Behind the Scenes: Covering a Kentucky basketball game for the first time

My first Kentucky basketball game as a credentialed media member is in the books, and I’m still not sure what to do with my hands. The last year and a half of writing for Kentucky Sports Radio dot com has been both exhilarating and exhausting at times, but it hit a high point on the Friday after Thanksgiving when I was afforded the opportunity to work the Marshall game, almost as if I was a real, live journalist.

With Zack Geoghegan in Paducah for Thanksgiving, I felt like the alumni band filling in during the break. The biggest difference, of course, was that I had never done this before. Maybe the more accurate analogy is that I was the older guy who bought an eRUPPtion Zone ticket for $20 because the students were away. Either way, I was there.

Before I dive in and give you a behind-the-scenes look at what it is like to cover a game at Rupp Arena, it is probably important to let you know how I wound up in this position. First, I’m just a guy. The folks who do this full-time deserve an infinite amount of credit for the hours they put into making the KSR machine churn. It takes real talent, creativity, and a nose glued to the grindstone to pump out the number of high-quality posts and content day after day that should never be taken for granted.

I, on the other hand, am just the person who helps give the pros a break every once in a while. Writing for Valley of the Suns (FanSided’s Phoenix Suns site) for over a year gave me enough experience for Tyler Thompson to take a shot on me, but ultimately I’m just a born and bred Kentucky fan cosplaying as a sports writer in my free time.

So, if you’ve ever wondered what it is like to cover a game as a credentialed media member with no professional training of any kind aside from a lifetime of cheering for Kentucky, this post is for you.

The days leading up to the game

I was fairly confident I was in once Tyler submitted the request for my credentials a few weeks prior to the game, but it became real on Monday when I got the email confirmation from Kentucky Athletics. The last time anyone from the university communicated with me in an official capacity was when I received a pharmacy school rejection letter, so an acceptance for credentialed access into a men’s basketball game was a welcomed change.

The meatier email came on Thursday. I spent my turkey coma combing over all the pre-drafted information pertinent to game day. Seating assignments, media pass will call location, maps for parking (which for some reason still costs $27), and the coveted Rupp Arena wifi access filled up multiple pages and attachments.

I read it more thoroughly than probably most recipients, but my number one goal of the whole experience was to not royally screw up, so I figured going in armed with all the information I could was a good start to achieving this relatively low bar of success.

Getting in the building

The doors open for media two and a half hours prior to the start of the event. Considering I wanted to look like I had been there before, I only arrived two hours before the game. Fashionably late, you know?

My manufactured confidence took an immediate shot to the heart when, after walking through the media entrance still unsure if I was in the right place, one of Kentucky’s media personnel immediately noticed my fish-out-of-water uneasiness and asked, “Are you media?”

“Yes?” For some reason, this felt like a lie.

He looked skeptical but my name was on the list, so he busted out the item that will likely end up framed in my house at some point: my single-day media pass. I quickly attached it to my belt and made my way up to the assigned KSR seats in the “hockey box,” as one Blue Coat called it.

After dumping off my laptop and coat, Jack Pilgrim texted that he was running a little behind, so I made my way down to the floor. Gotta maximize this access, right?

Exploring the bowels of Rupp

Having attended hundreds of sporting events in my life and self-upgraded to better seats on more than one occasion, I’ve always been wary of ushers and security. So, as I walked down the stairs toward the roped-off hardwood, I kept waiting for someone to stop me, as people in similar positions have done my entire life.

But they didn’t. They just let me go. That little card slightly bigger than an index card affixed to the top of my pants served as Blue Coat immunity and it took a while for my brain to adjust to my newfound superpowers.

After watching Antonio Reeves and Reed Sheppard warm up while not missing a shot for a few minutes from the comfort of the front row, I meandered back into the tunnel where I–and I cannot stress this enough–had no idea where I was going.

I walked as slowly as I could without it looking weird as I looked out for what might be cool to see. Weaving through Marshall players coming out of the visiting locker room, I immediately found the interview area, marked by blue and white checkerboarded tile. I thought the program had moved passed this hideousness.

