The best interview in the business was UC Davis coach Sandy Simpson. If you let him talk, he’d quote novelists and Beat poets, but that’s now how today’s sports media works.
Sideline reporter Charissa Thompson got in hot water last month for saying she fabricated football coaches’ quotes, and Erin Andrews — one of the best-known faces in the business — said she had, too. I’ve been saying for years that we can all do this, because coaches and players and media follow the same script.
Coach Simpson called it the “coach-reporter song and dance”, and said dealing with the press was an obligation. Which was a damn shame, because like I said, if you let Coach Simpson go off script, he was one of the most well-spoken people I’ve ever met.
A typical snippet from the coach-reporter song and dance goes:
“Coach, you’re down 52 points at half, partly because your quarterback has thrown three interceptions returned for touchdowns. Who has to step up for you in the second half?”
“Well, they all do.”
Media asks that dumb question because their copy is easier to write if a coach singles out the bum who threw three “pick sixes”, but coaches never do.
In the same vein, a basketball writer could say: “Coach, your player of the year candidate is lost for the season to an injury. Where are you looking to replace her 25 minutes, 18 points, 6 rebounds, and 4 assists?”.
A coach would say she’s not looking at one player, she’s looking at 10.
Utah visits St. Joseph’s today, and meets #1 South Carolina Sunday in Connecticut. They’re going in after losing Gianna Kneepkens, who leads the Utes in more than numbers, while her numbers are outstanding.
Coach Roberts can say she’s counting on 10 players to step up in Gianna’s absence, but specifically, Kneepkens is a guard, and her only guards who were playing fewer than 22 minutes per game are freshman Matyson Wilke and sophomore Lani White.
Coach Roberts can’t say it, but I can: I’m looking squarely at Lani White, who’s been a disappointment. Her .491 FG% from last season is down to .281, while her .444 3FG% dropped to .208. She’s visibly lost confidence.
Wilke is in the difficult position of “freshman thrown into the deep end of the pool for a championship-contending team”. White’s been to the round of 16. Sure, the Utah family would prefer to bring Wilke along gradually, and let White regain her feet in an unhurried way, but those are luxuries the family has lost.
Wilke is in the difficult position of “freshman thrown into the deep end of the pool for a championship-contending team”. White’s been to the round of 16. Sure, the Utah family would prefer to bring Wilke along gradually, and let White regain her feet in an unhurried way, but those are luxuries the family has lost.