A couple weeks ago, I was with a few friends in Williamsburg before a William & Mary football game. In between games of flip cup, one of them mentioned off-hand that we were seniors in college 4 years ago.
First reaction: “No way, that can’t be right. I’m playing flip cup in an apartment in Williamsburg with my college friends.” Then I did the math. “Holy shit, that’s right.”
All that to say, it’s been a little while since I started No Bid Nation. I bought the domain and claimed the Twitter handle in April of 2020 in the middle of the pandemic, so NBN has officially been a thing for about three and a half years, and I’ve covered three basketball seasons since.
We’ve seen quite a lot over those seasons. We’ve seen a pandemic season with games canceled due to “health and safety protocols” – or in the case of the women’s team, outright opting out of the last few weeks of the season. We’ve seen one of the worst men’s seasons in school history, as well as one of the best women’s seasons in school history. We’ve seen a coaching change, as well as W&M sticking with a maligned coach.
There have also been quite a few iterations of what “No Bid Nation” actually is. It was just me, then it was me and Cambo, then it was me and Cambo and John, then it was me and John, and then it was just me.* We’ve written season wrap-ups about every single player with notable playing time, and other times we’ve gone months in-season without writing anything. We’ve recorded a one-hour podcast weekly, then had some guests, then cut the time down, and then struggled to get anything recorded.
The one thing that has been a constant from us has been our Twitter account. And even that has seen significant disruption over the last year, with Elon Musk’s acquisition of the platform driving many away and leading it to be much tougher to build and keep an audience.
It was one of the more dire moments in Twitter’s operational life that had me asking existential questions about what I want No Bid Nation to be. If that was no longer going to be feasible as the only arm of the NBN operation, what would I want to do? Having moved into a more intensive role at work, how would that adjust how I approach my passion project?
Thankfully, Twitter still exists, but all of this is to say that No Bid Nation may not be quite as comprehensive as it’s been in its best moments. This will be mostly a solo gig this year, across Twitter, podcasts, and this website. We’ve got a few surprises up our sleeve, especially on the podcast side, and I look forward to sharing those when able. I might not write much, but I’ll try to get words down when I can. And, as always, I’ll get to Kaplan Arena for as many games as I’m able.
I’m grateful to everybody who has read, listened, or interacted with us over the last 3.5 years, as well as those within Tribe Athletics who have helped us out when needed. A blog and podcast about William & Mary basketball is definitely a niche, but finding our space in that niche has been a ton of fun.
I’m excited for season number four. See y’all very soon.
*Cam is now officially a lawyer in North Carolina, and John is pursuing a postgrad degree in Econ at Princeton. They’re both doing great, just filling their time with more important pursuits than a basketball program that has never made the NCAA Tournament.