May in Review: Andy's May Hoops Blast

Hoops Fans, I publish a monthly recap of the world of digital basketball. This is my May edition, the first time I am putting it on the blog. I'll evolve the way I do this over time, and hope you enjoy it.

Is Twitter the next big recruiting tool? I never would have dreamed that the first time I saw Twitter, but fast forward to now and it is nearly a perfect fit for coaches. From the road, many of the top coaches in all sports are using this as a way to get to let their fan base (and donor base) get to know them, and also give recruits and their parents a little bit of a glimpse into who they are as people. Here’s a couple links to check out:

John Calipari, UK – broke 100,000 followers in a few months:
Tom Crean, Indiana – challenged Calipari to a follower contest… and is getting his handed to him – 6,000 followers.
Keno Davis, Providence – I hate to put him here since he broke my heart when he left Drake, but he is doing a nice job creating interaction inside Twitter – adding contests for best ideas to increase fan involvement at games. As he puts it, his goal is “ to give our fans access to our program and keep them informed."
Bruce Pearl, Tennessee – interesting that not just the head coach but the whole Tennessee coaching staff is now up on Twitter.
Kerry Keating, Santa Clara is probably the most tech savvy of the coaches I’ve checked:
Jim Larranaga, George Mason will provide "the Mason Nation with plenty of basketball chatter, but will tweet about other daily activities as well. Sometimes you will hear his "Thought of the Day" or get a tweet about a movie he just watched, his latest project with the geography department, and much more - Did you know he had hip surgery?"

Other coaches who seem to be getting into this:
Jeff Capel, Oklahoma
Josh Pastner, Memphis
Donnie Jones, Marshall
Eric Reveno, Portland

The NCAA addressed Twitter, saying “We view Twitter as a blog. As long as coaches are on there talking about what they're doing with their day and how their practice went or things like that … not getting into specific terms, that's fine. They can't talk about a person they're recruiting, or they can't use it to talk about their whereabouts on a recruiting trip."
Here's the full story.

What’s interesting to me is now Recruiting Websites for Coaches are endorsing Twitter. I’m pulling some of my favorite excerpts, but the whole article’s worth a click, both for the level of content and for the style of communication: “For D1 and D2 coaches, this can be a recruiting game-changer. Look for there to be a stampede towards this technology tool…

• It's not so much an opportunity to sell your college program, in our opinion; rather, it is an opportunity to show recruits who you are at your core: As a coach, as a parent, as a friend, as a leader...it's a chance for you to peel back the curtain 140 characters at a time…
• You’ll need to be creative in those short text-like posts. We recommend coaching tips, quick updates on what went on at practice, short observations, things that made you laugh...basically, anything that isn't sterile and common knowledge…
• Focus on learning to get to the point and be brief, because as our studies have shown, today's recruits want more direct information sooner from coaches…
• Your prospects will need to choose to "follow" you on Twitter. It's voluntary on their part, which is why I believe the NCAA is comfortable with this form of communication. They can choose to follow you, or stop following you. They can choose to communicate with you, or not. They have the power. So, after asking them to "follow" you on Twitter, you'd better be interesting! “

And coaches are already speaking of how this is impacting the recruiting process. Link.

Naturally, this is something players are doing as well. I’ve been interested in following Blake Griffin Tweeting through his summer workouts, up to the NBA Draft in June. I love this quote he posted, “Be so good they can’t forget you.” Link.

EA Sports reshapes the NBA Draft. I was pretty pumped to learn EA is taking what worked well with their Madden NFL Draft blitz and applying it to their NBA Live 10 and NCAA Basketball 10 games through the NBA Draft. It will be super interesting to follow, as they will be a first time presenting sponsor of the Draft. This will include a host of PR events in NYC, and the EA Sports Virtual Green Room on NBA.com, where we will see a behind-the-scenes look at the day in the life of an NBA Draft Pick. Something tells me we are almost certain to see a strong presence of their Virtual Playbook. Good read here.

If you aren’t sure about Virtual Playbook, you really need to click here (for my take) or here (for the EA overview). For me, this is a big part of the future. You have a commentator on screen interacting with virtual players. In this case it’s ESPN analyst Jon Barry guarding virtual Kobe. To me, this is only part of the way there. I want to see real Kobe guarding a virtual player. Or an analyst/coach walking you through two virtual players. (the guy in the suit is a bit weird to me) But the signal of gaming as a teaching tool is powerful.



I found a pretty good read here on the battle between EA Sports and 2K Sports in the world of NBA games. There’s a few key excerpts I’ll include below that show directionally where EA is moving.

