1,000-point scorers: how much play to give?

Obviously it's a big deal, but I was wondering how much emphasis you guys put on it?

I've had three in the past two years. One did it at home and the other two were on the road out of the area. For the one at home, I covered the game, featurized and made it all about her. For the other two, it was pretty much a given they'd get there in their next games, so I did day-of advances, featurizing their careers and all that. I've got another one tomorrow that will likely do it, and I'll be there, but I always feel like I never do enough in these situations.

 

Well, of course it depends on how many schools you cover.

If it's 8-10 schools, I'd say a day-of advance is a great way to handle it.

If you're talking 45-50 schools, you might just sink their mug shot into the roundup, make it noticeable, when they get the record.

Every year, there are more of them, so they're less "special" than they were before.

But it IS a great list to have on hand to run as a graphic every now and then, too. A few years ago, we did a list of all the state's 1,000-point scorers, boys and girls, and it went over big.

 

We're on the smaller side with eight high schools.

 

I'd definitely go on the side of advance. Because you just know the kid's going to need something like 15 points to hit 1,000 half the time, and you'll be hitting the game not knowing whether tonight's the night.

 

The kid that has a chance tomorrow needs 23 points at homes. She's coming off a 24-point game and is playing against the second-worst team in the district. Then they're on the road -- out of the area -- on Saturday. So if she doesn't get it, the featurized game story will turn into a featurized day-of advance. I wouldn't otherwise cover this game. The other team is absolutely terrible.

So there's no feeling that much more needs to be done? Like you say, it becomes less and less significant with each kid that gets there, but I still always feel like I shortchange the kids, yet don't want to go overboard.

 

Traditionally, we haven't done much with 1,000 point scorers. School records mean more, I think. And we're lucky that most of the schools in this area have a pretty good record of such things.
Besides, by the time a kid gets to 1,000 points you've probably featured the hell out of him/her anyways. A lot of times it's just a "the latest accomplishment of ..." type of thing.

 

Don't turn kids into legends just because of 1,000 career points. It's a big deal, but it's not the first -- or the last -- time it will happen.

Depending on where you're at, 1,000 points might not be much of an accomplishment at all. I've covered at least 5 kids in the last decade who had 2,000-plus points. One flunked out of Virginia, one did nothing at Duke, one did nothing at TCU (before, however, going on to study at Oxford), one had a roller-coaster career at Western Ky. The best of 'em had 2,600 points and she's a star at Georgia.

Ultimately, you can't shortchange the kids by keeping their prep achievements in perspective. It's nice, but err on the side of "don't go overboard".

 

You don't have to go overboard, especially if you cover a lot of schools. We have eight, and try to do features on players. So when one gets to 1,000 it's good to give them a little love.

Just a 17 inch feature or something. I like doing it after they hit the milestone, if you do a preview before and then they don't, well then you have to make another mention of it.

 

To me, it depends on how much time it took the kid to get 1,000 pts. If he/she has been playing regularly since freshman year and gets to 1,000 as a senior, well, it's a lot like rushing for 1,000 yards starting every game of the NFL season: No longer all that notable. If a team plays 20 games a year, a kid needs to average 12.5 pts a game for four years to get to 1,000. That's good but not great.

Now, if the kid did it in three or two years of varsity action, that's pretty noteworthy.

I understand it's a standard achievement, but not all 1,000-point scorers are created equal.

 

On a side note to this, what would be a strong single-season scoring total. I would go for 500, any other opinions?

 

It's looking like we'll have a kid reach 1,000 Friday and another one do it on Monday. And we only cover 13 schools.

 

Since we'll have now had four girls in two years reach 1,000, I was thinking of doing a follow story on that. The basketball history around my area is terrible for the most part, especially for girls, so it seems like a significant thing that so many are getting there. Though it could just be part of a cycle or a coincidence.