DJ Elsass

DJ Elsass is one of the rakes behind Hoopraker, a Big Ten basketball webzine located at hoopraker.com.

Recent Posts By DJ Elsass

The Tweener That Roared

The label is 'tweener.' The recruiting services and NBA scouts throw it around with impunity in their attempts to separate five-star meat from two- and three-star gristle, lotto picks from journeymen and Turkish leaguers. Calhouns, Boeheims and Jay Wrights use it to give a kid a soft demur, a "We like you, but…" the old wait and see.Sometimes, however, there [read more...]

Bounce for the Buck

The story is an increasingly familiar one. Facing criticism from fans, alumni, boosters, and the media class, an athletic director capitulates to the most superficial elements of the peanut gallery, snow-jobs the president and the budget director, and makes a budget-busting hire that has glamorous curbside appeal.Down The Rabbit Hole Just as there is a certain species of American clown who [read more...]

It's Not All in the Numbers

There is an unhealthy contingent of putative mavens who view college basketball through the myopic, exclusive lens of numbers. Several of these number ruminants have even "invented" their own proprietary statistical models, which they claim to be the most accurate, the most predictive, the best reduction of the game and its teams and players to their essential value. Number of [read more...]

Another Set Of Standings

Amidst the giddy anticipation of preseason, as coaches and players moved from the Vegas-lite of Midnight Madness into official practice, from intrasquad runs to the blowouts and mock upsets (Grand Valley State, Findlay) of exhibition games, from rusty jumpers, mistimed cuts, and bad passes to some early semblance of a groove; as fans and commentators peered into their crystal balls, [read more...]