Michigan didn’t make it back to the Final Four this season, but this team accomplished just about everything else.
The magical ride through Big Ten play – despite the loss of Mitch McGary, Trey Burke and Tim Hardaway Jr. – was validation of how far this program has come. Thinking back to when I started this site, in December of 2007, the metamorphosis of the program has been impressive. We like to think that this site has at least made a valiant effort to keep pace, but that’s not for us to judge.
The journey was incredible, but as is always the case around early April – it becomes apparent how much time and effort went into the last five months.
We published over 600 articles during the 2013-14 season and provided first-hand coverage including videos, photos, reporting and analysis from every game this season – home, away and neutral. As a free and independent site, we are proud of that accomplishment. Those November trips to Puerto Rico and Durham that feel like they happened ages ago were somehow part of the same season that finished in Indianapolis over the weekend.
Joe Stapleton, Dustin Johnston, and Scott Mapes all played a critical role in this season’s coverage and their hard work, dedication and sacrifice can’t go unmentioned. I can’t thank them enough for what they’ve contributed to the site.
Traffic-wise, this was our best season ever and we want to continue to thank all of you that read, discuss and share our content.
But as much as we would like it to be different, the site still requires your support. Despite the amount of time that I, and everyone else involved, spends working on the site – it’s not a full-time gig for any of us.
We’re always striving to improve the site on a day-to-day basis, but we also want to keep all of our content free – including our recruiting, analysis, reporting and multimedia features. Any money that we’ve raised in the past has gone back into the site, whether it was spent on website improvements, traveling to cover games or AAU tournaments and all of the other costs which add up. We’re always open to suggestions and ideas, but this off-season we are going to be more focused in our goals.
Any money that we raise this spring will be put primarily to two causes of immediate concern:
1) Hire a new beat writer for 2014-15
Joe is moving on after being an integral part of our coverage for the last several years. He will be sorely missed. We are currently looking for his replacement to continue our day-to-day coverage of the team. If you are interested, it isn’t too late to apply.
2) Update the site to a responsive, mobile-friendly design
Currently, mobile devices and tablets account for nearly half of our traffic. When we launched the site’s current design, that percentage was under 25%. We admit that the site is far from ideal on a tablet or smartphone, and we hope to make improvements to fix that problem before next season.
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As always, thanks for reading and an even bigger thank you for your support.
