I primarily follow OSU basketball and I wanted to voice my disappointment with 11W's lack of creative, well-rounded, and analytics-informed coverage of the men's basketball team. This is not just me being critical - I like 11W and I want to see it be the best that it can be. So think of this as a friendly intervention!

As a case study in what COULD BE I want to provide some perspective based on how Mgoblog covers Michigan basketball. Here are five examples of their coverage:

2021 Hoops Preview Wrap Up & Predictions - This is a wrap up of their insanely detailed preseason preview coverage. They did a longform framing story for the season itself, an analytics-infused deep dive on every position battle and every player on the roster, a preseason mailbag, a 2-part Big Ten preview/conversation looking at tiers and with a mini-discussion about each team, a schedule breakdown, a podcast episode, big questions / big answers, and then staff predictions. 

Game Preview: Oakland - This is their game preview of the Oakland game. Besides providing all the basic details they also have a lineup card for BOTH teams that is a wonderful quick/easy analytics-heavy cheat sheet on strengths/weaknesses of both teams and all rotation players. They also provide a data-heavy look at Oakland from last season that includes top expected players and even a shot chart. Lastly they feature 'tempo-free' statistics for both when Michigan has the ball and when Oakland has the ball so you can compare Basketball Reference's Four Factors and both defensive and offensive efficiencies. The preview posts end with quick editorial keys to the game and a score prediction.

Early Hoops Takes - A first week of the season free-flowing conversation between the writers that includes discussion of every rotation player and is informed by efficiency analytics - there's an easy flow to this that makes it fun to read and really informative.

The Dickinson Diaries - A deep dive on the early season success of freshman center Hunter Dickinson that includes video clips, strengths/weaknesses, his integration with the broader team concepts, and comparisons to other players. I would love to see this kind of analysis of Justice Sueing, for instance.

The Basketball Graphics - A deep dive explainer of their basketball graphic that is compiled and updated for both Michigan and whoever Michigan is playing. I can't stress how much useful and informative data is in this post - and they use part of the Ohio State graphic from last season as an explainer as well! So I felt really well informed about the analytics strengths/weaknesses of Andre Wesson, EJ Liddell and Justin Ahrens just by reading this graphic breakdown. I mean, seriously, just scroll through this - they identify player archetypes, strengths/weaknesses, team stats, player stats, and more at an incredible level of granular detail. And they offer their favorite sources for this data at the end of the explainer.

I'm sharing this because I want 11W to be the best that it can be - and I'm disappointed by the lack of attention given to the basketball team. Obviously I wouldn't expect 11W to duplicate everything that Mgoblog is doing - but I'd like to see some additional effort and analysis that is data-informed and provides deep dives that show how the team's strengths and weaknesses from the perspective of a basketball expert. I hope this is helpful for the 11W staff.

Mod Edit: Moved to Site Stuff