“This year we’re doing a big overhaul on all of the player models, all of the faces, and we want to be really accurate with all of the sneakers these guys are wearing so we can feed into the lifestyle and culture of the game. We want to connect with the consumers who are checking out the sneaker sites, the guys who are paying attention to when LeBron wears his Big Apples in NY, and really trying to add that into the game… The signature stuff and the trademark moves, those need to be contextual. That stuff just needs to be there. What we’re going to try and do is make sure players are performing like they do in the real world. There is a huge focus on player differentiating this year.

And you can't downplay the importance of Dynamic DNA with all of this stuff. When you introduce a big feature like that, the first year you're never going to see the full vision of the feature. But for this year, I think you're really going to see all of that. We're implementing that Synergy Sports data into every aspect of gameplay right now and it's going to have a lot more of an affect and show through. Player differentials and signature stuff are huge to us because that's what NBA basketball is all about. You need to differentiate the stars and the teams as well, so I think this is a huge focus for us. Don't expect just a minor upgrade with this, there is going to be a huge difference.”

Meanwhile, 2K Sports announced their game, NBA 2K10, will be released on the Wii console. To my knowledge, this is the only NBA game currently announced to hit the Wii system, and is being done to expand the reach of the 2K line. Read the full story here.

Ratings wise, this year’s NBA Playoffs are blowing up. ESPN’s ratings are up 16%, TNT is up 20% over last year. But it goes beyond that. ESPN set a record for the most-viewed playoff game in cable history in the Cavs-Magic Game 4. In fact it was the highest rated program on cable this year. Full story here.

LeBron was no doubt the lead reason people are tuning in. Here’s his Game 5 highlights put together in a minute by the NBA – there’s something amazing about 1 minute highlight reels.

In case you missed it, here’s the NBA’s Amazing Campaign MVP edition, unveiled for LeBron.



Also in case you have some how missed them, here’s the NBA’s Historical Playoff Amazing Ads. I’m a big fan of the empty gyms at the start of these clips. The only thing I’d rather see is the step before all of this – show me Magic working on his hook with no one in the gym. That’s where the play starts.
Bird


Kobe & Shaq

Magic


Dr J

Fan-created videos in near real time. Moments after LeBron’s game winning shot in Game 2, fans posted their own version of the NBA Amazing campaign here:



Fans also took to re-using a Jordan spot for Eric Maynor of VCU here. This whole thing is interesting to me. It wasn’t likely that there would be a Jordan-brand Maynor spot (no offense VCU fans!). But fans loved the concept and the voiceover. They dug and found these and created something relevant. I’d love to see how many of these might be created if you didn’t have to dig to get it. What 12 year old hoops team wouldn’t want their own Amazing ad, right?

A fan created his own Blazers season recap highlight reel, which I found to be fantastic. Wow I’m fired up for next season! Fantastic video here.

[T-10] Portland Trail Blazers - Someday [B2L] from Tom10 on Vimeo.

The Blazers also released a Brandon Roy highlight reel here.

And UNC released a quick video recapping their tour of the White House as National Champions. Pretty funny video.



Finally, I wanted to close this month out with a pretty interesting read on team play. Specifically, who’s the most selfish player by position? It’s an interesting analysis of how often players work to get their teammates involved versus looking for their own shot. The most selfish by position: PG Eddie House, SG Rodney Carney, SF Thaddeus Young, PF JJ Hickson, C Samuel Dalembert…. And the most selfish Trailblazer was Travis Outlaw.

If you really want to dive in, here’s the full spreadsheet.

Until next month,

AP

Gaming Friday: NBA Live 10 and the NBA Draft

This week EA Sports was announced as the presenting sponsor for next month's NBA Draft. I'm pretty intrigued by this for many levels. As covered earlier, I was crazy excited for what EA did with Madden and the NFL Draft in April. The fact that they tied game release info to the NFL Draft extended the window where people care about their game AND tied into one of the core benefits of Madden: the player ratings and visuals. Of course the Twitter connection between Madden producers and fans was pretty sweet.

So what exactly is happening in June? Well there's not a ton of details here, short of the fact that EA will have a feature on NBA.com as the host of the Virtual Green Room, where they will give an inside look at the day of an NBA draft player.

I'm expecting a high dose of Virtual Playbook, where we are likely to see NBA Rookies on ESPN in their new gear playing. Just how many players and just how integrated this becomes is something I am dying to see. And I really hope they connect this into their Dynamic DNA feature: Tell us what rookie's tendencies are now, and let us watch them as they evolve through the season.

Fans create their own ads

Browsing through the interwebs today made me extra-intrigued by what I saw. I figured it would only be a matter of time before someone re-created this NBA Playoff Amazing campaign with LeBron's game winner from Game Two. Here it is, it's even more incredible in black and white with the soft music jamming.

