Giving the clock a shot

I had just started to care about college basketball.

Prior to 1980, whenever Channel 12 would show that slide that told me it was pre-empting whatever NBC was offering so it could show an ACC basketball game, I grumbled and found something else to watch. But with Ralph Sampson in his sophomore year at the University of Virginia, the Cavaliers had become interesting. People in school were talking about the games and I wanted to see what the excitement was about, so I started following the team through those Thursday night games with Jim Thacker and Billy Packer into the 1981 NCAA tournament.

Losing in the semifinals to UNC, the Cavaliers came back two nights later to win the last third-place game in NCAA tournament history to LSU (trivia players take note). That was about the time I took notice of the UNC-U.Va. rivalry, which would hit a sour note a year later in the 1982 ACC tournament.

The tournament final looked like it would be a thriller, the new kid on the block vs. the established kings, the North Carolina Tar Heels, coached by Dean Smith. And it was…for about 30 minutes. The problem is a college basketball game lasts 40 minutes. Smith decided to pull the Tar Heels back into a stall, going more than seven minutes without taking a shot. This was their style at the time, and UNC would use it to win the NCAA title three weeks later.

Obviously, I was stung by Virginia's 47-45 loss, but a lot of that came from watching what had become a soccer match (sorry, had to go there). Little did I know that this game would go a long way to bringing the shot clock to college basketball.

I always thought the 24-second clock in the NBA was a little out of the box. Frankly to this day I think that is too rushed. But there also has to be a way to keep teams from just passing the ball around while time bleeds off the clock. The first experiments with a shot clock in the mid-1980s set the time at 45 seconds, and actually turned it off with four minutes left in the game.

Meanwhile, the first experiments with the clock in NCAA women’s basketball…wait, I’m sorry, turns out they were using a 30-second clock since the early 1970s. And they still are.

Eventually, the men’s clock stayed on the entire game and through overtime, then in the 1990s it was shortened to 35 seconds. But high school basketball has mostly ignored the shot clock. When I was working in Virginia, it would be mentioned every couple of years, but ultimately the cost of the equipment, the need for someone to run the clock, just the fact that it probably doesn’t impact the game at that level were all mentioned as reasons against the change.

So imagine my surprise when I walked into the gym at Corona del Mar High School in Newport Beach last Wednesday and saw two shot clocks that were actually in use. Turns out that California is one of eight states where high schools use the shot clock, and it’s the same as in the NCAA -- 35 seconds for boys and 30 seconds for girls.

I asked an assistant coach from the Woodbridge High School girls team the next night how long California had been using the shot clock, and he said at least 18 years since it was part of the game as long as he had been coaching.

What was the impact on the game? Well, not a lot for the first 28 or so minutes, but in each of the first three games I saw there seems to be less fouling down the stretch. I remember a junior varsity game between Page and Luray when the entire fourth quarter consisted of Page players being fouled so Luray could get the ball back. Six minutes of this. So anything that can cut back on those types of games gets my endorsement.

The threat of two free throws after the 10^th foul of the half has not cut back on the length of games, so maybe more states adopting shot clocks could. The NBA is talking about making fouls away from the ball in the last minute or two of a game two shots plus possession of the ball. That could be effective.

In the interim, with the tight deadlines newspapers face these days, I'll endorse anything that keeps the games moving.

Turning on a dime

Well, that was different.

I picked up a sidebar assignment from the Orange County Register after it first appeared that my Friday night football gig was done for the season as the number of games dwindled in the second week of playoffs.

Unlike going to the game site and knowing that my stat reporting would be the most important element, followed by knocking out an 8- to 10-inch story, this was going to be a pure feature, although based on something out of the game, and it had to center on the Orange County school, Mater Dei, which was hosting Alemany.

The game ended up being quite exciting, although I often think that what is exciting for fans makes for a tougher job for reporters: Games with lots of points and games that go down to the wire end up taking more time, then are more complicated to report on.

For me, the initial issue was to figure out what I'd be writing about. Register staffer Adam Maya was there to write the gamer and take care of the stats, which seem to be more time consuming than the actual story. But this was also a 7:30 p.m. start, and on television (with all its commercial timeouts), so making the 10:30 p.m. deadline would be no easy task for either of us.

As it turned out, the teams kept piling up the points and our deadline was pushed back, which is good since the game did not even end until 10:25 and we still had interviews to do. By that time Adam and I had decided I would write on the challenge to Mater Dei junior quarterback Chase Forrest, even if I had to start writing that story with 8 minutes left and I had to lead with it looking like a loss for the Monarchs.

