Bleeding Orange and Worst Nightmares

I would like to take this time to talk about the recent events at my dad's alma mater, Syracuse University.  Each Syracuse basketball game was like a holiday for the two of us, as we made sure we would always be able to not only watch, but watch the games together.  My dad raised me to be a basketball junkie and to love Syracuse basketball, hence "Bleeding Orange."  The accusations that have come about against Bernie Fine the past week or so, and especially two days ago, have been shocking and humbling.  This has hit me on a personal level, as an avid supporter of the program, I never could have imagined a scandal like this occurring to my favorite program.  Two days ago, ESPN released a recording of a conversation in 2002 between Bernie's wife, Laurie and the main accuser, Bobby Davis, that all but sealed Fine's fate.  The University did the obvious when the recording came public, firing Fine effective immediately.  This circumstance is different than the Penn State scandal for now.  Jim Boeheim adamantly came to Fine's defense last week and has since apologized.  If it comes out that Boeheim and others in the University knew about this problem, Syracuse is looking at an eerily similar predicament to Penn State.

Weekend Watch

I hope everyone enjoyed their Thanksgiving, had some family time, watched football and of course some college basketball.
This is our first Weekend Watch post of the year. We are excited to bring you the fan some interesting and engaging content throughout the course of the year.
This past week featured some of the most entertaining games of the non-conference portion of the schedule. This weekend is a relatively light weekend.

Marathon Madness

Ladies and gentleman, college basketball is officially back.

Take a deep breath, relax, and get comfortable because the craziness is just beginning.  The 24 hours College Hoops Marathon is set to start at the completion of Monday Night Football tonight and go straight thru midnight tomorrow night.  This is usually where we would write about the "Weekend That Was" but with the rare Tip-Off Madness approaching, we decided to discuss the 4 games that intrigued us most during the madness.

Friday Night Lights

      This is the spot where our "Weekend Watch" post would usually drop.  However, we are just going to discuss tonight's games as they are the most intriguing and feature 131 games. "The Weekend Watch" will usually highlight 5 games each weekend that Hoop Vision will be keeping a close eye on.  However, with this just being a "Friday Night Lights" post, we have decided to just discuss two games and a host of other things that has peaked out interest (besides getting a look at VCU and Butler after their magical tournament runs of a year ago).

Hoop Vision Return

Back in the summer of 2010, this blog was created by a friend of mine, Jordan Sperber. He used this blog as a way to communicate his new and interesting ideas. Certainly much of what he published was thought provoking and insightful, backed by advanced statistics, however he couldn't handle it all by himself. With the beginning of the 2011-12 season tonight, we at Hoop Vision plan to bring this site back and better than ever. Mr. Sperber has gratefully reached out to me to help him as a contributor to this site.

My name is Jonathan Safir. I am a freshman basketball player at Division 3 Vassar College. I am honored to help Jordan in his quest to revive this website. The mission of this website as we see it today, is not to make it your one stop shop for all your college basketball needs. Rather, we view it as a chance for us to publish our thoughts with some advanced statistics as well.

Every week, I will be producing a Monday: Random Smatterings post and a Friday: What to Watch for the upcoming weekend. Much of what Jordan produced last season can be expected from him again this season.

This site will continue to be a work in progress as we get a feel for working together and trying to produce the best product we possibly can.

Welcome (back) to Hoop Vision, we hope you enjoy our site and wish all teams good luck as they embark on their respective season.