Dear dimwit on the phone

Had a box score turned in tonight between a local team and a non-local one that did not include two names for the non-local team, including one who was a starter.

 

This is why I have absolutely no problem with using Maxpreps as a source while citing season stats. Not only is there not enough time to do it, when Mama or Papa call in with alternate stats, not only can you say what your source is, you can explain that it's the coach's math that's costing Johnnie Bedwetter a scholarship, not you.

 

I run into this every so often during high school basketball season. Both teams send in their score sheets. One team's submission shows Team A totals: 23 2's 3 3's 10-17 FT's 65 points. Other team's submission for Team A totals: 22 2's 4 3's 9-19 FT's 65 points. I just shake my head. When I started out many, many years ago coaches were conscientious about reporting accurate information. Of course that was when you actually talked to them on a telephone. I think today some coaches just don't care or simply haven't been educated on how to work with the media. I used to create my own scoring summaries based on my note taking, but with the advent of digital cameras (yeah I'm also a shooter) I got lazy and started taking pics of scorebooks. I shake my head a lot of times when reviewing those too. So when Team A plays Team B I shoot the Team A side of Team A's scorebook and the Team B side of Team B's scorebook.

 

If I'm at the game, the only time I'll consult the scoring book is if a) I know I missed who made a basket for one reason or another b) I arrived late/they started early or c) the board's running total doesn't match mine. C is usually some student doesn't know math or missed the ref didn't put his arms up on a shot so it wasn't a 3.

 

That's what we do too.

 

Yes, indeed.

We have an awesome site in our state that tracks the hell out of prep sports and is really good with hoops and football stats. When I compare, typically my stuff and the site are use are just about even (of course, much of the info we are getting from the same source).

I definitely source that site when I do stats, specifically defensive stats for football. I don't keep track of, say, solo tackles when I cover a game. But the coaches report it to this site, and it's all there. I think it's great.

 

I'm in my first season covering basketball, so I'm still trying to work out a good system for keeping track of all the in-game data. The adult managing the official book at a tournament told me before the first game that I should take photos of his book, and track the other stats (assists, rebounds, etc.) But since I was doing a running play-by-play to be able to write the gamer, that didn't really help much.

The closest thing locally is the competition. I steal their data but have been told not to credit the site, because stats aren't proprietary (though the back-end system devised to take in results and do the math might be) or covered by copyright. I'm not happy about that, but I haven't figured out an efficient way to keep hoops stats the way I do for the other sports I cover.

 

Are you having to shoot as well?
I used to be a stat Nazi. Kept track of everything on a homemade scoresheet that had columns for everything (and there are some sites, I think MaxPreps might be one, that has some you can print off; I've seen a couple different schools in my area using the same ones).
Now that I've had to start shooting almost every game I cover, it's impossible to keep accurate stats so I go about it a lot differently. I mostly keep up with the quarter score; key plays and runs (I write down the score every few minutes); get the halftime scoring from the table, and then points and whatever stats they kept on the bench or from the table. The points are usually right, at least.
It's not ideal. I used to tally everything up at the end of the quarter and was able to do a deep dive into stats like shooting percentage and rebound trends. Can't do that much now, and it's changed the way I write my stories. It gets the job done, though.

 

An athletic director e-mailed me this morning because his school will be doing a live-stream of an event at a remote site. I figured he wanted me to promote it. But he asked if I have the wifi password for said site.

I referred him to the site manager.

 

I have an efficient way of keeping stats pretty well, but my advice would be not to get too bogged down in that. Scoring is really what most people care about.

I'm more focused on the running score, game trends, being able to describe certain plays, etc. I keep shorthand notes on just about each significant play in my ledger, because you never know which play or player a game will revolve around.

Don't get me wrong, it's nice to track stats, I do the best I can, but I used to obsessively track shooting percentages, etc. Then I started to realize that my stories were getting dry and bogged down in minutiae, and I was missing the big picture.

Specifically with HS sports, the big picture is always the thing to keep focused on. Readers aren't going to want to know deep-diving stats like they may for an NFL team which they obsessively follow. Where is a team in the standings, what were the big plays, did one player do something significant, what were the main storylines? If you can routinely capture that, you're good.

Just get the points, you can always ask coaches for other stats, they'll typically have them. However, don't be surprised when they're giving their point guard 27 assists or some absurd, biased number.

 

I got fan mail late last night!

"It appears that you have kept him off your radar and it would be a great oversight if you fail to recognize this talented player who has been recruited by several D3 colleges."

Mom disagrees with the official book (and mine) regarding her son's scoring totals last night. She also e-mailed a photo, in case I don't know who he is.

Um, the coach doesn't report results regularly, and her son's two teammates I interviewed didn't mention him. (They did, however, mention one other senior who I also omitted because I got crossed up on which of the two high-scoring guards on the other team he was defending.)

There was an announcer at this game, and he also called out most rebounds and some assists. That made having broader stats much simpler. But I definitely need to come up with a more efficient system during the offseason.

 

Div. III talent may be the key phrase there.