Welcome to the STF Q&A, where we like to talk with college basketball writers who know much, much more about the world of college basketball than we do. Today, we have David Scott of CSTV and Boston Sports Media. We’ve been friends with David for a bit now and we’re huge fans of his work as a “slogger” on CSTV.com. Enjoy!
SFT: You are one of CSTV's main "Sloggers" for the college basketball season. How did you get hooked up with CSTV and when did you first start to cover college hoops?
DS: Like everything in journalism/blogging/life, a prior business relationship led to a connection which led to the Managing Editor ofCSTV.com, Dan Kaufman, getting in touch with me before last season. I've been freelancing with them ever since and it led to live-blogging last year, some weekly notebooks/columns this year (in Hang Time and The Glass Sneaker) and wall-to-wall coverage of the 2007 NBA Pre-Draft camp, the 2007 Draft itself and even last summer's Pan Am Game Trials outside of Philly.
They've been incredibly open to all kinds of live-blogging and story-telling in general.But my own personal connection with college hoops goes back to the early days of John Calipari at UMass. (I was JOURN Major/Poli-Sci minor, degreed in 1993, but my real class was '92). I wrote for the school paper, worked in sports information and started stringing for the Boston Herald and other suburban Boston papers in the early 90s.No kidding, I would sometimes be writing the game notes AND filing a game story for the Herald or the Patriot Ledger. It was a blatant conflict-of-interest, but I was 20, 21 with low ethics/morals and slightly lower checking account balances. I left before the Final Four run of '96, but I got a good four years out of it and really saw a lot of how "the game" is played - on and off the court.
That eventually led to College Sports magazine for a bit (the under-funded, mismanged print-based forerunner of what CSTV wound up doing on TV and the Web), then SI for Kids, then SPORT magazine and through all those stops, I just stayed closest to college basketball – the characters, the gyms, the clear lineage of so many coaches and so much of the game itself. Even at SPORT as the senior writer, whenever I could pick my own stories, I'd always come back to college basketball. I danced with the NFL for a while, but my true love was the college game (college football too).
I got to know the Iona crew really well during the first years of Jeff Ruland and that brought me into the wonderful MAAC and all its New York nuances. I've always maintained some link to Coach Calipari as well and everyone on his tree like Bruiser Flint, John Robic, Derek Kellogg and now, I suppose, Brian Gorman at Becker in Worcester (there's your STF obscure hoops reference for anyone who wants to do some digging and become a Becker Backer with me).
I also did a brief stint as the editor of Basketball Times and Eastern Basketball immediately after the immortal Larry Donald passed away. Business-wise, it was an awful decision on my part, but for the sake of helping to preserve all that Larry had done with his media empire, I'm glad I was able to be the bridge that put the editorial ops. Into the hands of John Akers. That magazine is the truest form of niche publishing and from it, I saw firsthand how much passion there is in the sport.
STF: We here at STF are big fans of the of the Posting Up live-blogs at CSTV (the interactive aspect is fantastic). Do you enjoy doing the live-blogs and how has the fan response been so far?
DS: Thanks, I appreciate those kind words. You guys have directed a lot of traffic our way and we thank you for that. The live blogs are exactly the type of thing Dan and CSTV.com as a whole see the benefit of having. Especially this season where we've started to use the CoverItLive software to do real-time live-blogging where we are also creating instant polls and interacting with commenters. It is, I am convinced, part of the next evolution of the "game experience." We're already seeing it, actually. People can be watching the game we're live-blogging, commenting on their laptop or handheld and also watching different games, which then become fodder for the Comment Mill. It's a virtual bar room full of college hoops lovers. Sadly, there's no beer courtside, but that's the kind of sacrifice I'll make For my readers!
It's fascinating and I really noticed an uptick during the Conference and NCAA Tournament weeks last year. Now, with this software and the interaction it fosters? The sky is the limit and advertisers are going to see that very quickly, I think.
It's all instantaneous like IMing, so it really adds to the game. I can't say enough about how progressive Dan's been in allowing guys like me, Josh Herwitt (the CSTV.com college hoops editor/writer), Jerry Palm, Eric Sorenson (a west coast contributor), Phil Kasiecki (hoopville) and others to use the live-blogs in any number of ways.
Just as an example, during last year's Championship game, we had four courtside live-bloggers all going at the same time. Some of it was real game analysis, some of it was me and Palm ragging on each other and some of it was Soresnon taking pictures of the convulsing radio play-by-play guy, Kevin Harlan. We were not only providing information, but we were offering entertainment as a sidelight to the game.
I expect more of the same in the coming weeks and months at CSTV.com -for all sports, not just hoops.
STF: You also write for Boston Sports Media Watch, which is quite possibly the first sports blog that I ever heard of. How did you get started at BSW and do they ever let you talk hoops there?
