Rule Changes in Professional Basketball

Feb 4, 2025 | Blog

A Day in the Life of a Collegiate Basketball SID

When someone chooses a career in athletics communications or sports information, a person must be prepared to explain many times exactly what we do. I mean, it took about 15 years for my parents to understand enough to be able to explain to their friends exactly what I did other than show up in the background during televised games.

Over the years, our role in communications has changed considerably. Among the many things we do for our teams and athletic programs are publicist, media relations, statistician, crisis communications, photo coordinator, communications strategist, social media coordinator, publications editor, media room catering director, historian, game-day operations, press box coordinator and often, therapist for a coach following a tough loss.

And, during the basketball season when there are two or three games each week, the tasks can be quite daunting.

Producing a packet of pregame notes before each game is a time-consuming effort that includes all the nuggets of information about your team, the best notes you want the media to see and use, records that being chased and pages of statistical minutia. 

For anyone who wants to check out this treasure trove of information, find a school’s official website where each game is previewed with a link to the notes. This is where much of the best info used by the television and radio announcers can be found. 

Some schools still produce a game program of some kind that needs to be updated with fresh information and statistics. Many schools provide this information online so that fans can access it by their phone. But someone still must create the content for them, and that usually falls to the SID.

At Illinois, Coach Brad Underwood and a couple of players are made available to the media the day before each game. Prior to home games, Underwood usually meets with reporters in the State Farm Center media room in a more normal setting. For road games, he usually meets with the group more informally on the edge of the court our outside his office.

Two players are usually chosen to speak with the media before each game. There are a variety of reasons why certain players are chosen. They may have a certain storyline in the upcoming game or maybe they have just played very well as of late. Sometimes it’s just because a player hasn’t talked to the media in quite some time.

Game days have a structured schedule. The gameday shoot-around practice is usually scheduled to begin about five hours prior to tipoff and normally last between 60-75 minutes. These aren’t just taking shots, but oftentimes can be high-energy practices where the players work up a pretty good sweat. The team then usually heads straight to their pregame meal.

The gameday shoot-around practice is a great time for the television announcers to see the team in person as well as talk with the coach about what to expect in the upcoming game. It’s usually a little more relaxed atmosphere and conversation can be a little more candid depending on the relationship between coach and the announcers.

While coach is on the floor with the team, it’s a great time for the SID to review things with the announcers such as pronunciations, good notes and anything special that the crew may want to talk about during the broadcast. The TV announcers and producer are usually the only non-team personnel allowed at the shoot-around.

This may also be a good time to set up the media area with place cards and seat assignments for the game. Photo spots are also assigned at each baseline. Each team’s radio crew is setting up their equipment as well, with the visiting team usually doing so during their shoot-around time.

I liked to show up at the game about two hours prior to tipoff. This allowed time to check in with each radio crew, as well as the TV producer and director to make sure they didn’t have any last-minute questions before the game. It also gave me time to check on any pregame media food spread we might have and greet media as they arrived at the arena.

During the game, SIDs are usually following along and watching live stats to see if anything interesting is happening. At Illinois, we have always been fortunate to have a group of individuals serving on our stats crew for many years, some for decades. They’ve had to evolve from keeping stats on paper sheets to the current system called Genius that is a cloud system contracted by the NCAA.

I would always try to watch the photographers along the endline and sideline so that they wouldn’t intrude on an area that was unsafe for the players or in the way of the fans. The photographers rarely took advantage of their access and usually policed themselves so that the access would continue. 

We would also sit close to any of the sideline reporters assigned by television. This way, we could pass along notes and help with any special requests they might have.

At the end of the game, SIDs help coordinate any postgame interviews on the court and in the media room. The TV producer normally communicates directly with the winning SID as to whom they want to talk to on the floor … usually the coach and a star player from the game. At Illinois, we also provide one of the players to our radio crew who is set up at the scorer’s table next to the Illini bench.

After the court is cleared and the team has a few minutes to meet and cool off, Coach Underwood and 2-3 players make their way to the media room where they sit at a front table and take questions from the media. The Illinois media room has permanent lighting for media table as well as a riser in the back for television reporters to place their cameras. We also provide a sound distributor (aka splitter box) for clear and crisp broadcast quality sound. There are direct hookups from the Illinois media room to the TV production truck and to the in-house video production crew so that the press conference can be sent directly to the broadcast partner.

While all of this is going on, the final stats booklet is being produced for distribution to the media on site, while also being uploaded to the FightingIllini.com website for everyone to see.

When the postgame interviews are completed, it’s wrap-up time as media either pick up their equipment and go to their studio or quietly produce their stories before filing with their publication and head home. 

I would usually be able to head home myself about an hour after the game, ready to get up and start the process for the next game until the season ends. Working with a collegiate basketball team as their SID can be a thrilling, yet exhausting experience. There is plenty of time while traveling with the team to interact and get to know the players and coaches on a personal basis, with some becoming lifelong relationships. 

The experience I had as an SID at Illinois left me with some incredible memories, which I’m sure is the same with anyone who had the same opportunities at other schools. So, next time you see an SID standing with their coach or players, you may have an idea on what happens behind the scenes.

Kent Brown Athletics Historian Adjunct Lecturer – College of Media Associate Athletics Director - Media Relations (Retired) University of Illinois Athletics

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