Then I saw this tribute to VCU's Eric Maynor, set to the voiceover of a Jordan campaign. It's also pretty cool - I like how they put some nice parallels in their of Eric as a young player versus Eric as the guy who led VCU past Duke in the NCAA Tourney.

What is interesting here is there is a definite desire to take what is a national, high level inspiration and apply it to your team, to your school, to your player. How this evolves will be telling, but the message behind the Jordan campaign wasn't going to be developed specifically for Eric Maynor and VCU. But now it has been adapted, and this could get even bigger. It will be interesting to see how brands empower fans with the tools they need to create their own stories over the next few seasons.

Playoff Emotions

Watching the Cavs-Magic game last night was pretty incredible. (Naturally it was a great game - see second video in this post). But I have really taken to the inside the huddle and locker room peaks we have gotten this series. Traditionally you'd see a quick interview with a coach at halftime of a game - either in the NBA or NCAA. But this year has really ramped up. This video gives a nice look at the adjustments and emotion in timeouts and pre-game.

And then, this may be the best image of basketball emotion I've seen in quite some time. Pure excitement, and exhilaration. If you haven't seen the game winner, take a look. Picture-perfect execution on offense and defense. And a great inbounds pass. Mo puts the ball where LeBron can catch it and shoot it quickly. I know all attention goes into the shot, but the timing and accuracy of this pass sets it all up. Think the Magic wish they would have guarded the ball a bit tighter?

dd

Gaming Friday: Guarding Kobe Bryant

I caught this feature on SportsCenter last night.  EA Sports and ESPN originally launched their Virtual Playbook inside the NFL season.  I recall sitting in front of the TV as I debated who to start in my upcoming fantasy football showdown only to see two Madden teams unveiled on the screen as ESPN's studio team directed their movements.  That floored me.  It was the best X's and O's scenario I'd seen in awhile and my eyes were wide open at the possibilities.

So now I'm super excited at the possibility of seeing this concept emerge in basketball.  And here it comes - last night showing a feature to preview the Lakers-Nuggets series.  I'm not going to lie, this wasn't exactly amazing to me.  I'm a little weirded out by the thought of Jon Barry in a suit trying to guard virtual Kobe.  I'd much rather see the NFL execution where Jon Barry directs JR Smith on how to stop Kobe.  But, that said, we did catch a glimpse.  This is a look into where things may go quickly -- where a virtual version of a basketball player shows up on a real court to teach.  I can't wait for the next round!

College Coaches Encouraged to use Twitter?

I've come across several coaches who are using Twitter, and I've signed up to receive many of their feeds.  A couple of my favorites so far are John Calipari of Kentucky and Tom Crean of Indiana.  The two actually have a contest going to see who can get the most followers.  Right now, Coach Cal is romping this one - perhaps similar to how their teams would fair on the court.  He's pulled in over 52,000 followers to Crean's 5,000. 

A couple other notable coaches in College Hoops using Twitter are Jeff Capel of Oklahoma, Josh Pastner of Memphis, and Steve Wojciechowski of Duke.

The NCAA released a statement on Twitter, saying "We view Twitter as a blog.  As long as coaches are on there talking about what they did with their day and how their practice went or things like that, that's fine..."

So what's all this mean?  I stumbled across a coach sales site (not where you buy a coach but where coaches get tips on how to recruit better) that is urging all coaches to get out there on Twitter NOW.  And to me it makes sense for a few reasons.

1. It lets your fan base (and your donor base) get to know you better.  What makes you tick?  What are your feelings about the season, what is your life like away from the court?  Making that emotional connection is key and is one of the things I'm really feeling with Coach Calipari.
2. It lets your recruits (and their parents) get to know you better.  What is your personality like?  From one side of what you value to a lighter side of what movies or TV shows are you into?  It's the way of letting people know about your program at a glance.
3. Maybe most importantly, coaches have high demands on their time.  They are on the road often but with that comes the inevitable down time in an airport terminal or two.  By posting from their blackberry/iPhone, they can reach everyone at once.

Needless to say I'm going to follow this closely.  It's fascinating.

Wordle Map of My Blog to Date

So I stumbled onto Wordle the other day and found it pretty sweet. The site basically takes a count of all the words you use in your writing and lays it out as artwork. Larger sizes for words you use more than others. I was a bit afraid of what I'd find... but pleasantly surprised with the result. You can cut and paste a speech or presentation in here and see if things are out of line. Or a URL, as I did.

So, curious what this blog is about? Take a look at this image.

Gaming Friday: Create your own team

So I came across this the other day and was pretty excited.  The big new feature in this summer's NCAA Football 10 is the ability to create your school online, then play with them in the game.  But it isn't so much the fact that you can do it that I'm pumped about but rather where you can do it and how.  

