Getting better at covering basketball

Cue Kurtis Blow .... "They're playing basketball. We love that bas-ket-ball. ..."

Oh yeah, I can't wait for basketball season! Indiana born and raised!

 

keep track of runs.
So much of basketball is momentum, the key point in the game is probably going to come when one team gets a couple defensive stops and gets baskets on the other end.

 

All that strategy and X-and-O stuff should be learned, kind of like you need to know how to swallow correctly when you drink water. (It should become automatic and instinctive, is what I mean to say.)
In the end, though, a good game story should tell you a little bit about the game and a whole lot about the people who made the game happen and what it means to them.

 

This is a chance to write a fresh perspective. Let the player quotes and the action carry the stories. If you aren't a great analyst of the game, don't try to be. Let others tell the story through their quotes and actions.

That's my best advice. It's an easy game, and I think it's an easy cover. Basketball is great because you can look at the stat sheet and know exactly what happened in the game without seeing play by play.

Also, word of advice on game stories: Don't get bogged down play by play. Save that until the end. If there is a 15-0 first half run, say John X scored 8 points in a 15-0 first half run.

Or better yet, if it isn't a major part of the story eliminate it. Play by play hoops stories (and we all have done them) are train wrecks to read.

 

Good point about runs and momentum, they can help produce story gold and good questions. In this case, though, I applaud newinthefield for trying to look beyond that to why things are happening.

Knowing the basics of things like zone or man defence and when they're used, and the difference between teams scoring off the break or off a more controlled set can help you offer a lot of analysis without having to know every excruciating detail. Knowing your team's tendencies also helps if it's a beat.

Again, you know Johnny Bull might have had a good first half from the post and produce less in the second. It's not necessarily that he's become cold, but that the other team has made adjustments. Good to know what those are and why something is/isn't working against a particular team. (And you can still let the action and the quote carry the story, but the more you know about this stuff, the better questions you can ask to get the quotes).

And Hacker is on to something here. I know watching practice tends to be a luxury that not many news reporters have time for any more, but if you can sit in on any, they'll certainly give you a lot of ground to work from.

In the sports I've covered, I find a lot of times, halftime adjustments in basketball tend to be among the more effective strategies and they can affect the momentum big time.

I don't know any books in particular that help with that, though. I tend to learn by watching the game and not being afraid to ask dumb questions posed by a hockey/football guy who doesn't know hoops. It's worked for me.

 

Agree that you don't need to be versed in basketball strategy to do the job. That said, it would help your cause if you found someone who was, then asked them what the keys to the game were. Not necessarily for a quote but to direct your story. Because while the boxscore will tell you a lot, it won't necessarily tell you why things happened, just that they did.

Quick example (and forgive me if this is too obvious): If you look on the stat sheet and see that one kid hit 6-8 three-pointers and scored 22 points, that's clearly impressive and worth mentioning. But if you can figure out why and how he hit those threes it will give your gamer a lot more depth.

Were they off-the-dribble, contested threes? If so, chances are the kid just had a ridiculous shooting night (or is a stud player) and carried his team.

Were they spot-up threes that came because of great ball movement? If so, then his team is well-coached, unselfish and likely has an awareness of its own strengths and weaknesses

Were they wide open threes, with no one close to him? If so, then perhaps the other team was daring him to shoot - the kid might even be the team's weak link on most nights - and on this one night he got hot and made them pay. Or, alternately, perhaps the defense doubled down on a dominant post player so emphatically that they were leaving the perimeter open all game. In this case, the threes were a risk the opposition assumed ahead of time, similar to doubling a star receiver on one side of the field and hoping the other secondary receivers don't have big games.

If you're new to basketball, you may not be able to divine this from watching it. But surely one of the coaches, or assistant coaches, or a smart player, or a father, or a scout, will be able to tell you that. And this can inform how you cover the story.

If you're looking to bone up, I'd suggest reading old features/gamers from basketball writers who mix reporting and analysis, like Mark Heisler and Jack McCallum

 

My first basketball gamer, in college, I did about 80 percent play by play.

Don't do that.

 

I LOVE covering basketball. My favorite sport.

I agree that it's a game of runs. Definitely a factor. And I do think it helps to know strategy. Did a man-team revert to zone to stop a hot shooting team? Did an undersized team double and triple inside and force the opponent to shoot from the outside?

Basketball, to me, has more rhythm than any other sport. It's about flow. And I think baseball is a hell of a lot easier to cover than basketball. Heck, not really any sport is too demanding.

 

Solid advice, as this is something I always try to do. If a game is tied and a team goes on a 9-0 run to end the third quarter, that is a huge momentum swing right there and may very well affect the outcome.

Also, I keep my own box scores. It can get frantic at times, but sometimes box scores really do tell the whole story.

 

Starting from the beginning? We get college interns who do that incessantly. Nothing drives me up the wall more.

 

yes, that is the worst...a mistake a lot of young writers make, even more so when they aren't comfortable with what they are covering.

 

My advice: Don't worry too much about getting into intricate detail about x and o strategy of games. Nail the lede, figure out who the hero is, figure out the basic competitive dynamic (this is where some strategy comes in, but you will learn all you need to know about that if you cover a beat and listen to what the coaches and players say in the run-up to the game), do a good job covering the general flavor of the game, and put the game in the larger context of the team you're covering's goals. File.