Blue tape, baselines and basketball
If you’re a basketball fan, you probably know the lines on the court — free throw line, 3-point line, baseline, sideline. But could you map out a regulation college basketball court on the fly?
For a student basketball manager, the answer is “absolutely.”
Ahead of the first game of the NCAA division I men’s basketball First Four at UD Arena, Southeast Missouri State University’s basketball managers awoke to find a blanket of snow on the ground — preventing them from traveling to the arena for their scheduled practice. So, they got creative. The team stayed in the hotel to prepare for the game and the Redhawks basketball managers got to work taping out a court on the hotel’s ballroom floor for the team to map out plays for the evening’s game.
SEMO basketball manager Brett Hassel is a sophomore at the university in Cape Girardeau, Missouri. This was his first year as a manager for the team, but he said he’s had to tape out courts for multiple of the team’s tournaments in this last season. While in town for the First Four, he called the experience “a dream come true.”
For Dayton basketball managers, they also make a habit of taping out courts. According to sophomore manager Kenny Shahady, it’s “second nature” to him after taping a court at every single practice.
“Taping a court is something that you learn when you become a new manager and you really don't forget,” Shahady said. “It really does become second nature after a certain amount of time. I personally couldn't tell any dimensions because I memorized it based on markings on the court rather than actual size.”
Liam Armstrong, also a sophomore basketball manager for the Flyers, said he learned how to do it on the fly with experienced managers. If something impedes the team from making it to the practice space or the team wants more practice, basketball managers have the blue tape ready to go.
“We usually travel with four-plus rolls of Scotch blue painter's tape and a tape measurer to make sure things are even,” Armstrong said. “We follow the same procedures like making a baseline then measuring halfway for the basket and so on.”
The Flyer managers most recently tapped out a full court, plus a half court, in the hotel the team was staying at in Brooklyn, New York, for the Atlantic 10 Tournament in March.
Armstrong and Shahady agreed that being a basketball manager is a big job, saying they're often the “unsung heroes.”
“We manage a lot of operations and make sure that everything goes smoothly and is done right,” Armstrong said. “We are given a lot of responsibilities and it’s our job to make sure they get done.”
Managers are in charge of an array of responsibilities ranging from distributing equipment and assisting with referees and the opposing team before the game to creating stat sheets and bringing out stools during a game’s media timeout.
For Shahady and Armstrong, being natives of Dayton and growing up as Flyer men’s basketball fans have been a source of pride for them in their capacity as managers. But Shahady adds he's also proud at the attention their good work gets.
“[The staff] puts a lot of trust into us and can rely on us to get the job done when it matters most, and I personally feel that that’s a bigger compliment than anything someone could say to me,” Shahady said.