Why I Do What I Do

I'm not a journalist. I don't even play a reasonable facsimile of one on the Intergoogles. I've never "covered" a game. Because of where I live, financial and family obligations, a day job, etc., I haven't even been to a game in 5 years.

I'm just a guy who went to a small school that suddenly finds itself on a big stage. Jim Rome thinks we're the reason the NIT sucks. Verne Lundquist said our name on CBS Saturday (one of Indiana's upcoming opponents). In my world, that's a big deal.

I'm not a Professional Journalist. Nor am I a comedian. If you're looking for Grantland Rice-ish ambiance, Recapbot game stories, rabid fandom, or body part jokes, go somewhere else.

I simply love my school, basketball, and playing with numbers.

Lately, I have also fallen in love with the teams my school plays. There are some great stories there for someone with enough time, access, and talent to dig them out. I know about a few of them -- Bob Hoffman being exonerated by the NCAA after it imposed show-cause orders on some of his former co-workers, the under-the-radar class of the Lipscomb-Belmont rivalry, the general awesomeness that is Jonathan Rodriguez. But lacking any of the above (time, access, awesomeness), I rely on what I can glean from media reports, and write what I see in the numbers.

Hence, the Atlantic Sun Blog.

Maybe there is a market out there for fan-jabbering about a small conference of small schools in the middle of Nowhere-midmajor-vania. If so, I hope somebody good fills it -- and not with Deadspin-ish blather about who has the hottest cheerleaders, either. But for right now, aside from newspaper beat writers and SID's (who are paid to be there) and Kyle Whelliston (also paid, only less so), there's just me.

So I write for me. And that's fine. I'll never be a correspondent for the WWL. I don't pretend to believe that anybody else cares about me or my subject. I'm perfectly content to use the ASB as an online diary, my own way of enjoying a season I wish I could get closer to but choose not to for reasons listed above. If Junard Hartley's mom happens by and sees the nice things I wrote about her son, that's cool too.

And if some of those "paid" professionals like what they see -- or are at least encouraged to keep doing what they're doing simply because I am out here and exist -- then I've done more good than I set out to do.