If I was really on top of my stuff, I would’ve had this post out to the masses weeks ago. Drake was correct when he said ‘never late is better’, but hey, flipping back to the old adage still applies. This post drags on – bear with me, it all comes back around. Or at least skip to the middle.

Let’s be honest. Coverage of girls’ basketball throughout my coverage region is overall… meh. Strong in some pockets, weak in others. The ‘traditional’ media world is transitioning, print media sources are lightly staffed & stretched thin, especially in areas with many schools & college sports. They do what they can do and there are some great ones & real grinders that I have great respect for, but the numbers game is not in their favor. I’ve been to 36 games as of this current typing time, some better than others but plenty of noteworthy contests, and I’ve seen two TV cameras – one for about 30 seconds as they walked into the end of a game likely having the wrong start time for it. Just how it is nowadays. On top of that, we’ve lost more valuable independent basketball-specific “non-traditional” but truly valuable media/social media/enthusiasts over the last year or two than we’ve gained. Going to Northeast Pennsylvania for scholastic season in recent years has always left me amazed at how much more companies seem to invest in the coverage of high school sports than on our side of the border.

And I’m not in the business of throwing anyone under the bus, but I heard all of your complaints over the spring and summer about what the girls didn’t get that the boys got. You may know what I’m referring to. The questions I received, in person & in my inboxes, were well into the dozens. It’s something that I wouldn’t have expected to bother me – even having been a part of the process in the past, it’s a premise I’ve never put that much stock into – but as time went on, especially because it was just the girls that didn’t get that postseason recognition, it really did annoy me.

So I’m going to try & do my part.

In case you haven’t come across this yet, a weekly podcast check-in has been added to the slate of winter coverage. Thank Brian Cady for that. A trained media presence and the PA voice of both Section 2 and NYSPHSAA girls’ basketball playoffs, he joined forces with Albany Academy coach and longtime area AAU presence Bryan Capitula to create the ’84 Feet with Cady and Cap’ podcast in the spring. This has been a nice addition to the Section 2 basketball coverage scene, highlighting the voices of area players & coaches, giving them valuable media/interview experience, and keeping the spotlight on the game. With Cap in full scholastic season mode, I’ve had the opportunity to jump on and keep the conversation going on a weekly basis. We chat primarily Section 2 stuff, but there’s more beyond that, whether it’s my travels, some interesting things statewide, or just the nuances of the game (regional rotations, adjusting to different gyms, etc.). Great stuff for the girls’ basketball enthusiast both in & beyond the 518. Check it out on 84 Feet SPOTIFY or 84 Feet YOUTUBE, although the latter includes seeing my not as aesthetically pleasing face. Fully free to tap in & listen. A thank you again to Cady & Cap for providing this opportunity.

But wait! There’s more… I’m going down a road I said I’d never turn down.

There are some tremendous resources for various areas & regions of the state, but I think it’s fair to say no one gets cover to cover in Upstate New York like me. There are some things I’ve felt like I could do on my own that I just haven’t yet by choice. One of them is state rankings… or at least ‘upstate’ rankings. It’s another thing that I’ve assisted with in the past, but for 2024-25, I’m starting my own. We’ll call it ‘The Upstate 20’, weekly rankings for all six classes. Some questions that may/will be asked with answers:

• What are you calling ‘upstate’?: In the interest of including everyone in New York that I’ve considered my ‘primary coverage region’, I’ll be loose with my interpretation of Upstate New York. Instead of what someone from my area would call it, we’re going with the Bronx definition – everything north of NYC. All NYSPHSAA sections except for VIII & XI – aka Long Island – will be included. Nothing against Long Island of course, I just don’t get to you nearly enough and I’m not going to include an area that I can’t promise to be fully locked into during the winter.
• Just NYSPHSAA teams?: No, I’ll include everyone north of NYC from any association that was part of the ‘Federation’. For regional purposes, read that as the CHSAA teams, which basically just includes Monsignor Martin teams in Western New York (O’Hara, St. Mary’s-Lancaster, etc.) and a couple others like Kennedy Catholic in Somers. This may get confusing, but I plan to include all CHSAA teams within the Class AAA rankings. That’s because stuff gets weird with class representation in the Monsignor Martin – what class a team represents in CHSAA playoffs in March depends on playoff results – just making it uniform & grouping them with the AAA class that has the least depth (quantity) in my coverage region.
• When?: I meant to put these out weeks ago, starting with a preseason ranking (would’ve been fun to compare my expectations to final results in March). I obviously didn’t get to posting, although I did compile them. My first post for all classes will be out over the next few days, and I plan to (for the most part) have Upstate 20 rankings out every Monday up through playoff time.
• Free or subscriber content?: Subscriber stuff. I actually did think about this, but it’s a serious time commitment and I’m not about to have some anonymous, photoless dude on Twitter with 4 bot followers eviscerate me for having a team at #15 that should at least be #12. If you’re going to rip into me, you’ll at least have to pay a few bucks for it. Subscription is $6.99 monthly, $49.99 annually, and can be canceled whenever. There’s some good stuff on here. It’s worth it, I promise.

For each week, I plan to not only include a working list of rankings for each class – not to be taken totally verbatim, bet on girls’ basketball if you want to lose all your money, but a good guideline to work with – a set of “evaluator’s notes” will be featured too. You basically get a look into why I have teams in/out/in certain order. On top of that, a list of meaningful results from the previous week and notable games for the upcoming week will be included.

And if this isn’t total hell, maybe you’ll see me do All-Upstate teams after state finals too… but I’m noncommittal to that at the moment. Let’s see how this goes 😅

So yeah, keep up with the weekly ’84 Feet with Cady & Cap and me for a little while too’ podcast (unofficial name). Tap into The Nate Lull Podcast, Episode #275 as well. Always a great time with Nate talking eastern quadrant of Section IV and beyond. And SUBSCRIBE to the website for ‘The Upstate 20’ and everything else it has to offer… right around the corner!