Welcome to Season 2

Welcome to the 2nd season here at Twin Cities Boys Hoops. Back bigger (insert your own joke here) and better than ever as the August redesign of the site allows me to bring you far more information. The Czar kicks off a busy season with the Hamline girls tournament this weekend and the annual pilgrimage trip to the Old Kingdom early next week to start my boys season before diving head first into the Minnesota boys season on December 4th.

I'll be previewing each week for my weekly Minnesota Preps article. Links to my most recent article and all the articles I've written for Preps can also be found in the upper right in the Czar's MN Preps Articles section. Take a look too at my All-Breakout Teams.

You can use the links in the 2008-2009 Season section on the left to follow the season. Use the Schedules & Results link to find direct links to schedules and scores for all the metro teams that I follow. The Section & Conference Standings link gives 1 click access to standings for the 11 sections and conferences that I follow. The Current Polls link follows 2 local polls, the state poll and 3 regional/national polls. I'll be updating that page every week as new polls are released (usually they're all out by Wednesday).

The 08-09 Featured Players section gives you 1 click access to all the scrolls I've written about some of the top players in the metro. The Career Scoring Records section will be updated game by game to follow the progress of Kevin Noreen and Tayler Hill as they attempt to break the all-time state career scoring records.

If you scroll further down the page, you'll find the MN Basketball Resources section with links to conference website, the MSHSL, section assignments and state records. You'll also be able to search and find links for many of the sites and other blogs that I follow.

Speaking of following, if you read the blog regularly, become a follower. Scroll down and on the right side you can join the The Czar's Followers. Also, in the Blog Information section you can add the blog to a reader for those of you who understand RSS. This is a great way to follow many blogs at once. I personally use Google Reader to easily follow a bunch of blogs without having to go check them 1 by 1 for updates. Just as simple, get my scrolls via email by using the last link in the Blog Information section. I don't give your email address away so you don't have to worry about spam.

All of that plus the same game coverage you've come to expect with a couple of added twists. The Czar's Season Totals link in the 08-09 season section is the fun tracker I use to count all of the different games, locations, teams, food and beverage and anything else of note that I see during the season (e.g. Thrown shoes, kids climbing backboards, Kevin McHale sightings etc). At a minimum I update that every Sunday, but I will be trying to update that more often this season. You can always find out what games I'll be watching by checking out my schedule on the right side. Look for plenty of Hopkins games here as a team like that doesn't come along very often.

If you enjoy the site, spread the word and feel free to say hello if you ever see me at a game. With 17 D1 recruits in the 2009 class, this should be a terrific season.