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How fine-tuned are your college basketball gamers by halftime

Discussion in 'Journalism topics only' started by doodah, Jan 13, 2012.

  1. HanSenSE

    HanSenSE Well-Known Member

    This.

    Nowadays, with the number of games on television and the proliferation of highlight shows (not only the WWL, but the various and and sundry regional networks and online), it's fairly safe to assume readers know =what= happened. It's our job to tell =why= Podunk State was able to put together that 22-point run, or why Danny Doubledribble was so effective from 3-point range.

    A high school game, I might do it differently, but unless I'm stuck, I try not to rehash play-by-play.

    Also, what Stitch said: Read lots of gamers. That's how a lot of us learned. And with the Internet, you have the chance to read not only the Hometown Herald's account of the game, but the Visitor's Gazette as well.
     
  2. mediaguy

    mediaguy Well-Known Member

    As I said, it's rare that the first half is so relevant as to merit more than a single paragraph in a game story. Somebody comes out of the gates down 20-2, yes, that establishes the story for the game. But if the game's margin is 10 or less at the half, really won't be much first-half play-by-play in a good game story ...
     
  3. sprtswrtr10

    sprtswrtr10 Member

    You're getting to it doodah.
    Yes, that 22-0 run is important.
    Yes, you will likely mention it.
    You may write "a 22-0 first half run fueled by a trio of 3-pointers from Joe Schmo," however, you're not going to know that that 22-0 run was everything in that game until later, until it holds up, etc. The entire context of that run won't be known by the half, so there's not point in detailing it at the half and that was the original question of the thread, how much "fine-tuning" will you do at the half, to which most of us are saying "nothing."

    And, separate point "detailing" that run might be just that line I used, built around a couple of quotes, maybe one from each side (or if you're covering one school more than another, a quote from two players or a quote from the coach and the dude who hit the trio of 3-pointers). Most of all, you just can't get involved with… "and this happened … and then this happened," etc.

    Quick story.

    I'm the SE at my place and my beat is women's hoops. A few years ago, at Baylor, the team I was covering won very dramatically on the road. One of those there to cover Baylor, I remember this well, asked two or three questions about the first half, and at the time I was thinking WHAT ON EARTH IS HE ASKING THAT FOR. The whole game was the last 5 minutes. The first half might as well have been last month. And it was a TV game. I mean, for women, it was a big, big game. Well, I drove home the next day and grabbed the paper that writer was with before I left the area. Anyway, the story was maybe 1,000 words. It was the only story. No notes. and about 300 to 400 words was the first half, EVEN WITH QUOTES. A lot of the rest of it was a rehash of other portions of the game, before the last few minutes … Once upon a time, everybody wrote really long and it was written for people who were hearing about the game for the first time. Sometimes you can find those stories in books written for the fans of one school or another and some of what I've seen would be like 200 to 400 words that would still work today and work very well, followed by 600 to 800 words of drivel, the back and forth of the game … Well, this writer wrote like the writers of a different generation. But you just can't do that any more … Give me a gamer that exists in context rather than a vacuum, that includes the insight and analysis a beat writer (or even a seasoned reporter) should be able to provide, and a notepad that makes certain folks who follow the team you're covering remain informed.

    Maybe that wasn't a quick story.

    Yes, read other people.

    Another quick story.

    My epiphany was the New York tabloids about 15 years ago. The gamers told THE STORY. But they did not rehash the games. I was a one-person department at a very small daily covering a bunch of high schools, and I if wanted to put the game into real context or "tell it like it is" I always felt like my only avenue was a column, yet that did me no good on deadline with the time or space to only write one story. When I read the N.Y. tabs for the first time it was an epiphany. I mean, I still had to write for my readers and their sensibilities (in the Bible Belt, not the Big Apple), still, I decided I was going to write what I really thought needed to be written from that point forward. And ever since, and I believe I'm right about this, I've had a much greater sense what I have written has actually being read, as opposed to one group of partisans simply being pleased that I wrote it.

    Hope that's helpful.
     
  4. Versatile

    Versatile Active Member

    My mentality is often: What would be the first thing you told someone about the game? You wouldn't tell them about the first half very often.
     
  5. doodah

    doodah Guest

    I've never thought of it quite that way before, Versatile. Also, how often are you guys called on to write a sidebar along with your gamer? The sidebar, I assume, typically runs later in the week, right? Do you use the quotes from that game in your sidebar or schedule an interview with the reporter? I assume you use the quotes from the presser.
     
  6. flexmaster33

    flexmaster33 Well-Known Member

    I'm with versatile...

    Most of my gamers describe a handful of the game-changing moments often from the second half...so if I write anything at the half, it's usually just a few quick summary paragraphs about a few tone-setting moments early in the game.

    Of course, sometimes you get a blowout where the big game-changing moment comes right away, and you can write the bulk of your story about that first-half flurry and just tag on a few tidbits from what becomes a meaningless 2nd half.
     
  7. BrianGriffin

    BrianGriffin Active Member

    Doodah, don't leave out the pre-game intros. Don't forget.
     
  8. Stitch

    Stitch Active Member

    A sidebar is a side story that runs the same day.
     
  9. doodah

    doodah Guest

    Oh, so I guess one wouldn't do a gamer, a notebook and a sidebar all the same would they? A gamer could run with a notebook at the bottom, of course.
     
  10. Stitch

    Stitch Active Member

    Yes, you might have to write all three.
     
  11. BB Bobcat

    BB Bobcat Active Member

    I almost always write something at halftime, just to make myself feel better.

    Then I delete it all during the second half.
     
    sprtswrtr10 likes this.
  12. Ben.Breiner

    Ben.Breiner Member

    I actually wrote one of my favorite leads about pre-game intros. Granted that was a day when a coach decided to open the NCAA tournament by starting the last five players on his bench, and they won in a blowout.

    But I think sprtswrtr10 hit the nail on the head. You are there to "tell THE STORY, not rehash the games." Sometimes the story happens in the first half. Not often, but sometimes. More often a nice detail from the first half can inform a larger story.
     
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