Posted on Sun, Jan. 31, 2010

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On the lookout for slice of hoops life

BY KIRK SEMINOFF

The Wichita Eagle

I’m sure that sometime during my time in Sportswriter’s School, I learned the adage, “There’s more than one way to tell a story.” I think it was right after the adage, “File your story five minutes late and your editor will have your hide.”

With the former in mind, we’re going to try something different Friday. A team of seven reporters and five photographers is going to cover a day of high school basketball — without covering any games.

The project, to run in Saturday’s Sports section and on Kansas.com, is called “Back-Door Cuts” because it’s a look behind the scenes at Wichita-area high school basketball. We’ll do it with short stories, photos, lists and timelines, as well as some pretty cool (’80s word) videos on Kansas.com.

We’re going to take you places in high school hoops that fans don’t normally see, chronicling things that surround the games.

You will see a few familiar names and faces. We hope to show you a different, off-court side to them.

You’ll also be introduced to many new faces. Each has an interesting story that isn’t easily told in an article about a game.

But there will be no details about games. As always, we will run scoring and statistics on every game in our area, but they won’t be accompanied by stories.

Yes, somebody scoring 50 points on Friday has crossed my mind.

Yes, five buzzerbeating shots in one night has crossed my mind.

No, I’m not sleeping well lately.

But there’s more than one way to tell a story, I’ve heard. I hope you’ll indulge us this one opportunity.

I also hope you’ll let me know what you think, good or bad, about our project in next Saturday’s paper. We’ll be back to normal game coverage the following Tuesday.

Super Bowl morsels — Sportswriters are, to varying degrees, geekish in nature. But a few of us enjoy the trivial more than others.

It may never be more obvious than during Super Bowl week.

For example:

„ This is the fifth Super Bowl for Joe Robbie Stadium/Pro Player Park/Pro Player Stadium/Dolphins Stadium/Dolphin Stadium/Land Shark Stadium/Sun Life Stadium. That ties the Orange Bowl and Rose Bowl for second for most Super Bowls (Superdome leads with six).

„ Should the Colts win, it’d be the third time a team won consecutive Super Bowls in the same stadium. Pittsburgh won X and XIII in the Orange Bowl, San Francisco won XXIII and XXIX in Joe Robbie.

„ Odds are against the Saints. Firsttime Super Bowl entrants are 8-19. Tampa Bay was the last first-timer to win, in 2003.

„ Carrie Underwood will be the third consecutive “American Idol” alum to perform the game’s National Anthem.

She’s still no Cheryl Ladd (1980), though.

Run ’n’ Gun is The Eagle Sports staff’s weekly look at the offbeat side of sports.