When it comes to following the Kansas men’s basketball program, it’s hard to argue that there is anything more exciting than November through March, that five-month stretch each year when KU makes its latest run at a national title and has a little fun in the Big 12 Conference along the way.
But just because the games end in early April and the on-the-court action remains dormant for the next several months does not mean the action stops.
For years here at The Journal-World and KUsports.com, we’ve done our absolute best to keep you in tune with what’s happening with the program year round. New players arrive, old players move on to new adventures — in and out of basketball — and alums, former coaches and even current and former rivals all bring interesting stories to the offseason.
But today, thanks to the newest addition to our KUsports.com team, the offseason figures to be more exciting and action-packed than ever for our readers.
I’d like to be the first to introduce you all to Matt Scott, our new, in-house recruiting insider here at KUsports.com. Matt, a KU alum, has been covering the KU program for 10 years, with a specific eye on recruiting the entire time.
His connections have allowed him to gain some of the best access and bring some of the most interesting stories in recruiting to the various sites he has worked for throughout the years.
It began with a site Matt started, known as TheShiver.com, which went through various associations with ESPN, 247 Sports and others, and now we’re bringing that coverage to KUsports.com.
Matt’s sole focus with our site, for as long as we can stand to put up with him, will be to follow KU men’s basketball recruiting 365 days a year. He will do this through interviews, attendance at high school and AAU games and tournaments, phone calls and texts and, of course, lots and lots of video and Twitter.
Despite his know-it-all persona, Matt actually has been known to be wrong from time to time. But he always brings you his honest thoughts and the best/most accurate information he can gather on what’s happening with the players KU is targeting and fans are following.
During his time with the 247 Sports network, Matt hit on better than 90 percent of his KU Crystal Ball predictions. He also delivered breaking recruiting news and up-to-date information on visits, reactions and the plans held by some of the biggest names of KU’s most recent past — Andrew Wiggins, Josh Jackson, Josh Selby and dozens more.
There was that one time, fairly recently, when Matt was schooled by a recruiting novice in the Silvio De Sousa recruitment (wink, wink), but after we broke that story here on KUsports.com, Matt was the first person I heard from telling me congrats on the scoop. Now that we’re teaming up, it should be fun to push each other and battle for bragging rights in the recruiting game along the way.
Here’s what you need to know about Matt’s coverage as things stand today: It’s going to be provided in addition to what we already do. I’ll still be doing my thing with regard to following KU basketball recruiting, tracking down players when I can, analyzing movement and breaking down what KU coach Bill Self and his staff might be thinking or doing with a particular player or a complete recruiting class. But Matt will be the one bringing you the play-by-play, as it happens, along the way.
We’re confident that his addition to our staff will take our KU basketball coverage to another level and look forward to him getting started, full-speed-ahead, over the next couple of weeks with back-to-back Hardwood Classic recruiting sessions right here in Lawrence the next couple of weekends out at Sports Pavilion Lawrence along with the Jayhawk Summer Finale in Overland Park in late July.
So please join me in welcoming Matt to the KUsports.com community. And if you’re not already following him on Twitter [be sure to check him out at @KUTheShiver.][1]
Also [be on the lookout for his regular blog entries — “KU Basketball Recruiting Scoop with Matt Scott”][2] — videos, podcasts and prospect updates on our web site, mobile site and our KU Sports app.
[1]: https://twitter.com/KUTheShiver
[2]: http://www2.kusports.com/weblogs/ku-recruiting-scoop/2018/jul/19/highlights-and-interviews-from-the-hardw/