And here we go, just days after we reviewed the Athlon preview magazine, we have the Lindy's college hoops preview magazine review. I picked it up at Borders Bookstores for the list price of $6.99, same price as last year.
One quick note on Borders, they have the 2006-2007 version of the Sporting News preview magazine on the shelves, so be sure not to get the wrong year by mistake. But if you are looking for the 06-07 TSN version, you may find it there.
For reference, this is my 2006-2007 Lindy's review. I am using a slightly different review format this year. Speaking of 06-07, every game of the 2007 NCAA Tournament is available on DVD, for around $20 to $25 per game at Amazon. And if you prefer a free online previews, check out our gigantic 2007-2008 preview links.
One more thing, plan ahead for the season, what is the best way to record your favorite college basketball games?
And now to the Lindy's magazine preview review! The cover says "Display until Dec 15", and list price is $6.99. The west coast bias edition features UCLA's Darren Collison, Brook Lopez and DeVon Hardin on the cover. The magazine is 210 pages long.
It starts with a table of contents and a letter from the publisher, celebrating year #10 of Lindy's. The publisher is Lindy Davis, so now we know the Lindy in Lindy's :) There he mentions that the schedules will be published on their website on October 15 and you can also request a print edition. Because Athlon and Lindy's get published so early, they cannot have the finalized schedules in time for the printing process.
General Interest Stories
Page counts mentioned do not include ads!
The 2007-2008 Top 25 is presented, with each team getting a short preview featuring "The Good", "The Bad" and "Our Call". They also include teams 26 to 40 with single-sentence previews. Nice feature and quick intro to the new season (five pages long). Also of note is that five mid-major conference teams are in their Top 25 (excluding Memphis). I won't reveal their #1, I don't want to be mauled by bears! I won't reveal their #2 I don't want to be in silence of the lambs! And I wouldn't volunteer to be eaten by a tiger so I won't reveal #3 and #4. This week I'm going to a bird watching seminar on cardinals, so I can't reveal #5 either!
An excellent six page featured called "Scoping the Nation" is jam-packed with interesting features, including The Return of Rick Majerus, One and Done college superstars, a tribute to Skip Prosser, a spotlight on some preseason games to watch, including the holiday tourneys and the conference challenges, top 10 freshman candidates to be one and done, list of coaching changes, top 10 one and done candidates of the 2008 class, ten candidates for stardom, top ten D1 transfers, top ten JuCos, top 10 shooters, top 10 defenders. They also rate the conferences from #1 to #31, and give us their Field of 65 predictions, along with their Sweet 16 ad Final Four. This is the most compact and concise six pages of preview I saw in a preview magazine so far!
A four page feature "Meet the New Boss" covers Billy Gillispie at Kentucky, Billy the Diva Donovan at Florida and Tubby Smith at the TimberGophers.
A two page feature on the search for the next Gonzaga, with some focus on the Missouri Valley
A two page feature on "Embracing Kelvin Sampson". I would have named it "Embracing Slugfest" :)
A two-page story by Frank Burlison on recruiting (players commiting earlier and earlier)
Top 25 players per position, one page devoted to each position! Nice!
Top 10 Backcourts (two pags) and top 10 Frontcourts (two pages)
Women's Coverage" Top 25 teams (4 pages), including the top 15 female players.
Back page: The 2007 NCAA tournament brackets, completed with scores and teams advancing. Nice touch!
Grade: A
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Recruiting Coverage
A two-page story by Frank Burlison on recruiting (players commiting earlier and earlier, pages 32-33)
Recruiting coverage is provided by Rivals, at the back of the magazine
Top 25 Recruiting Classes of 2007 with analysis!
A half-page story by Justin Young of Rivals taking a post-summer look
A recap of the 2007 class with the top 50 players listed (1 page)
Top 100 players of the Classes of 2008 and top 100 of 2009 and top 10 of 2010.
Conference Previews
A number of conferences, not just BCS conferences, get a two page conference preview. Yes two pages per conference. A half-page intro to the conference kicks things off. Lindy's includes a table of Good News/Bad News/Our call for each team, top 15 players, returning statistical leaders (scoring, rebounding, assists and 3 point shooting percentage). Also in the preview a detailed analysis of the incoming recruits within the conference (nice touch Lindys!), the superlatives (best player, rebounder, defender, etc), and Team Stats from 2006-2007 including FG%, FT%, 3PT FG%, and margins (rebounds, turnovers, points). This is the most comprehensive conference coverage.
