Welcome [Back] my Friends To The Show That

The idea of this blog has been bouncing around for me for some years now, with a lot of thoughts that could have gone into something like this hitting the pages of the CAAZone boards instead.  After taking the opportunity to step away from the DAC and the Zone a bit last year I walk into this year refreshed and with a real desire to enjoy Drexel hoops and share that enjoyment with others.  I am extremely thankful for the support this blog has gotten in the first 24 hours from launch, people whose opinions I really care about have been tremendously supportive, which really helps me make the decision to stagger onwards with what should be a collection of idle thoughts, quick reaction, advanced metric* analysis (once we have some games/data under our belt), and general Delaware/CAA bashing.  Once the DAC Pack, always the DAC Pack.

The aims for this blog will be 99% on the court.  While there will be off the court topics spoken of when it’s necessitated, by and large if you want to discuss off the court issues, I’d encourage you to tweet, e-mail or speak to me offline. 

It’s not a secret that I have been a critic of this coaching staff.  This is part of the on the court product, and thru this blog I will continue to comment and ask the questions that I believe need to be asked.  Some of the things that we’re seeing and excited about early this year are things we could have seen last year, but the staff chose not to move that direction, and you can be sure that throughout the year we’ll see things we agree with (getting the ball into the post coming out of timeouts vs UCLA) and disagree with (inbounds plays).  Those items are deserving of commentary, and you will be able to come here to read and discuss them.

With that idea in mind, I would like to attach one lengthy disclaimer to this criticism: The first college hoops team that I ever rooted for was the Marcus Camby led UMass team which featured Assistant Coaches James “Bruiser” Flint and Mike Connors.  This coaching staff came to Drexel the same year that I did, and I was so excited when I learned that they were coming that you would have thought Drexel had won the CAA right then. 

Beyond that fandom, I ask everyone to realize that no matter what criticism was posted on message boards, was shouted from behind the bench, was written about in the school paper or was just said to their face (sobriety be damned), these coaches always pretended not to hear it.  When the ticket requests came in, they looked after the Drexel fans on the road, when we ran into each other at the bar a round was always picked up, and when an e-mail is sent it’s always responded to.  These coaches are not just professionals but also genuinely good guys, examples for others inside the DAC and around the sport.  While I certainly wish that they would move significantly further in the analytics space that was studied in depth by names like Shaka and Stevens, and hope to continue to discuss that through this blog, I will continue to have respect for these men as people, and as the coaches of my favorite team.  I ask that you apply similar respect when criticizing or lauding them in the comments section of Dragons Speak.

So that’s what this is, a space for critical thinking, analysis and most of all enjoyment of Drexel hoops.  I’ll try to get pre- and post- game stories up, but if you’re looking for gamers, you’re in the wrong place.  This is an attempt to catch the trends of the season, revel in the presence of a very talented DU team this year, and enjoy the DU community hopefully in some kind of intelligent fashion.  There’s a ton of really smart people who follow Drexel hoops, and hopefully we can highlight their thoughts all year long.

Over the next week I expect to have a few posts up on what to look for this season, game previews for the PNIT games on game date, and recaps of the general trends that we can pull from those games, so check back daily as the blog begins to get some real content behind it.

Thanks again for joining me, and welcome aboard.