BY STEVE HANF
SALISBURY POST

I recently learned about one of the top benefits associated with covering the NCAA Tournament.

Every round, someone coordinates a media basketball game. In Philadelphia, for example, eight scribes — all the television guys must’ve still been asleep — got up early Thursday morning and took a cab to St. Joseph’s University.

Our unruly bunch straggled onto the magnificent gym floor, the same one where the Hawks play their Atlantic 10 Conference games. Renowned ESPN hoops commentator Jack Ramsey’s banner hangs from the rafters, commemorating the 11 years he spent coaching St. Joe’s in the 1950s and ’60s.

We were the only ones there, an immediate cause for concern. During the Atlantic Coast Conference Tournament, the media game at Georgia Tech turned into a full-court press of miscommunication. Eventually, those in attendance played three-on-three at the student rec center.

Soon, though, Assistant Athletics Director Larry Dougherty showed up and asked if we were there for the media game. Relieved, we responded to the affirmative, grabbed a rack of basketballs and started shooting around.

No one mistook us for members of the Hawks. We shot poorly, dribbled poorly, rebounded poorly.

But we had a great time doing it. Former Post writer Bryan Strickland, now covering Duke for the Durham Herald Sun, was matched up against me and hit a few long-range shots. Luckily, Charlotte Observer sharp-shooter Gregg Doyel was on my side and also hot from the outside. Luckily, when his and my teammates’ shots stopped falling, they went inside to the paint.

I enjoyed a much better day than anticipated, as I’ve worked far longer on my racquetball game than hoops lately. And while I did have a couple of inches (up) and several years (down) on my post counterpart, it’s not uncommon for teams not to take advantage of such situations (see UNC).

Happily, my squad took two out of three games, and we headed back to the hotel. My teammates’ jokes of “Feed the post!” in getting me the ball took on a new meaning as we headed for lunch. With five indecisive guys wandering the streets of Philadelphia, I took charge and headed for a hoagie shop I’d been eying.

Everyone happily followed, joking about how you’ve got to “Feed the post!” It turned out to be a great decision. What a hoagie!

The media basketball game was a great way to get to know my counterparts better, in a fun atmosphere instead of the pressure-packed deadline nights we generally face.

It was also one of the few blocks of time I was able to set aside for something other than covering press conferences, covering games, writing stories and sleeping.

One of my wife’s co-workers told her she was crazy for not coming along with me to Atlanta or Philadelphia, like it would be some kind of free vacation. Stacey asked her if she’d read much of the Post this past week and seen how many stories I had written.

One of the reasons I joined the Post in March of 1999 was to cover the NCAA Tournament. Strickland had just left for Durham, and I was happily plugging away in Wilson, covering high schools and ACC basketball — but only through the league tourney — for a smaller paper on the other side of Raleigh.

One of the biggest attractions here was that I’d take over the UNC beat and get to cover the Heels in the NCAAs. What a great trip to Seattle that turned out to be.

Since the Heels had collapsed in the first round in my first year, I volunteered for Duke last year. The Devils got bounced in the Sweet 16, and assistant sports editor Mike London headed to his second straight Final Four with Carolina.

This year, I guess I picked the right team. It’s been a lot of fun covering the Sweet 16 and Elite Eight, and a lot of work. Since the Post is spending the money to fly me out to these places, I feel compelled to send back as much as I can.

The Associated Press covers the games, too, but I’d like to think a few readers chuckled — sympathetically — over Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski’s headaches about the media cell phones.

And maybe a few folks were interested in the struggles of Southern Cal head coach Henry Bibby while growing up in rural North Carolina.

By the time today’s paper rolls off the press, I’ll be in Minneapolis, covering my first Final Four and looking for more stories to send back to Salisbury.

It goes almost without saying that I’ll also be getting the details for this weekend’s media hoops game. It’s supposed to be at the Target Center — home of the NBA’s Minnesota Timberwolves.

I hope I’ll be on a team that believes in feeding the post.

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Sportswriter Steve Hanf is covering Duke in the NCAA Tournament.