Conferences receiving the two page previews: ACC, Atlantic 10, Big 10, Big 12, Big East, Conference USA, Missouri Valley, Mountain West, Pac-10, SEC, and WAC.
The remaining conferences receive 1/3rd of a page conference preview that includes top 10 players, superlatives (Best player, rebounder, etc) and predicted order of finish.
Props to Lindy's for giving some of the high mid-major conferences the same amount of space as they give the six BCS conferences!
Did you know? Every 2007 NCAA tournament game is on DVD! at Amazon. Get yours know! A great way to scout teams for the upcoming season!
Team Previews
Even bigger props to Lindy's for treating teams more equally. Basically the Top 40 teams get a full page preview, while the remaining teams from the BCS and the high mid-major conferences (mentioned above) receive half a page each. This is a more fair way to spread the love. In contrast, Athlon is blatantly pro-BCS.
The teams from the remaining conferences get half a column ina a page with three columns (1/6th of page), but the text is very compact, so they are squeezing in a long paragraph, starters and key reserves, newcomes, starters lost, 06-07 record, and the head coaches's overall record. Not bad for such a small amount of space. Better coverage than the equivalent Athlon.
The full page reviews of the Top 40 teams include a text preview, a picture, key players (sadly not a complete roster and no jersey numbers), key losses. Each player mentioned gets a one-liner description. They feature the coach's record, teams' 06-07 record, honors candidates (eg player of year, freshman of year), and a "Keep an eye out" paragraph on a player to watch. Another table has their team stats from 06-07.
The half page reviews (BCS and high mid-major teams outside the top 40) have the same features, but no picture, and obviously less text.
Shortcomings
Rosters are not complete, they are just "key players"
No jersey numbers listed! Grrrr!
No schedules but that's to be expected since it is published so early. They will make them available online on October 15 and you can request a printed copy once they are available
USC is not in the Top 40!!! Hello Lindy's, OJ Mayo and Devon Jefferson are calling :-)
Stand out features
Fair and balanced treatment of the Top 40 teams regardless of conference affiliation. In fact, five (+Memphis) of their top 25 teams come from mid-major conferences. No BCS koolaid served at Lindy's :)
More coverage of mid-major conferences and teams than any other magazine, especially the high mid-major conferences (A-10, C-USA, MVC, MWC, WAC). Although some other non-BCS conferences were downgraded in coverage compared to previous years (CAA, Big West, etc)
Two-page conference preview instead of the usual one page in other magazines. Included is recruiting analysis per conference.
Excellent six page ultra-compact and juicy "Scoping the Nation" article
Good Recruiting Coverage
Four pages of women's coverage
Compared to Athlon's preview magazine
Lindy's has more mid-major coverage. Athlon drinks the BCS Koolaid
Lindy's not does have complete rosters or players jersey numbers. Athlon does, along with more detailed roster info.
Did you know that every 2007 NCAA tournament game is available on DVD?. Get yours now! This is a subliminal message. You are not really reading this! ;-)
Conclusion/Recommendation
This is a nice preview magazine. It has very good general interest stories as mentioned above. Those features alone make it worth the price of admission. Recommended for the college basketball fan!
If you are a fan of a high mid-major conference or any other non-BCS conference, this magazine probably has the most non-BCS coverage. So grab it!
If this is the only preview magazine you are buying, and you want to look up the players while watching games on TV, beware, it does not have the players jersey numbers listed! Infact it does not even have complete rosters.
Comments or Corrections?
Please feel free to leave them as a comment or send me an email via the "Contact via Email" link in the left column of the blog.
Get Ready for the 2007-2008 season!
Scout the teams by getting 2006-2007 NCAA tournaments on DVD! from Amazon.
Shop for your favorite college's gear, apparel, licensed products, books and DVDs at Amazon.com!
Also be sure to check out my Gigantic 2007-2008 online preview of links to online previews
Get historic and classic college basketball dvds from Amazon!
Sprawl on the couch and draw plays like a real coach!.
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