Double OT game is worth at least a story

The Hartford Courant covered all angles of the game between U-Conn and Louisville.

I still don’t understand why student papers fail to report on bigger sports events as soon as possible. After all, we are in the news business, so when sports news breaks, like Louisville’s double-overtime basketball victory over UConn on Saturday, readers want to read about it – even more so, if the game was broadcast on TV or if they had attended it. Readers want analysis, insights from players and coaches, descriptions of key plays and, most of all, a storyline about what just happened.

As of Sunday morning, neither UConn’sThe Daily Campus nor The Louisville Cardinal had posted anything online. UConn has just a game preview,, while the Cardinal has a game story from Wednesday’s game with West Virginia.

After the game, the Louisville Courier-Journal published both a game story and a column from Rick Bozich. The Hartford Courant, meanwhile, has a game story,slideshow, column, notebook, sidebar,box score, a blog that analyzed some key plays, along with video of key plays and postgame comments.

Certainly, most college newspapers don’t have enough writers to do all of this after each game, but, please, at least offer a game story – make your newspaper relevant while building your own skills on deadline.

BTW, check out this terrific lead on the game from the Courant’s Mike Anthony:
This loss, this disintegration, wasn’t official until Kemba Walker’s desperate three-pointer from about 33 feet soared high into the air and kicked off the back left portion of the rim at the final buzzer.

Walker could not add to his list of remarkable answers Saturday at Gampel Pavilion as the second overtime expired, but that’s not why Jim Calhoun and the fifth-ranked Huskies were so crestfallen after No. 23 Louisville’s 79-78 comeback victory before a raucous and increasingly frustrated sellout crowd of 10,167.

The Huskies led by nine with under nine minutes remaining in regulation, by seven with under five remaining. They led by four with under 30 seconds left in the first overtime. And then Louisville, increasingly efficient as UConn was increasingly incompetent, word down the Huskies’ in the second.