It’s been a long time coming, but after many late nights we’re excited to announce the launch of the new version of the Basketball U. website. The new site looks better, organizes information better, and has allowed us to begin the long-awaited expansion into other conferences. We are currently adding message boards for other conferences and we will begin full coverage of the Patriot League this summer.

After the sleeker, lighter, more minimalist design, the next thing you’ll notice is that the pages are wider. We designed the new site for 1024 x 768 displays instead of the outdated 800 x 600 standard we used for the old one.

The biggest change is the introduction of a publishing backbone powered by a customized installation of WordPress 2.0. This will remove the bottleneck created by having one person in charge of publishing all the content, and will enable our writers to publish their own pieces after a simple backread by one of the editors. This means two things for you: timely content — and more of it.

As a thank-you for your patience during the protracted design period, we’re offering a free preview of all Premium content until Sunday, January 29. After that, all Premium content — which now includes the full version of The Wire, as well as the News/Slant, Power Rankings, Recruiting, History, and Alumni pages — will require a subscription.

During Ivy League play we will be producing an Inside the Ivy column every Monday and two Trendspotting team notebooks every other weekday. We’ll be supplementing this with blog posts nearly every morning, Gamecenter coverage of games, and periodic pieces like The 14-Game Tournament and By the Numbers.

The new publishing system also enables Premium users to discuss the articles. The goal is to generate higher-level, more informed discussions among Premium users with more of an exclusive, “insider” feel.

Subscriptions will expire October 1 each year. Due to the fact we’re launching this at the beginning of Ivy play, we’re charging only $24.95 for the 2005-06 season — as opposed to next season’s full-year cost of $39.95. Current full-time students will be eligible for a special student rate of $14.95 this season.

So welcome to the new era of Basketball U. We’re happy to have you along for the ride!