Often in sports, the media is critical of players, coaches, or anyone else they can possibly point a finger at in explaining a team’s performance, while having little athletic talent themselves or understanding of the demands of student athletes.

Georgia head basketball coach Mark Fox flipped the script Tuesday, putting around 40 local and national media members through an hour and a half simulated practice to, as Fox says, “have you guys here to enjoy some time with us and to get a taste for how difficult this game is to play”- an idea started by Tom Izzo at Michigan State two years ago.

“I think it just gives us an opportunity to get to know you all, the media, and you get to know us but also kind of see what a college basketball practice is like,” assistant coach Kwanza Johnson said.

The event started with all of the media surrounding the G at midcourt, receiving directions from Fox. We then huddled, breaking with a “Dawgs” chant and headed to the baseline for a series of stretches with men’s basketball strength and conditioning coach Mike Schweigert.

Stations were next on the agenda with the four groups being separated into rebounding, passing, dribbling and shooting drills. We spent three minutes at each station as the assistant coaches and staff members ran us through the stations, coaching us on the fundamentals.

With the drills complete, it was time for a 10-minute run through of offensive philosophy with our team’s coach, Johnson, before lacing up our shoes for two eight-minute scrimmages between the four teams, which Fox officiated.

However, Johnson had to quickly scrap his offensive philosophy once the games began, as our lack of height and talent became readily apparent, switching to a strategy of “trying not to overcoach my team but just letting their natural ability take over, and letting them just go make plays.” Johnson’s cool demeanor on the sideline contributed to our team escaping with a two-point victory.

“I’m pleased that my team came out and played defense and came away with a win in our game,” Johnson said of his team’s performance.

Both games, as expected, were filled with lots of missed shots, turnovers and poor defense with the squads struggling to get much of anything going. The second game was the most exciting, with R&B sports writer Fletcher Page scoring to put his squad up a point. But his glory would be short lived as Maria Taylor, who works in the Georgia Sports Communication office and played basketball and volleyball during her time at Georgia, heaved a gorgeous pass down court to a teammate for a game-winning layup in the closing seconds.

“He was definitely going at it,” sophomore point guard Dustin Ware said of Page’s performance. “But I mean, hey, play hard when you’re out there. You might as well, but he went out there and played hard, and I just thought it was a good time, good fun, to see y’all in our shoes for a little bit and us in y’all’s shoes, but it was fun.”

For Fox, the adjustment coaching the talent differential between his players and the Bad News Bear bunch on the floor Tuesday isn’t one he hopes to replicate too often.

“Yeah, I love y’all, but I wouldn’t want to coach you every day,” Fox said.

“We’d need a few more practices with y’all, but it was good, and the fact that we had two one-point games was terrific.

“We’re definitely happy about that,” Ware said of not playing like the media.

With the sounds of basketballs clanking off the rim and missed layups prevalent throughout, the scrimmages made for some nice pre-practice entertainment for Thompkins.

“It was good. I had never seen a bunch of older guys get up and down the court faster,” Thompkins said of the media’s performance. “It was great though. I enjoy seeing things like this, being able to have a laugh and stuff like that is great. Now, I can write something up for myself.”

With Media Madness’ success, the coaching staff envisions duplicating it next season and in the seasons to come.

“I believe so,” Johnson said of making it an annual event. “We had a good turnout, everyone had a great attitude about it, and it was a lot of fun.”

- Nick Parker is a sports writer for

The Red & Black