Do you love your current career, but miss something from your past life once in awhile? Lucky me! I jumped back in with my first true love – college athletics – recently. What a week for Bee Young Communications and Marketing – working with the Naismith Awards on social media strategy in both Cleveland and Phoenix at both the Final Fours (they’ve been a client for over a year now). I’m so thankful Atlanta Tipoff Club President Eric Oberman brought me aboard to assist. Eric’s tireless efforts for the Naismith Awards are inspiring.
A big part of the strategy this year is to help make more basketball fans aware of the Naismith Awards. With the large growth and huge engagement, it appears to be working. The Naismith was also well-represented at both Final Fours (with both POY and COY winners).
Working Both Final Four Presentations
Assisted by the “Finals Social Media Team” back at their respective schools (Griffin Clark, Ben Metcalf and Brielle McCarthy) — we worked hard and crushed it! We collaborated on the questions and timeline with a number of pre-planning meetings (including a four-page Google doc). For me, filming while interviewing as well as editing was a large task. But the one-on-one conversations with Jersey Mike’s POY and DPOY Finalists was a thrill for all of us who have been covering them all year. The Captains and Interns also were very helpful during the week — everyone deserves huge praise for their efforts.
Shoutout to Cameron Brink (Stanford) for doing the interview twice and to R.J. Davis (UNC) for recording a quick video message to my 88-year-old Dad. Tennessee’s Dalton Knecht (POY Finalist) went from second team Big Sky last year to the SEC Player of the Year this year. What a great guy – truly hope he’s a lottery pick!
COY and POY Conversations
We featured the COY past winner Phil Martelli and this year’s Werner Ladder Naismith COY finalists too.
It was fun to interview former POY’s Christian Laettner and Ralph Sampson. I DO NOT HATE Christian Laettner (he actually has a great personality). Ralph is a terrific ambassador for the sport as a three-time winner. He has a lot of really good ideas on growing basketball as well.
Off the cuff, we snagged interviews with national media like Fran Fraschilla and Andy Katz. They are both well-respected for their deep knowledge of the game.
Because I was there for 15 years, I really enjoyed interviewing the Gamecock head coaches one-on-one too. Dawn Staley won the Werner Ladder Naismith Coach of the Year (and the national title) and Lamont Paris was a men’s finalist.
Adding Some Balance To the Work
And just to make sure life had a little balance, I hiked Camelback Mountain twice (Brittany my quads are still sore!) and had lunch with the Kerns as well as touring The Land with my distant cousin Jenny.
A Few Highlights
There are too many highlights to pick just one, but interviewing Purdue’s head coach Matt Painter as he walks in with two-time Jersey Mike’s Naismith Award winner Zach Edey has to be up there. He is so happy for Zach and it really shows in the interview.
Being around Caitlin Clark got us all cool points. Caitlin has been amazing her entire career. She is the GOAT — she won the Jersey Mike’s Naismith Award the past two years and raised all of basketball to a whole new level.
I throughly enjoyed every interaction with Jamal Shead – the DPOY from Houston. When we finished our interview, we stood up and he gave me a hug. It was so sweet. His coach, Kelvin Sampson, sang his praises too. I hope he has a long career in the NBA.
In Closing
While I am not ready to run back to college athletics anytime soon, I’m so thankful Griffin, Ben and Brielle were there remotely helping so much behind the scenes too! They were quick content writers / video editors. They were also fast when it came to posting the content.
The entire social media team has really been amazing all year, especially the leadership of Camryn, Chris and Landon. Everyone worked so hard and did an amazing job of collaborating together. They all should be very proud of all their efforts.
Check out the Naismith Social Media Platforms
Check out the Naismith social media platforms today! Follow the Naismith Awards Facebook, X and Instagram pages.
HOT TIP: If you missed One Shining Moment and the women’s version.