Saturday, June 13, 2009

Broadcast preview: Inner City All-Star Classic

A little late, although I've been busy working on pregame videos for the event. Arlington will likely get a little warm tomorrow without air conditiong in the building, which usually makes for a bad sign as far as the crowd goes; seeing them wave flyers around isn't exactly the best way to market the game. I do miss not having the event at Concordia's Gangelhoff Center, which I thought was a better venue than Arlington. Just my two cents; I'm not familiar with what goes on to set up the event. The only problem I had was finding stats on the players for introductions; some coaches don't do very well posting stats. I bring up a suggestion from Kevin Anderson last year that they should offer the spot for people looking to volunteer; there are many bright, young mathematicians out there and would make the players' bios less empty (favorite food doesn't cut it when you're on the verge of adulthood, unless you're marketing the game to 10-year-olds).

Three players who participated in this year's All-Star series will be in the girls game: Kara Elofson of Hopkins, Brittany Zins of Kennedy, and Brianna Edwards of Minneapolis North. In all fairness, there should have been six. Katya Leick was scheduled to play but had other commitments and won't be at the event (Leick was in the all-star series), Theairra Taylor would have been a lock had she not suffered her ACL injury, and Tayler Hill would have been a lock for the all-star series but used up her eligibility with two national all-star games. One of the stranger years, but this will be the final high school game Tayler Hill plays. Three players from the legendary Hopkins boys team will also dress for the game.

There is some history this year. This is the first time that both the Mr. and Miss Minnesota Basketball award winners will play in the same event. Given the level of basketball talent in the last few years, this statistic was inevitable, but still worth highlighting. I'll probably include something tomorrow to use for my in-game graphics.

Time to do a little research on past players who took part in the event (there's often a lot of dead time). I'm going to a grad party after the game, so a postgame report won't come until at least Monday.

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