College Basketball Prospectus: The Essential Guide to the Men's College Basketball Season

John Gasaway might be the best sports writer out there (check out his old blog, Big Ten Wonk, or his new space, Basketball Prospectus, for a taste), and it's clearly on display in this new annual. Outside of the numbers, predictions, findings, etc., he's just fun to read. This book is worth picking up for the prose alone. Ken Pomeroy is something like the Bill James of the basketball statistical universe (at least, on the college level). He's been putting together his numbers for years, and he's starting to dip his toe into the really interesting stuff, like play-by-play data. In this book, he considers some coaching axioms (ice a free throw shooter? Down by 5, shoot a 2 or 3?), offers thoughts on moving the 3 point line back (by looking at data when this occurred briefly in the past), and drops small pieces of information casually throughout the book. If you've reached this page, you're probably at least aware of the Baseball Prospectus series. In terms of quality, this is just as good, though less focused on individuals and more focused on teams (though there is plenty of individual discussion for major players). The downside - if your team is a mid-major not playing in the A10, MVC, Conference USA, or Mountain West, there won't be many words on them. Ken & John have stats from those conference in this book, but not many words. Overall, it's a great start to the series.