The Almanac: Your guide to the 2022-23 college hoops season

We promised college basketball fans big news today. Heck, Rob Dauster spent the last 36 hours annoying stoking fan interest with a single tweet.

Well, we think this counts as big news: We’ve partnered with some of the sport’s best writers to produce essential reading for every fan — The Almanac: The Year of the Big. A 2022-23 College Basketball Preview.

Let’s get to the details (and the news).

THREE POINTERS

1. The Year of the Big deserves a massive preview

Oscar Tshiebwe. Drew Timme. Armando Bacot. Trayce Jackson-Davis. The list goes on and on. A season that goes back to college basketball’s roots with dominant big men deserves another staple: an enormous season preview.

Writers from The Field of 68, Three-Man-Weave, Heat Check CBB and Verbal Commits are proud to offer fans the all-encompassing outlook for 2022-23 —The Almanac: The Year of the Big.

It features insights from every Division I head coach, robust previews on all 363 teams, predictions for conference finishes, features on the top freshmen, breakout players, coaches on the hot seat, a mock bracket, why it’s the Year of the Big Man, and much, much more.

It’s more than 600,000 words of sheer happiness for any college basketball fan.

The Almanac will be available on Sept. 26 for just $19.99. But pre-order it today with the promo code HOOPS and it’s just $15.99. Click here.

Not convinced yet? We’ll spend the next few weeks showcasing Almanac content in The Field of 68 Daily. That means you get a peek at the good stuff before anyone else. (Thanks for subscribing, btw.)

Just remember, decisive shoppers save some dough if they order by Sept. 25. After that, it’s $19.99. But who are we kidding? That’s still a bargain for essential content.

2. Emoni Bates (officially) enrolls at Eastern Michigan

STOP EVERYTHING YOU'RE DOING RIGHT THIS SECOND, IT HAPPENED, IT REALLY HAPPENED!

“I love my city and coming home to do something special was big for me,” Bates said. “I’ve known several of the guys on the team from playing together and competing. Having a strong relationship and bond with my teammates and coaching staff was important to me.”

This was expected ever since Emoni announced his intent to return home to Ypsilanti. But with the Bates family, you have to learn to expect the unexpected — whether that means founding their own prep school from scratch, surprise-reclassifying, or leaving his college team for stretches of the season. And until yesterday, Bates was not listed on the Eastern Michigan’s 2022-2023 men's basketball roster.

Somewhere deep inside, there is a player who is more than capable of lighting the MAC on fire. Unfortunately that player (and others) are also capable of lighting his own team on fire. I'm just happy basketball fans will actually get to see what happens.

3. A transfer transferred before he transferred

Former Arizona Wildcat turned Boise State transfer Emmanuel Akot had planned on transferring to Memphis for his final year of eligibility, but is instead transferring to Western Kentucky. As far as this author knows, this is the first time in the portal era that a former transfer has transferred while transferring. You have to love college basketball.

Lost in all of this is that Akot is a versatile player capable of helping a team immediately. The 6-8 “guard” can defend multiple positions and play on or off the ball. The biggest question with his game has always been the jump shot, but last year at Boise State he made 38.7 percent of his threes on 142 attempts.

This comes as bad news for Penny Hardaway. It's a big loss for a Memphis team that will be centered around another transfer — do-it-all point guard Kendric Davis, but lacks returning production elsewhere. Just two of the Tigers’ top nine players in minutes played per game are back.

When it comes to Western Kentucky, one simple rule holds true: Beware of Slick Rick. He’s playing the transfer portal like a game of monopoly — '“Pass go, collect another transfer!” With Indiana's Khristian Lander and Kentucky's Dontaie Allen already onboard and in line for large roles, the Hilltoppers are poised to climb up the leaderboard in the CUSA.

WE ALSO DO FOOTBALL

The country’s best college football players

With college football starting this week, what better time than now for college basketball fans to do some last minute studying up on all the names you need to know before this weekend?

Over on The Field of 12’s YouTube channel you can find conference previews for every major conference, last night’s All-American team reveal show. We’ll also run After Dark shows nightly all the way until the CFB playoff. And as a bonus we found some guys who are more handsome than Rob Dauster and Jeff Goodman to host.

Follow The Field of 12 on Twitter.

THE FAST BREAK

Links to click while you pre-order The Almanac.

• ABC will air the Women’s NCAA Tournament title game in 2023 and 2024. It hasn’t aired on network TV since 1994.

• Morehead State added 2023 prospect Eddie Ricks, a 6-8 wing.

• In what I’m dubbing ‘The Great Goodman Game’ Indiana vs. Arizona will be broadcast in historic primetime fashion.

• A record number of NCAA schools are attempting to change divisions.

• On Twitter and Instagram, we’re counting down the top 31 moments in the last 20 seasons of college basketball. I (Greg Waddell) will personally buy the first person who correctly guesses the top 5 moments (in correct) order a copy of The Almanac: The Year of the Big. Tweet us at @TheFieldOf68 with your guesses and I’ll shoutout the winner.

BONUS SECTION!

Five things that cost more than $15.99 and are less fun than “The Almanac: The Year of the Big”

No seriously, Google these. Or don’t.

1. A nose trimmer ($17.99)

2. A Grimace from McDonalds funko pop ($16.99)

3. A Fran McCaffery “Building a Championship Defense” DVD ($39.99)

4. A T-shirt with a screenshot of John Calipari’s Wikipedia page screen printed on the front ($17.95)

5. A cameo from Ed Cooley ($80)

Buy The Almanac.