Twenty-two points  in 7 1/2 minutes certainly changes things. But also makes them more complicated.

Having to scramble for an idea and then see it through on a tight deadline reminded me of my early days as a reporter. More often then not you'd go to a town council meeting with an idea of what you'd write about, and maybe something happens in the chamber that changes that, but it was within the context of that meeting so the choices of story still had some limit. Other days you'd walk in the door and find out you were writing a story about where cars are supposed to be in those crossovers while waiting to make a U-turn.

Thankfully, this came together better than I thought it might when I was staring at the computer at 10:50 trying to sew the thing together. And it was quite a game to watch.

http://www.ocvarsity.com/sports/forrest-34619-dei-mater.html

Oh, and I appeared on TV (yet again) too.

So long to an old friend

In New Orleans, there is no longer a daily paper. Soon, Syracuse and Harrisburg will also face that reality. But in all three cases, the framework of the daily is still there, reporters will still post stories to the web those days that the newspaper is not printed, and longtime readers can take comfort in knowing their source of information is still available, although in a different format.

That’s one thing readers of The News & Messenger don’t have in Prince William County. When the Manassas-based paper closes shop in seven weeks, the InsideNOVA website will go with it, and residents of Virginia’s second-largest county will lose their most reliable source of news.

I’m particularly interested in The News & Messenger’s fate for several reasons. I was a stringer for the two papers that were merged to create it, the Journal-Messenger of Manassas and the Potomac News of Woodbridge. I actually applied for the assistant sports editor slot at the Potomac News twice in the 1990s. And the J-M was a worthy adversary when I first got to The Northern Virginia Daily in 2000, proving to be the last paper to beat us in the Virginia Press Association sweepstakes, although that win essentially took place before Bob Wooten arrived at the Daily at the end of 1999.

Some six years before that, I got a call from the Potomac News asking if I would write a story from a Brentsville-Page County football game I was already covering in Shenandoah that Friday. Sure, I said. Around that time the News had launched a Sunday edition (and put its Saturday paper on hiatus), so doing a story and stats for them still involved filing Friday night, but not on the deadlines I would face with the J-M in 1995-96 or Orange County Register.

While the story was well-received, the Potomac News did not have anything else for me, so when J-M sports editor Josh Barr got in touch with me the next fall, I started covering Manassas Park and Brentsville when they would play at Page or Luray. In two years, I probably wrote seven or eight stories, covering football, basketball and even the Region B volleyball tournament. Those $25 checks came in handy at the time.

As I moved on to the Daily News-Record and The Northern Virginia Daily, I always kept an eye on what they were doing in Manassas and Woodbridge. I have always been a proponent of newspapers being local, doing what they can do the best. Sure, The Washington Post and Washington television stations cover Prince William County, if you consider showing up whenever something explodes as coverage. There was plenty of stuff that you’d never hear about if not for the truly local paper: City councils, boards of supervisors, education coverage. All of the “unsexy” stuff that does not translate to television but affects people’s lives every day.

When were the television stations and the Post interested in the Shenandoah Valley? When a hurricane was on the way, when a mobile home blew up and when the Salahis instigated some sort of hijinks. Similarly, they concentrate their efforts on Fairfax and kind of let Prince William twist in the wind. So the Potomac News and the J-M had their niche.

Until they were merged. Until Media General decided to close down the presses in 2009 and start printing the paper 75 miles away in Hanover County, squeezing in the run between editions of the Times-Dispatch. Factor in the time it would take to get the papers back to Prince William County and the deadlines created their own issues. I am not sure what time the News & Messenger goes to press these days, but when the change was made in 2009 it was too early to get much (if any) live prep coverage in the paper. And just like those local governmental stories, something local newspapers do better than anyone else is high school sports. That is, until your ability to do so is compromised.

Oh sure, that coverage can be found on the website so if it doesn’t make the paper, just look there. Except for the people who don’t want to look there, who have found it in their newspaper all these years and do not understand why that is being taken away from them.

I was shocked to see that The Journal & Messenger’s circulation had fallen to 10,000 (from 22,132 as separate papers in 2005) until I starting thinking of what it had become. I hear it has about 26,000 likes on Facebook and the InsideNOVA website is quite popular. But the center of the operation was marginalized, and the prospects of making it profitable again were slim.

Interestingly, however, the plug is being pulled on the website too, probably because without print income it is impossible to keep it operating. That leaves readers in Prince William County several weeklies and websites such as Patch to keep them informed.

