Tips on basketball gamers?

Anybody have a site or any place where I can find some tips on writing basketball game recap stories? It's about that time of year and I'd like to brush up on my technique a little bit.

Thanks.

 

Read, read and read some more.

Any good newspaper site is the site you're looking for.

 

The first half almost never matters,

 

To echo that, use as little play-by-play as possible.

 

Just to add to that, go to papers in NBA or major college markets.

 

I'm with everyone else: Read.

I have 30-plus newspapers which cover the NBA bookmarked on my internet browser.

 

I'd disagree with you on those that think reading NBA gamers will help you with your own technique, provided you are mainly covering high schools. These guys are covering the same team (and only that team) day in and day out.

That's not necessarily the case with high school gamers. Unless you are covering one high school every single game (and not the opponent), I'd recommend reading other prep gamers from any paper you can find, just to see how others set it all up.

 

This may be extraordinarily obvious, but please put in the records for both teams. I see many, many prep gamers that don't have that info, and I think it is essential.

If it's a true gamer and not just a roundup, make sure to let the reader know if it is a conference matchup or a non-conference one. Also, find out in advance what the team's records were last year and who is returning.

These are all basics, but once you have them down, you can concentrate your story on what actually took place on the court. When you add some description of the game, runs, etc, and you already have the nuts and bolts of the story, you'll look up and realize you already have 12 inches. And isn't that what we are all hoping for? ;D

 

Track the runs, write a little play-by-play on the turning point of the game. In general, if there's no obvious storyline, spin it forward on what the win/loss means to each team. And talk to both teams, even if one opponent isn't in your circulation area.

 

Not to be mean (really, I'm not trying to be) ... but, couldn't you insert ANY sport into that methodology, blondebomber?

 

Sure. Go ahead and write about runs in football, hockey, soccer, boxing and auto racing. That would be riveting stuff.

 

To quote an athlete of the past, ``It was a game of spurts, and we spurted last.''