A prep basketball journalist's dream

Maybe in some places, but not in Port Gibson.
Chamberlain-Hunt is a military boarding school. On top of that, five or 10 years ago, they did a damn good job of alienating most of the local families in the area that had sent their kids to school there for years. Almost all of the local white kids go to school in Vicksburg or Natchez now. All that's left there are the boarding students.

And if you've ever been to or tried to cover Port Gibson, you might think twice about calling this "a dream". The town is a shithole you don't want to stop in after dark.
I work in Vicksburg and PG is in our circulation area, about 30 minutes away. Not exactly a place we can get to every day, or for every game. Over the years we've tried to get the coaches to cooperate with us, but none ever do -- and not just in basketball, but in almost every sport.
About a month ago, someone called us wondering why we never covered them. So we told the person it was because they never called in scores, never even sent us a schedule. But still, we went down there, covered a game and did a feature story on the team because they were 18-3 or something like that.
We still haven't gotten one score called in.

 

I am quite dreamy.

 

His team is 22-3, so maybe he doesn't have to score very much. Sometimes the best college prospects in the country don't average very many points in high school if they play on loaded teams.

That said, I wouldn't be surprised if he just sucks.

 

Covered a game on the road with one of our locals last month. The girls game was a blowout, so the clock operator employed a nifty little trick. As the clock ticked down to the 3-minute mark in the third quarter, he flipped the switch to reset it to 2 minutes. In the fourth quarter, 7 minutes became 6, and 4 became 3.
A couple weeks later, same gym and same scenario in the division tournament, the guy did it again. Shaved almost half the fourth quarter off in a 30-point blowout.
That man is a god in my eyes.

 

I like the way that guy thinks. Not sure I'd do it in a division tournament game, though.

 

I understand your feelings but must protest the clock operator taking matters into his own hands.

 

Yeah, at first I wasn't sure what to think either. On the one hand it's better than a running clock, but on the other it's kind of like cheating the players.
Trust me, though, there was no way the losing team was coming back. They shot something like 7-for-40 for the game, and it wasn't a fluky one-time performance. And if it had somehow gotten within 20 points, the winning team would've turned the press back on full blast and been up 40 in about three minutes.
The guy did a good job on the clock in the close games I saw. No shenanigans at all.

 

still a big no-no. seriously. there's no reason for it - it's not his call to make.

 

Based on the title, I thought this thread would be about some kind of scandal that gets a prep writer some quality recognition that helps that writer move up the ranks, maybe to a full-time college beat.

Like a local school recruiting players from other schools, getting older players from overseas, and then housing those players in an all-expenses-paid apartment near campus.

But I digress.

 

Early in my career I got the chance to cover a nationally ranked team that traveled all over the country.

In two years, nine of its players signed to play college ball. During that time I saw plenty of big men that were tall but lacked any true basketball skills.

Coach was great because he understood more access usually resulted in more coverage. I got to cover that team like a college beat. That helped a lot when I finally got a Division I gig.

That was quite a long time ago. But some of my favorite memories on the job included covering that team playing against McDonald's All-Americans, beating nationally ranked teams and winning state championships.

As for basketball talent, Dallas, Houston and Memphis are incredible.

 

Had a 7-foot-6 kid show up on campus when I was in college.

At the time, Bruce Pearl was the coach. Someone asked Pearl if the kid was going to suit up, and Pearl's response was that the guy "couldn't play dead in a cowboy movie."

Every time I see a talentless tall kid, I think of that line.

 

Would rather cover wresting than anything else. I love it.