Here's an excellent excerpt from their web-site that tells you what goes on in the book:

How to Read Blue Ribbon Basketball Yearbook

Sample Top 25 School - Sample School

"The book is designed in two separate parts. The front contains an exhaustive analysis of Blue Ribbon's preseason Top 25. These stories are anywhere from 4,000 to 5,500 words in length and broken up into distinct sections.

COACH AND PROGRAM sums up the state of the program and the head coach.

Next comes PROJECTED STARTERS, where Blue Ribbon writers do their best to predict what five players are likely to open the season in the starting lineup. This information isn't pulled out of thin air, but usually based on a conversation with a team's coach. KEY RESERVES follow, and finally, other players on the roster and recruits. At times, an incoming freshman or transfer will be projected as a starter.

The story begins its final descent with Questions and Answers, quick one- or two-sentence opinions of a team's perceived weaknesses (Questions) and strengths (Answers).

Letter grades come next. These letter grades aren't a comparison of a team against other teams in its conference or around the nation, but rather an analysis of its own strengths in four key areas: BACKCOURT, FRONTCOURT, BENCH/DEPTH and Intangibles.

Finally comes the BLUE RIBBON ANALYSIS, several paragraphs that tie the entire package together and tries to forecast how a team should fare.

Mingled throughout the story are two graphic elements: the current schedule and the previous season's results.

In addition to the Top 25 report, Blue Ribbon contains a full story, ranging from 1,000 to 2,500 words, on every other Division I team in the country. The book lists each conference alphabetically, and each school in the various conferences are listed alphabetically.

The stories differ from the Top 25 because they aren't as exhaustive in terms of player analysis. But each are thorough, our information gleaned from thorough research and a conversation with the head coach.

The stories end with letter grades (see above) and the BLUE RIBBON ANALYSIS . . . "

Enter the crafty lefty pick-up player, Barack Obama. There's an excellent article in today's NY Times breaking down his game. Turns out he even hoops with Harvard's all-time, big-time basketball junkie, "AD", Arne Duncan, (CEO of the Chicago Public Schools, former player under Coach B, NTL Weekend Camp coach and long-time pro player in Australia).

If you don't want to vote for The Left then vote for The Lefty!

from The NY Times

"Last Christmas, Senator Barack Obama flew to Hawaii to contemplate a presidential bid in the peace of his childhood home. But there, on a humid playground near Waikiki Beach, he found himself being roughed up by some of his best friends. It was the third and final game of the group’s annual three-on-three basketball showdown, and with the score nearly tied, things were getting dirty . . . "

continued here

"good look" goes out to Josh Kratka

Technorati Tags: BillBradley, BarackObama, ArneDuncan, Pick-upBasketball, JohnMcPhee

"Dr. James Naismith once proudly remarked of his invention, 'I am sure that no man can derive more pleasure from money or power than I do from seeing a pair of basketball goals in some out of the way place - deep in the Wisconsin woods an old barrel hoop nailed to a tree, or a weather-beaten shed on the Mexican border with a rusty iron hoop nailed to one end.'

Driving across the treeless Mongolian steppe five years past, I glimpsed a most incongruous apparition. I had to rub my eyes. About a mile off the track there stood a lone sentinel: a tall wooden post with a single rough cross board and basketball hoop attached. Venturing off the beaten track in Mongolia requires that one be ready for just about anything. It's the closest thing to being on another planet. But a basketball hoop? In the middle of nowhere? . . ."

more here

Thanks to Akira Motomura for the tip!

(Bill Simmons also, as usual, has a funny and on-the-money take ["Maravich was like 12 Globetrotters rolled into one"] on the same two books in ESPN the Magazine.)

This was my introduction to Pete Maravich: I was in eighth grade, I think. I was way into Pat Riley (and Louie Dampier) because Riley was from Schenectady, NY's Linton High School; he and the Kentucky Wildcats were big in the Albany area, where I lived. I had planned to listen to the Kentucky/LSU game on the radio that night (if cloud conditions and weather were right, I could actually get the signal from WKYM). But I was a kid, probably had played five hours of hoops that day, so I fell asleep before the game. Then, then I was awakened by this roar from the radio. I thought, "did I miss the whole game"? I looked at the time and it was only 8 o'clock, the game hadn't even started. Here's what the announcer, barely audible over the din said: "A freshman from LSU, Pete Maravich, has just electrified the crowd by scoring 70 points in the freshmen game (freshmen weren't allowed to play varsity then) in the most incredible individual performance I have ever witnessed"! Then, as now, I could not wait to see Pistol Pete flying down the court, the ball a yo-yo, the defenders props, with nothing but a world of magic and endless possibilities between him and the hoop.

(Thank you to Nelson for the Pistol Pete You Tube video tip.)

Technorati Tags: JayJennings, PatRiley, LouieDampier, BobbyHurley

"Nobody shoots anybody in the face unless you're a hit man or a video gamer," Thompson told the paper.

So either Cheney is a cleaner, or he plays GTA. So which is it?

Humans are not rational. They make selfish decisions and then make efforts (usually feeble) to justify their decision. It's not just business.

The really interesting part is about the evolutionary hueristics that humans use and how they are backfiring in the modern world.  In a sense, are desired mate are somehow supposed to represent people who are likely to have many surviving offspring:

... evolution favors brains that tend to maximize fitness (as measured by numbers of great-grandkids)

This statement really caught my attention.  It's something I have thought about many times.  I know some people with a lot of great-grandkids, I don't consider them model parents---or model citizens for that matter, but evolution does.  In a sense evolution favors the welfare queen that can get away with the most.  Those of us picking up the tab aren't getting any evolutionary favoritism for it.  The balance is found when you have enough suckers (me) to support the offspring.  If there are too many unwanted children, they don't survive.  If the system is too generous, then leaches will always find a way to use it promote their own genes.

It's not fair and it's not socially cooperative, but it is reality. 

While this is great economic news; I have my fears. Namely, Bush(ers) will say, "see things are great. No need to worry about oil and oil dependance." Leading to less enthusiasm for fuel efficient vehicles---which were finally starting to catch on. Unfortunately, that doesn't do any good for greenhouse gases and the environment.

I am also worried that it will increase hope of other such finds. While it is certainly possible, blindly hoping that will be the case is irresponsible and just the sort of behavior I'd expect from humans.

So that was the good news.  The bad news is that the U.S. is still being lead by an idiot.  This time Bush is trying to reduce gas prices by eliminating some of the environmental regulations that lead to 10% use of Ethanol in gasoline.  Furthermore, Net Neutrality got shot down.

Next election I am voting for the 200 million year-old microbes. 

As far as I am concerned, college for most students is a four year party on mom and dad's dime. Students stumble out with a piece of paper and expect to make big bucks, then complain when no one wants to hire them. At the risk of being a total asshole, I've worked my ass off. I have skills as a result and I've never had trouble getting a job. I've even had employers make very generous offers in an attempt to keep me.

Employment is not a right. It's all part of the economy. You provide a service at a price. If someone else does a better job, cheaper than you, tough luck. There are lots of companies looking to hire good people, make sure you provide something useful. Learn to think for yourself. Companies have problems to solve. If you tackle them yourself you'll become an asset. If you avoid the problems, point fingers and dodge blame you're just deadweight.