As crazy as it sounds, we’re entering our ninth season covering Michigan basketball.
The journey has been filled with plenty of ups and downs — with the last year featuring more of the latter — but we’re proud of the community that we’ve created here at UM Hoops.
Last season wasn’t the best year of Michigan basketball on the court. We covered nearly as many losses in 2014-15 as we did in the previous two seasons combined. And it probably wasn’t the best year for our site either, but optimism is in the air this fall, and we’re excited to tip off another season.
We are thrilled to have Zach Shaw on board as our new beat writer and have our wonderful photogapher Dustin Johnston back for another season. We’ve relaunched our message boards to provide a more mobile-friendly experience. We’ve also revamped our photo galleries to make them more visually appealing and easier to enjoy without clicking through so many pages.
Those are just a few additions, and we hope to launch several more tweaks to the site before the start of Big Ten play.
We plan to cover every game this season, just like we did last year (even when the results were ugly) and the seasons before that. We’re also confident that the results on the court will be more enjoyable than we saw last season. This team is hungry and talented and will have a lot to prove over the next six months. We’re excited to follow every step of the journey.
Our goal is to raise $10,000 during our annual fundraiser to help cover the operating costs of this site. That includes paying for the web servers, development, traveling to games, paying our beat writers and photographers, hiring freelancers to make things meet in the middle, and the countless hours of labor that go into the site.
Many of you have donated in the past and we’re beyond grateful for your support. UM Hoops wouldn’t still be running nine years later without your support as the costs to run the site and real life responsibilities continue to grow.
This year we’re also offering the opportunity to earn perks for your donation. We’ve set up several tiers of donations that include gifts such as UM Hoops swag (t-shirts and mugs), photo prints from Dustin’s archives, a subscription to Shot Analytics and the opportunity to sponsor regular features like Five Key Plays.
This year’s drive is powered by Indiegogo and you can find our donation page here or donate by clicking the logo in the widget below. Thank you again for your support!
