No talk about Chuck Culpepper's masterful NCAA game story?

I was a fan of Eddie Pells' story, undoubtedly filed on deadline, for the AP. Not so much a literary masterpiece ... but concise, accurate and heavy on facts. The perfect deadline gamer.





HOUSTON – One good shot deserved another.

Kris Jenkins of Villanova wasn't about to be outdone.

Jenkins overcame the shock of watching North Carolina's Marcus Paige hit a double-clutch 3 to tie it by spotting up behind the right side of the arc and draining a 3 of his own at the buzzer to lift Villanova to a 77-74 victory and the national championship Monday night.

What a shot. What a game.

The second-seeded Wildcats (35-5) had a six-point lead with 1:52 left, but watched it slowly trickle away. Then, it was gone. Paige collected the ball and jumped to take the shot. With Ryan Arcidiacono running at him, Paige double clutched and pumped one from beyond the arc to tie the game at 74 with 4.7 seconds left.

After a timeout, Arcidiacono took the inbound pass from Jenkins, worked the ball upcourt and got it back to the junior guard. Jenkins took two quick stutter steps and, with daylight between himself and the defender, swished it from about two paces behind the 3-point line.

'Kris told him he was going to be open, Arch made the perfect pass,' Villanova coach Jay Wright explained. 'Kris lives for that moment.'

 

The fourth graf is a two-feet-slamming-on-breaks instance for me in the AP story.

 

It's unconventional, no doubt.

But the unusualness of such a graf appearing in a story helps the reader ... who didn't see the ending ... understand how monumental a shot and game it really was. That's my $.02, at least.

 

Highly disagree.

Don't underestimate your audience. The third graf tells me, as a reader, that it was a remarkable game and a remarkable shot. "What a shot. What a game" adds absolutely nothing. It's redundant. At this point, even in a straight-laced gamer, we should be learning about how and why it became a remarkable shot and a remarkable game, not receiving a burst of nonsense enthusiasm from the writer.

 

I liked Culpepper's story mainly because it told the story. Was it overwritten? Maybe, but that's what a good championship story is. It's the final chapter in a book on the season and he told the story masterfully. The fact he did it in like 15 minutes is even more remarkable. Wish I knew how much was written in game and what was written the second the ball went in the hoop.

Macur's detail was excellent, but I didn't like the premise of "the pass before the shot." It read to me like she had two story ideas - one on Arcidianco and probably another ready to go on someone for UNC in case they won. A lot of the detail on Arcidianco isn't the type of stuff you get moments after a game like that. It's gathered a week in advance. The reporting was awesome and so was the writing.

But as someone said, these are just two great examples of two different types of deadline writing.

Someone national writer I follow on twitter send out Culpepper's piece with a "this is amazing deadline writing" tweet and I balked at reading it. I see so many pieces around here sent out with a "this is a great story by my co-worker" and it's just ordinary, fresh out-of-college stuff. To many times people want to praise mediocrity, but this wasn't one of those times.

 

Yup. I'd have cut it.

 

Stunning that no one mentioned Culpepper's glaring error in his "masterpiece"

"Then it won even after a frightening jolt, when North Carolina started up the court after Hart’s free throws with 13 seconds left, down 74-71, and Jenkins lunged at Paige, and Jenkins flew away, and Paige launched his shot."

It was Ochefu who lunged at Paige and not Jenkins who was not even close to the play.

 

Culpepper had me at "cocksure."

 

I read this, and wondered what the hell is he saying? Jenkins is sure his cock will get some poon-tang tonight?

 

Agree with Solo on this. Show me is was a great game, don't tell me.

 

I thought it was an exquisite gamer from Culpepper. Hit all the right notes for me. And if a game ever merited being "overwritten," as the pundits put it ...

Some of you would have chuckled derisively at the Four Horsemen lede.

Keep on championing those AP ledes. It's why I keep a constant pack of 7-hour energy shots in my desk drawer.

 

Where do you get the 7-hour energy shots? The 5-hour ones aren't making it through the afternoon meeting.