Thread by @CodyWorsham

Story about a story:

We were in Jacksonville for the first two rounds of the NCAA Tournament. This was the third or fourth media availability in a few days' time, after LSU beat Yale but before it beat Maryland. Every question had been asked and answered, repeatedly. For weeks.

I was in the locker room, chatting with either @GusStark_ or @MattTornquist, or maybe both, lamenting that I had literally nothing to ask these players and how obvious it was that the players were tired of answering the same questions over and over again.

After I watched Tremont and Naz and Emmitt and Skylar answer the same question for the 10th time in three days, I was about to give up and leave.

And then I saw how bored Courtese Cooper looked.

Courtese, if you've ever talked to him, is a buoyant personality. He never seems bored. He always has something to say. But, in this locker room, no one had anything to ask him. However, he had to be there, so he was hiding behind his phone. So was everyone else who didn't play.

Courtese. Will Reese. Aundre Hyatt. Marshall Graves. Guys who I knew had hard jobs this week, and guys who I knew had good stories to tell. So I started with Will (who was closest to me) and asked him to talk about what this week was like for him, not sure what would come of it.

Will compared March Madness to Omaha, which I thought was super interesting. Then I talked to Aundre, who said he'd impersonated Miye Oni before the Yale game. That was super interesting, too, because I've been the scout team dude doing impressions (shouts to Marcus Thornton).

Before long, I'd talked to all the scout team guys, which included a manager and a grad assistant (who didn't want to talk in the locker room, for fear of drawing attention to himself), and realized I not only had enough for a good story...I had too much. I couldn't use it all.

There were some amazing stories. @CoreyVinson could play D1 ball. He's that good. But knee injuries brought him to LSU as a manager/scout player. @CoachWalker_ rode buses for 10+ hours to NAIA tournaments and now was flying private to the Dance.

Will was a baseball player who hadn't played basketball in two years before walking on to LSU. Marshall lost one of his best friends and teammates before the season, then earned his scholarship and had a huge hand in winning an SEC title.

https://twitter.com/CodyWorsham/status/1099497885484437504?s=20

Anyway, I got back to the hotel and started writing. It took a few hours, and I definitely held up Gus and Matt for dinner plans, but I finished with this story, which I was really proud of.

lsul.su/2TQ0bCV

This weekend, it won an award, which is cool and exciting and awesome, but mostly it reminded me that sometimes the best stories have a way of both coming out of nowhere and also sitting right in front of your face the whole time.

Anyway, this thread was long and self-indulgent, so apologies for that, but I like hearing the stories behind stories from other writers, and so I thought I would share mine.