Once there, I felt like a dog that caught the car and didn’t know what to do with it. Videographers were setting up cameras and folks who looked much more important than me were sitting at circular tables likely discussing world domination or something similar.

Having reached what looked to be a dead end, I made my way back to the floor, where Sheppard and Reeves continued to not miss.

Meeting up with Jack and Drew

Having helped cover Sunday posts with him since the start of football season, I had communicated with Jack quite a bit over the last few months, but this would be the first time we actually met. Our relationship up until Friday had been strictly textual.

So, as he came down the steps into the media hockey box, it felt like I was meeting someone off a dating app for the first time. Any would-be awkwardness quickly dissipated, though, after a few minutes of commiserating over the highs and lows of KSR life. And here I was only doing it solely for the glory.

As for Drew Franklin, I had actually met him once before under extremely different circumstances. At the Kentucky versus Ole Miss football game last year in Oxford, I ran into him at the Library bar sometime around midnight. Needless to say, we had much more coherent conversations on Friday, having not been tailgating since 7:00 a.m.

The free stuff

Getting a free seat to a Kentucky basketball game is a good enough perk by itself, but the Athletics Department sprinkles in a few additional complimentary tokens to make journalists feel slightly more special. In lieu of catered food, each media member gets $12 worth of concession credit to use as their leisure. While I was tempted to try my luck with the vaunted Southern Hound, we decided to play it safe with a barbeque sandwich.

Well, “barbeque sandwich” is a strong term for the conglomeration of mush that was wrapped inside aluminum foil. Jack took a picture that didn’t even do its puniness justice. It is criminal that they charge $10 actual dollar bills to the Wildcat faithful for what amounted to a few shreds of meat between two small soggy buns.

The popcorn, on the other hand, was on point. Tucked away in a discrete and barren room lay a constantly replenished table of popcorn next to a fridge full of bottled water and soft drinks. You’d never know a treasure chest of snacks and refreshments was in the room, but once Jack revealed the trove, I took full advantage, consuming an embarrassing amount of popcorn, Coke Zero, and water just because it was there, and…well…free.

The actual Kentucky game

If you saw my Friday night post or watched our Rapid Reaction, you probably know the game was an insane amount of fun. The general rule in the press box is no cheering allowed, but the joy across the entire line of reporters was abundantly clear as Kentucky put on a record-breaking performance.

Despite the fun, there was actually a tremendous amount of work going on that wasn’t exactly easy. Juggling KSBoard, Twitter/X, and getting a head start on writing the post-game takeaways post, it was sometimes tough to watch the actual game. You’ve got to keep your head on a swivel. Multitasking is not just helpful, it is mandatory in order to be remotely functional.

Again, it’s a testament to the crew who do this game in and game out and make it look effortless. My respect for their work ramped up several notches Friday night.

Shagari sighting!

As soon as the walk-ons made their appearance, Drew took me down the back elevator to the interview room. It was a similar beat-the-traffic move many people of a certain age pull at the end of a sporting event, but in this case, it was in order to land a seat at a table for the press conference. We can’t be writing while sitting in chairs with laptops on our laps like heathens.

With dibs called on our table spots, we snuck back through the tunnel and onto the floor to soak up some of the post-game atmosphere. I say “snuck” like we were not supposed to be there because even four hours into the experience, it still felt like I was doing something nefarious. As we walked the baseline, the one and only Shagari Alleyne made his way down the stairs.

Acting like he saw a childhood friend, Drew went up to Shagari and asked for a selfie. The champion salsa dancer obliged and I now have a picture that looks like I’m photobombing Drew Franklin and Shagari Alleyne.

Shagari!!!!! pic.twitter.com/gnFrCNQojU

— Drew Franklin (@DrewFranklinKSR) November 25, 2023

The Coach Interviews

Back in the interview room, we took our places and prepared for the first wave. I mentioned the checkerboard tiles on the floor, but the room itself wasn’t all that big. It featured about eight rows of around six chairs in each…and that’s about all.

Marshall’s head coach, Dan D’Antoni, (alongside two players) was the first to come out, and wow, I’m glad I did not miss a second of him speaking.