I've never been a huge fan of sitting in front of a TV screen with a controller or joystick trying to customize much of anything.  It just isn't intuitive and to me leaves you wishing you could do more things faster.  It's also not the easiest way to search other designs or inspirations.  This lets you take a lunch break at work and keep working on your squad. 

Beyond this, you actually feel like you are creating a team.  Not just forming one.  Watching this developer interview made me realize how intricate we will be able to customize details from logo placement and look on the field to player ability to the mascot.  It's nice on a few levels - I can finally create Drake (not sure if I can customize low attendance) and put them in their conference, not force them to join the Big Ten.  That's nice.

I want to end this though with where I think this could go.  To me, there are a couple inspiring paths here: 

1. What is the revenue extension here?  Can I buy custom-designed stadiums and play in them?  (If these are all created online, how can EA inspire a community of designers to create their own artwork in the game... and let players buy them.  Much like Threadless does with tee shirts.)  
   
2. How can the amazing uniform designer tool get blown out in venue?  I love the idea of design contests at Nebraska impacting what the Cornhuskers actually wear in real life.  EA has the chance to be the fuel for a new level of emotional connection.

I can't wait to see this when it comes out July 14!

Kobe Doin' Work Debuts this Saturday

I was pretty excited a year ago or so when I heard that Spike Lee was creating a movie documentary on a late season game with Kobe Bryant.  I got even more excited when I heard he was using 30 cameras, much like the soccer show Zidane.  

The feature, "Kobe Doin' Work" premieres this Saturday on ESPN.  I know I'm going to be glued into this.  Here are a couple trailers worth checking out:

Kobe on his teammates.  I am inspired by how intimate this feels.  To me, one of Kobe's early career challenges was that he often appeared a bit tight, very professional, and definitely intense.    This is a different side of Kobe - you can envision him for a great teammate, someone you want to go to battle with.  

Here's another great one -- Kobe on why coaches don't hide their play calls.  (Though I saw Nate McMillan trying to keep these from the Rockets in the last series!)  From this, I think it is pretty great to hear his Basketball IQ at work -- Kobe's one of the smartest players in the league, and it's pretty powerful to hear him essentially unplugged.  

Make sure you tune in this weekend.  8 pm EST Saturday...  And if you want one last place to click, here is an interview with Spike Lee on the project.

Amazing use of crowd effects in NBA Legends campaign

When I heard the NBA was creating videos around the best playoff moments of all time, I wondered if we'd see Larry Legend. The play against the Pistons where he stole the inbounds pass at the end of the game still plays in my head as one of those moments that got me excited about basketball growing up. I remember my dad reacting and the energy in our living room. I was inspired.

So naturally I was super excited plays like this were joining the new Amazing Playoff campaign. But what floored me was the way they took the crowd out of the play when this was edited together. It was Bird on the same court in an empty gym. Naturally the crowd comes later. But the emotion and passion that comes from putting in the time in the gym when no one is around and then having it pay off on the biggest stage is powerful. Check this out, and think of how this connects with high school players everywhere.

Not to be outdone, here's another version - of the Lakers sending the Blazers to a Playoff exit. It's worth watching, if only to see a much younger Kobe and Shaq in action.

ddd

Madden 10 Changes the NFL Draft World

Last Saturday as I was watching the NFL Draft, I decided to check in on Madden 10, which hits shelves August 14. What I saw literally floored me. (In a good way). The team at Madden re-invented Draft Day.

What do I mean? Well first, they had a scrolling ticker across the top, much like you might expect to find on NFL.com or ESPN.com. Check. But dive deeper. Moments after each pick was announced, up on the Madden site popped screen grabs and highlights of the player... on his new squad! So being a Packer fan I went in to check out BJ Raji deeper. Mind you until about a minute before he was picked (when TV showed him celebrating in his living room), no one knew who the Pack would pick - Raji or Michael Crabtree? Each Madden screen grab showed the official power ratings of the player.



This was incredible, and here's the other Pack first pick, Clay Matthews.


But beyond the revealing of players in their new unis and official ratings (which by the way was a brilliant move as so much of the gameplay of Madden is dependent on player ratings), the Madden product team ran an interactive twitter forum during the unveiling. So here was this world where you had near real-time introductions of players in a way that showed off the strength of Madden, and you connected the product or dev team on Madden to their fans in a way that was super amazing. Here are the Twitter sites: one and two.

Where can this go for them? I'd love to see the combine taken into account next year -- can they extend the Draft a little longer? Can they take this beyond one round? Can they get the newly drafted rookies to comment on their ratings?