Blue Ribbon College Basketball Yearbook is announcing its annual pre-order with two additional news items—our first-team preseason All-Americans and a partnership with the master of advanced analytics, Ken Pomeroy.
Beginning Aug. 14, readers can pre-order the 39thedition of college basketball’s “bible,” which will be available in digital form in late September and in perfect- or spiral-bound book form by mid-October. The book will ship on a first-ordered, first-served basis, so the earlier their pre-order, the earlier readers will receive their books.
This year, Blue Ribbon’s All-American team consists of Michigan State’s Cassius Winston, Seton Hall’s Myles Powell, Marquette’s Markus Howard, Louisville’s Jordan Nwora and Udoka Azubuike of Kansas.
With the demise of the RPI as a means to evaluate teams, Blue Ribbon sought out Pomeroy, whose work—available on his website, kenpom.com—has helped shape the direction of college basketball.
“We thought it was a great partnership,” said Blue Ribbon editor and publisher Chris Dortch. “In recent years, our staff has leaned increasingly on advanced analytics to help us put together our previews. Ken’s work is the best, so we wanted to partner with the best.”
"I'm excited to be a part of Blue Ribbon, which for decades has been the industry standard preseason publication for our sport,” Pomeroy said.
KenPom statistics can be seen throughout the book but are most notably and consistently evident in the information boxes at the top of each team’s preview. Blue Ribbon will print every Division I team’s KenPom rating for the last five years, which gives an informative snapshot of how a team has performed in that time period.