Because of the special circumstances – proximity to Washington, printing on early deadlines, and the recent purchase along with most of Media General’s other papers among them – the loss of the News & Messenger is not a canary in a mineshaft. But it is disappointing to me, both in seeing good journalists lose their jobs and readers lose a reliable source of information.

Playoff time

Covered my first CIF playoff game on a windy Friday night in Costa Mesa. It might have been 58 degrees but with the 25 to 35 mph winds I really felt like I was back in the Shenandoah Valley. The weather held down the crowd, but it was a great opportunity to see two of the top running backs in Orange County. Here's my story.

http://www.ocvarsity.com/sports/yard-34476-estancia-magana.html

Something to play for, and a bath to boot

I did not know enough about California's high school playoff system last week at this time to know my Friday game actually meant something.

The Golden West League game pitted a 4-5 Ocean View team against 2-7 Loara, who I had just seen the week before losing to Westminster as the Lions sewed up a piece of the district title and their own berth in the playoffs.

So imagine my surprise when I was reading an e-mail from Orange County Register team leader Brian Patterson early Friday afternoon. Just like the previous week, he was outlining the playoff scenarios for the two dozen stringers working that night, since we needed to get that information in our stories. Despite their records, the teams in my game were still in line for the playoffs. All Ocean View needed was a win to finish 3-2 in the league and get its third playoff slot. If Loara won, it would be part of a three-way tie at 2-3 and coin flips would determine if it, Ocean View or Orange got the spot.

When I arrived at Glover Field in Anaheim, I asked about the coin flips, and someone from each school told me off the record that they had taken place and that Loara won, so this very game would determine the third-place team.

Lucky for me, it was an exciting game that moved at a great pace, wrapping up with Loara's win at about 9:20, giving me a little more than an hour to file my statistics and story. I was even able to get a quick interview with Loara's coach, Dean Lappin. I had just finished jotting down his last quote when I sensed players coming up from behind us.

My interview allowed them enough time to grab a cooler and dump it on their coach. One of my legs got wet as well, but I was none the worse for wear. I saw Lappin in the middle of a group of players, said thanks and gave him a thumbs up. Just another Friday night on the beat.

Here's the coverage from OCVarsity.com. Not sure if there are any photos floating around, but if I find one I will post it.

http://www.ocvarsity.com/sports/stirrat-34301-loara-spot.html

A test for social media

Getting ready for my Community Emergency Response Team class tonight and watching the coverage of Hurricane Sandy, and I had a few thoughts.

During the first week's class, our instructor, who really did help "write the book" that the feds now use for CERT training, stressed over and over that people need to get on Twitter -- they don't even have to tweet -- so they can keep tabs on things whenever there is an emergency. It's a thought I passed along to a few recalcitrant friends, although at least one who also refuses to join Facebook was a bit snarky in his response (which makes me think he'd have an even BETTER time doing the back-and-forth on Twitter).

Of course, social media is only as good as the people who are posting make it. And in the early hours of the storm, it has been a bit bumpy.

We've already had a bit of an online tussle about a photo at the Tomb of the Unknowns. Taken during a storm last month, some have retweeted or shared it stating that the three soldiers are out in hurricane conditions right now. While it is true soldiers are out there, the Old Guard quickly noted that what is circulating is not a current photo, and put some up at http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.515517068472407.121621.109701809053937&type=1  They are no less dramatic than the ones making the rounds, and have the added benefit of truly reflecting what's going on.

This actually is not what I'm most concerned about. We have seen in the past that some people will retweet, repost or forward stuff without regard to its veracity. These are powerful tools that social media puts in the hands of everyone. While almost everyone uses them responsibly, do think twice about what you are hearing or seeing before hitting send. It is important that everyone remain vigilant and correct those who would misinform. If someone says you need to evacuate or boil your water, retweet from the official source, not your neighbor's dentist.

The next couple of days are going to be rough in the East. Facebook and Twitter are going to be valuable resources to keep people informed and in touch with each other, at least as long as they can hit a cell tower or their ISP. But if people clog these channels with half-truths or outright lies, their value is diminished.

It's an old saw, but no less true today: Just because it's on the Internet doesn't make it true.

Clincher

Did my first game with playoff implications last night. It was also at a location as convenient as they will get for me traveling from Torrance to Orange County for work. Westminster is only a mile or so off the 405, and just an exit past the 22, so I made it home in 32 minutes. Don't ask about the 70 minutes it took to get there.

http://www.ocvarsity.com/sports/westminster-34120-loara-playoff.html