DS: Thanks again. BSMW has been doing it for quite a while and really has become a valuable part of the Boston sports community. I originally contacted the site's founder (Bruce Allen) back in 2002 I believe, and kind tried my hand at a localized version of Rudy Martzke. In truth, it was a knock-off of Jack Craig (the old Boston Globe sports media guy), Leigh Montville, Bob Ryan and yes, even some Dan Shaughnessy. (The "Scott's Shots" moniker has been around since those same early days in Amherst. It was my sports column for many semesters in "The Collegian.") I'm basically the Boston Sports Guy who didn't make it to the big time! All the same life experiences, all the same influences, but I wound up in a shanty by the sea and he wound up in a mansion in the hills. It's all good, I like to believe.
I try not to bog down my Scott's Shots stuff with too much college hoops. But when it's natural, I'll include it. There's always a link to my CSTV.com content, so that sort of serves as an open entree into the college hoops world.
STF: I spent last summer at Boston University and know that college basketball is about 17th in the pecking order of Boston sports. How did you get so hooked on college hoops living in Beantown and what can be done to make hoops more visible?
DS: It's sad, but college basketball in Boston is actually below theBruins in the pecking order - and that's saying something in these days of the Invisible Bs.
There's really only one thing that gets you attention and that's if you make the tournament. BC will always get some bandwagon fans if they get in and to a lesser extent, UMass, BU, Northeastern, Holy Cross, even URI and Providence if they really get deep in the Tourney.
Both of the city's papers have been good about covering UMass this season, so I do give them credit there. (The Globe uses a stringer for home games, Marty Dobrow, who is probably the most talented
sportswriter in the region (you should always read a Dobrow gamer and more importantly, a Dobrow feature.)
STF:We hear that you've got a relationship with John Calipari dating back to his days at UMass. What can you tell us about that relationship? Think his Tigers are going unbeaten?
DS: I'm actually in the process of working on a book proposal with Coach Calipari, something a lot of people heard him discuss on Jim Rome's radio show a couple of weeks ago. The working title is "Bounce Back" and it's sort a road map to dealing with job loss or a life-altering event. I think it's got a great shot of getting picked up by a "high major" publisher and John is just incredible to work with.
The fact that it's given me more chances to be around the Tigers is like an added bonus. It's really helped with my CSTV.com assignments as well. I'm biased of course, but I don't think a national outlet has had better access to Memphis than CSTV (across all platforms) - especially with all the CSTV games that include Memphis (including this Saturday vs. Central Florida at 4 p.m.EST). Cal is fascinating to be around and if I can capture his essence for the book, it's really going to be some kind of reading. He's a tremendous motivator and has really become one of the game's elite coaches.
Predictions aren't my specialty. I had the Pats covering and the over/under at over and Randy Moss as MVP. Tennessee is going to be a bloodbath at the FedEx Forum (Game Day game on Feb. 23) and there are some feisty-ass teams in that league (witness UTEP last Saturday). I'm not so sure one or two losses wouldn't be a blessing for the Tigers.
STF: You were part of recent NCAA media mock tournament selection committee in Indianapolis. What did you learn after being on the inside for a day?
DS: I don't want to sound like I was drinking the NCAA Kool-Aid, but the process really was demystified on a lot of levels. Now, you've got to understand that I'm a "Show Me The Baby" guy - I don't want to see the fornication, the birthing process and the cord cutting. I just want to see the final bracket and go from there.
So the numbers part of the selection figurings are not exactly my cup of tea. Call me the anti-Lunardi. . . That said, I really did see how the Committee works and the procedures and guidelines they are beholden to. Will I continue to disagree with some seeds and placements? Probably. But I will certainly not be so shnookered as to think that the Committee has time to set up match-ups and "create" interest in games. The games will have plenty of interest no matter who is playing and inevitably an "arranged" match-up will be thwarted by a George Mason-type anyway.
As for teams that get snubbed? I've never believed there are legit snubs - if you do what you're supposed to - WIN and play a reasonable schedule - then you have nothing to worry about. No offense to Syracuse last year, but if they had won a couple more games, they would have been IN. It's that simple.
I really do give the NCAA credit for opening the process up and letting more folks see behind the curtain. It's the very thing the BCS would NEVER do. And I know you were joking when you mentioned it, but the next step for the Mock Selection process let in some respected bloggers like STF - that will really help get the word on out on just how difficult it is to pick the field.
STF: You have any Sloggin' planned for tournament season that you can discuss with us at this point?
DS: I don't think CSTV.com is fully divulging its plans yet, but suffice to say I'm looking forward to a constant flow of live-blogging, road-tripping and reveling in the Madness. I'm hoping to stick with the Tigers through as much of the Tournament as possible, but that will depend on some logistics.
STF: Since you are a UMass guy, we'll let you go with an A10 questions, Who you got winning the conference and who is going to be left out of the Dance?
DS: Xavier is still the class of the league but Rhode Island is very close. Dayton's too banged up to judge fairly at this point, but they need some ship-steadying wins for sure. Not sold on St. Joe's, but
maybe I should be. UMass is too mercurial and defense-less. Charlotte is a huge enigma, but I've always loved Bobby Lutz-coached teams.
The good thing (for this old A-10 devotee) is we're talking about the A-10 as a multi-bid league again; the bad news is that talk of five bids was probably very premature.
Thanks David! Check out more of his work at CSTV’s Hangtime
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