responsible for the majority of the smart stuff you may read here. Sports journalism hasn't gotten easier over the last three years. Newspaper circulations are down. Media budgets are down as advertising dollars are spread thinly throughout the various mediums now available. Suddenly writers aren't being given opportunities to travel to games, radio has been long gone from Drexel, and writers are being asked to do much more with less resources. And when they don't meet the readers standards, they hear about it. Oh, and they also get to compete against bloggers who try to tell the same stories, many times for free. There are easier places to try and make a living.
Despite the challenge that the blogosphere presents, reporters across the CAA landscape have never, failed to respond to one of my emails or messages. When they have information, they share, and they've treated me like one of their own, even taking on a significantly uphill battle to try and make me smart. To those of you who are on the speed dial please know that I'm not just thankful, I genuinely admire you as well. I hope that I can assist other writers like you have for those of us that write for this site.
There are good relationships at the DAC as well. At least a couple of staff members don't even have Dragons Speak voodoo dolls on their desks. Those that do are welcome to keep denying fans a voice, but at some point I devoutly hope someone notes the empty seats that causes. This program deserves to have all voices heard and respected, and the players deserve for those seats to be filled. I still believe that that can happen. We won't always agree, but we can always do this together. While it's true the stands will be full once the program wins, there's no reason for them to be this empty when the program isn't winning.
This isn't just post #281. It's also post #100 for this basketball season. That's 100 posts in 143 days, along with multiple trips out of state and some great and supportive colleagues covering those late shifts at work for me. This kind of time commitment simply wasn't possible to do alone. Not even close. Those that rose up and assisted in any of a variety of ways are the people who allowed all of Drexel fans voices to still be heard on these pages. This year, as much as any other, that mattered.
What we receive in return for these hours, days and weeks of work are experiences and people that we will never forget. Thanks to everyone who has joined us on the trip: writers, readers, coaches and players alike. Thanks to my best friend for having a hot dinner waiting for me when I get home from work, and then disappear to spend the next few hours typing away in the cave. I'm excited for the Zach Spiker era and what this next year will bring here at the Blog, at the Drexel program and for myself personally. It's a great time to be covering Drexel, and it wouldn't be happening without all of you.
