Thank you to my GiantKiller readers

Thank you to anyone, and everyone that has read a story of mine on GiantKiller this past season. This year was truly an exhilarating experience covering the George Mason men’s basketball team that allowed me to truly progress my journalism career.

None of this would have been possible without you, the readers, those who are reading this now and have read throughout the season.

In total, I pushed out 60 stories on the team, ranging from game previews, tournament previews, game recaps, and even a feature piece on Marquise Moore. Combined, these articles amassed 10,535 views on the website.

On average, each piece resulted in just over 175 readers.

This also does not include any podcasts made by By George, any analysis pieces by Petey Buckets, or the occasional post made by the site’s owner (he/she likes to go by Gunston) when I’m too busy missing a game recap or preview.

Again, absolutely incredible for a blog-based website with this being the first season pushing out real content. Thank you.

From these numbers (because by now you should know that I love interesting, yet significant facts) I noticed some trends from our readers on this site:

• Believe it or not, game previews (187 average views) resulted in better numbers than recaps (162 average views)
• The most viewed articles were at the beginning of the season (208 average in first 20 posts)
• Obviously when the team wins (182 average views), numbers are boosted in the recaps — loss (133 average views)
• When I wrote a recap for CSN, the numbers dwindled with competition (119 average views) granted they were both in losses
• Speculation posts/ analysis were the best. Everyone is a sucker for ‘what if’ scenarios, not just here but in the rest of media: 266 views per post

Throughout the year, I learned a great amount on what you, as readers and George Mason fans, want in a piece. To those that are not regular readers but follow along as a fan of the Atlantic 10, I always try and keep bias out of my posts. Of course, the readers are Mason fans and that will always be the focus of GK.

Overtime my articles and coverage developed every time. New hashtags were created to make it easier to follow along. #MasonRecords and #RootForMason were inspired to give you a new way to follow the team. Always I am looking for feedback on my coverage and new ways to make my stories what you want as fans.

Going forward I am going to be straightforward and say my future at GK is uncertain. Obviously I love covering this team and want to continue to do so. Unfortunately it is not financially sustainable to be a beat reporter and not get paid. I continue to search for full-time employment and my two part-time jobs already take a great deal of time, already limiting how much I want to write about this team.

Hopefully I am not done, who knows, my schedule may open up or the site may find ways to make money and I can continue to cover this team.

As for now though, I plan on writing for GK next season, covering George Mason and the Atlantic 10.

Continuing with my thank you, relive the season through YOUR eyes, because here are the top 10 stories (in terms of pageviews) that you read this year. Overall it included four game previews, two tournament previews, one player feature, one scenarios piece, one game recap, and one Jump Ball piece.

Top 10 Stories

10. #MasonGameDay: George Mason vs. George Washington Part 1 (1/25/17 – 234 views): 

A hyped up matchup between the Revolutionary Rivals. Mason was rolling after a huge win over the Richmond Spiders and had a 3-3 conference record. Combine it with the fact the team had yet to beat the Colonials in A10 play and everyone was excited. Alas, the team still has not gotten that victory after falling short here and later in Foggy Bottom near the end of the season. Hype video was also embedded.

9. 2017 CBI Predictions (3/14/17 – 236 views):

Not all of these views were from the George Mason contingent as this article was actually shared by the CBI Twitter account. In actually I believe more readers were non-Mason fans after the feedback I got from fans with the team entering this post-season tournament. Just ignore how wrong I was with the predictions, none of my postseason tournament brackets went according to plan.

8. #MasonGameDay: George Mason vs. Northern Iowa (11/29/16 – 238 views)

Another highly anticipated matchup for George Mason, this time against the team that was one of the top teams in the national RPI. From here though the Panthers would go on to free fall and this win would end up not meaning as much for the Patriots.

7. JumpBall: Bottom of Conference Pulls Their Weight (12/5/16 – 246 views)

Duquesne beat Pittsburgh, Mason had beaten Northern Iowa and Mercer, and the Atlantic 10 had an overall strong week. It was a rarity in non-conference play.

6. George Mason Keeps on Rolling to Win Fifth Straight (12/3/16- 251 views)

Combine a big winning streak with a Top-100 win and it is going to be popular read. In addition it was a home game that attendance was pretty low at forcing people to have to get connected with my recap.

5. #MasonGameDay: George Mason vs. Lebanon Valley (11/15/16 – 260 views)

A little odd that this game garnered so much traffic. First Lebanon Valley is a Division-III school and secondly it was after the team’s season opening loss to Towson.

4. Postseason Tournament Scenarios for George Mason (3/11/17 – 266 views)

Still holding out hope for an NIT bid, many thought the Patriots had an outside chance to get in the second best men’s postseason tournament. Turns out this was a prediction I got right and the CBI was the tournament Mason would participate in this March.

3. What Awkward Jumpshot? The Transformation of Marquise Moore (2/23/17 – 267 views)

Marquise Moore has been such a dynamic part of George Mason’s transformation into an Atlantic 10 player in the conference standings. Moore will go down as one of the best player’s to wear Green and Gold but unfortunately never had the light from the big stage shine down on him.

2. #MasonGameDay: The Gulf Coast Showcase (11/16/16 – 296 views)

Tournament previews are fun, especially at the beginning of the season when no one knows how any team will be prepared. Correctly picking Mason fifth in this tournament after a horrendous loss to Houston to start the event, the Patriots rebounded and kicked off their huge nine-game winning streak.

1. #MasonGameDay: George Mason vs. Towson (11/11/16 – 301 views)

Starting a new season, with the buildup from last year, this game basically served as a preseason prediction. In addition their is a slight rivalry with the CAA Towson Tigers. Going even further, technically this is oldest post on the season so more time to pick up pageviews.

Again, for everything, thank you.

All numbers were counted on Tuesday, April 11, 2017.