Monday, November 10, 2008

First thoughts on covering basketball

I went to my first UMass basketball game as a beat reporter last Tuesday. It was only an exhibition game, but it gave me a chance to see what covering the team was going to be like and so far, it's been great. 

UMass coach Derek Kellogg came over to greet all of us and asked if we got everything we needed the other day. He also thanked us all for covering the team. Kellogg has made it clear from the first time we met him that he is going to take us very seriously and cares a lot about how we cover the team. He has a one-track mind, which is making the Minutemen one of the best teams in the nation, and wants the fan-support that comes with it.

He believes part of getting that fan support is going to be based on how the Daily Collegian covers the team. Since we are the student paper, he feels like he has to make himself accessible to us so that we do a good job of covering UMass basketball and he gets the fan support that he wants. Granted, I'm not expecting him to give out his cell phone number anytime soon or even if he did, the Media Relations person, Jason Yellin isn't going to let him, but for a big-time beat, he is very friendly. 

1 comment:

Scott Brodeur said...

I like this behind-the-scenes post, Adam. But the lack of an accompanying image and link make it a bit of a dead end.