Welcome to Don't Forget About Us!

For those of you who know me, this next statement should come as no surprise: I love small-school basketball.

And when I say I love it, I truly mean it. I love the close games between Austin Peay and North Florida on a random weekday ESPN Plus broadcast. I love the upsets in the NCAA Tournament (I’m a yearly sucker for Colgate), and I love the appeal of an underdog being able to shock the world.

For the most part, my introduction to college basketball has revolved around small schools.

Some of my favorite moments involve mid and low-major programs, including Lehigh’s upset against Duke, FDU’s shocking win over Purdue, and, of course, Florida Atlantic’s run to the Final Four.

That last one is important to this story because it changed how I engage with this sport.

I was courtside for that whole run, covering it for Owls247 as a beat writer. I was also an FAU student, so I got to experience both sides of that coin. I was there when Nick Boyd hit a game-winning layup against Memphis. I sat behind the scorer’s table when they conquered Tennessee at Madison Square Garden. And I was in that same spot just two days later when they beat Kansas State.

This season, most of my college basketball viewing revolved around smaller programs. Outside of my duties covering K-State for EMAWOnline.com, I would mostly focus on mid-major games on ESPN Plus. From Stetson to Chattanooga and everything in between.

And while I often flirted with the idea of doing a newsletter or writing more about small-school college basketball, I never got around to making it happen.

Until now.

This is Don’t Forget About Us.

What to expect

I want this place to be the home for small-school basketball. From weekly recaps to film rooms, and analysis on trending topics.

Tons of trends are happening in mid-major basketball, from schools losing head coaches to assistant coaching jobs in the same conference to a transfer portal designed to ravage smaller schools for all their parts.

But there’s also a lot of good that’s happening.

Schools are retaining talent behind NIL collectives (more on that later this week), talented players are leaving high-major programs to transfer “down”, and the slipper is fitting a lot of programs every season.

This newsletter will celebrate mid-major basketball while addressing some developing trends hurting small-school basketball because it’s both important.

I’m excited, and I hope you follow along on this journey.