That man is a character and deserves an entire post dedicated just to him.

Next came Cal. I’ve seen hours of John Calipari speaking to the press over the years, but his tangential rants hit different in person. Someone would ask him a question, he wouldn’t answer it, and then bounce around to five random and unrelated topics.

He then gave me the ultimate media experience when he condescendingly asked the room, “What do you have to do when they play zone? Anyone? Anyone? You all don’t watch [basketball]. You have to pass against a zone.”

I’ve never felt so privileged to be unnecessarily put down.

The Kentucky Player Interviews

After Cal left to do his radio show, it was time for the players to come out. Unlike the coaches where it was more presentation style, DJ Wagner, Rob Dillingham, and Reed Sheppard sat in directors’ chairs atop small soap boxes as media members mobbed them in a free-for-all battle royale, officially called a scrum.

Jack took Dillingham and I recorded what Sheppard and Wagner had to say. Reed looks like he’s been trained for this type of thing his entire life. The poise he shows on the court comes out in media appearances just as clearly.

What is wild about these scrum interviews is the lack of organization makes it such that reporters just kind of yell their questions at these guys the second they finish talking. The pros anticipate the exact moment when the player will finish their answer and speak up like they are the first to buzz in on Jeopardy. The wily veterans, however, ignore who speaks first in favor of talking loudly over everyone and get their questions in regardless.

As a rookie, I waited patiently to toss my softballs.

Next, it was back to the court where John Calipari was finishing up his radio show saying the exact same things he said in the press conference, minus the basketball knowledge shaming.

Rapid Reaction

We set up shop on a courtside table and hammered out a few words while watching a Huntington, West Virginia reporter wrestle a huge camera to film himself for his local news organization. Drew and I watched this guy record the same 30-second segment five times, correcting a minor error each attempt.

I didn’t let myself get consumed with the notion, but a part of me worried I was bound for the same struggle bus when it was time to film the KSR Rapid Reaction.

As we were setting up, I asked Drew if they go over what they were going to say before they started. In hindsight, that was a dumb question. Of course, they didn’t. They winged it and according to KSR videographer, Steven Peake, they only need one take every time.

The light that shines on us during filming is painfully bright. Like, I’m-still-kind-of-blinded-two-days-later bright. As my retinas burned prior to recording, Drew asked me, “Are you prepared?”

Unsure how to answer that truthfully, I told him I was “KSR prepared,” which seemed to get my point across. Steven warned us he only had 12 minutes of storage space left space and we wrapped with exactly nine seconds to spare.

Now, a couple of days later, the fact that Kentucky Sports Radio put me put a camera in front of my face and asked me to speak still baffles me. Sure, I’ve been writing for the site for a while now, but intertwining NBA stats with mediocre puns on a Sunday afternoon is one thing. Taking part in a video alongside Drew and Jack is another.

I met my goal of not stumbling over every other word out of my mouth, so I considered it a success.

Wrapping up

Jack headed back to finish up his posts at home shortly after the Rapid Reaction but Drew and I stuck around to finish up ours on the court. I work from home most of the time, so working from the floor of Rupp Arena was a slight upgrade from my dusty office that smells like flat Red Bull and flatulence.

Before I left, I had Drew take a few action shots of me typing in this setting as proof this day actually happened. I also took a stroll to center court, spun in a 360, and watched housekeeping clean up everyone’s discarded popcorn boxes and “barbeque sandwich” wrappers.

There were no basketballs around and the staff brought down the goals to about three feet off the ground, so I didn’t get a chance to get any shots up. If I did, though, considering it was my first time on Rupp Arena’s court, I’m sure my first 3-point attempt from 25 feet with a hand in my face would have gone in.

Overall, everything about the day was incredible. Cheers to Drew and Jack for being so welcoming and a shoutout to Zack for spending Thanksgiving in Paducah, opening the door for me to slide in. And of course, major props to Tyler for giving me the opportunity in the first place. If I get the chance to cover another game in the future, I promise I won’t write 2,500 words about it.