Fox Sports Southwest’s Mavericks Day Experience

This post originally appeared at the Fort Worth Weekly's website. To view it there : http://www.fwweekly.com/2016/09/28/sports-rush-fox-sports-goes-to-mavs-media-day/

photo courtesy Hutton Harris

The entire Dallas Mavericks roster hit the court in full uniform for the first time Monday. I’m here to provide you some exclusive insight into how their season will go based on what I saw. When you’re watching games deep into April and beyond next year, you’ll think about what you learned in this blog post.

Now, unfortunately, today’s insight doesn’t involve how well the players shoot, dribble, pass, foul, dunk, travel, flop, move the ball, defend the three, or draw illegal defense calls. It has to do with how they did on their Fox Sports Southwest liner reading.

The work they performed Monday will indeed affect Mavs fans all season. Having signed a multi-year deal with the franchise to carry most of the team’s games, the network – unlike a player – can’t get traded or placed on the inactive list. So count on seeing the recordings they made of the Mavericks’ smiling, surprised, or dancing faces on the air all season long.


Yes, I said dancing. Fox Sports Southwest producer Stephen Hill got several of them to at least attempt a dance move or two. Their female counterparts at the Wings seem to always be moving in rhythm. Hill told Dirk Nowitzki of his teammates, “They all said they don’t dance.” The Big German could only shrug. If Hill manages to put a promo together, you can judge their shimmying acumen for yourself.


The day consisted of each member of the roster visiting various stations around the American Airlines Center to get photographed or interviewed. For the most part, the players at the Fox emplacement in the Jack Daniels Old No. 7 Club needed to say lines to camera for various creative video projects.

My crew’s gig involved setting up the green screen, lights, and video cameras. The Barea-to-Mejri height variance of an NBA team makes for certain challenges in camera placement. Director of Photography Dave French came up with the idea of using a tall speaker stand and a robotic camera control so that he could focus and pan at normal-person height while the Panasonic cam remained level with the player’s face.


We started with the team broadcasters. Jeff “Skin” Wade showed up with a change of clothes, avowing that he could not get out of his suit fast enough. Skin was also relieved to discover said suit did not contain any green that might make him green-screen unfriendly.

Wade, Mark Followill, and Derek Harper cruised through their liners pretty quickly, because they’re, you know, professional broadcasters.

Most of the uniformed personnel, beginning with Justin Anderson and concluding with Qunicy Acy, handled their scripts pretty well, too. I’ve had colleagues from overseas tell me they believe American athletes are better on camera than those from other countries, perhaps because more of them have had at least some post-secondary education or because they just get more chances. In this case, the players needed to inform viewers about important facts like that FSSW is the TV home of Mavericks basketball, that MFFL (Mavs Fan For Life) parties are the best, and something about the network offering viewers a free Pomeranian puppy if they watch a certain number of games (okay, I might have made the last one up).


Anderson was especially animated and Andrew Bogut’s Australian enunciation added a unique element. Devin Harris, a veteran, didn’t even have to wait for Hill to finish giving him his “Only on Fox Sports Southwest” line – he’d done these media days before. Rookie A.J. Hammons, on the other hand, had a great smile but required a couple more takes. He’ll be fine once he’s got a few more of these under his belt.

The best chance for self-expression came as the group did the promos for streaming Mavs games via the Fox Sports Go app. The players needed to hold a mobile device and pretend to watch a game on it. Harrison Barnes pretended to exhort his teammate to “Make a shot, Dirk!,” while Wesley Matthews added some self-serving play-by-play : “One more pass – you don’t see Wesley open in the corner right now?!”

By the way, Dwight Powell delivered an emphatic “Get Fox Sports Go.” line to camera. If you don’t have the app, you WILL immediately download it after the big power forward instructs you to do so.
The most ambitious shot of the day consisted of French perched on a chair with a camera on a gimbal to get what will hopefully be a cool angle on Nowitzki’s signature fadeaway. Actually, we already consider the move a success since the DP didn’t fall off the chair.

So now you know the scoop on the 2016-17 Dallas Mavs. The advanced stat geeks have yet to weigh in on whether a successful media day can build momentum for a big season. But if the Mavericks go on a deep run, we’ll happily take the credit – and watch these promos extend their airdates for a few more weeks.

Disclosure : As you might have guessed, Fox Sports Southwest paid me to help with their production on Mavs Media Day


Rush Olson has spent two decades directing creative efforts for sports teams and broadcasters. He currently creates ad campaigns, television programs, and related creative projects for sports entities through Rush Olson Creative & Sports and FourNine Productions.


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Defense First for UTA Mavs Basketball

This post originally appeared on the Blotch page at the Fort Worth Weekly. To read it on that site : http://www.fwweekly.com/2015/12/01/defense-first-for-uta-mavs-basketball/

The University of Texas-Arlington men started their victories over some of the best-known names in college basketball at 5:50 a.m.

“We do a defensive boot camp every year and that’s kind of where we try and instill toughness and grit with our guys,” explained head coach Scott Cross. They held the camp on outdoor courts this year, adding to the grit factor. The timing required a certain resolve, too.

“We had a couple of sessions at, like, 5:50 in the morning. So now you’re getting (started) before the sun comes up,” Cross explained. “The guys are working, diving on the floor, defensive stance, and everything. It’s an hour workout and it’s probably the hardest hour they’ll ever experience.”



The Mavericks have recorded difficult road wins over Ohio State and Memphis on their path to a 5-1 record this season. They’ve provided some outstanding individual offensive performances, with Erick Neal and Kevin Hervey winning back-to-back Madness Sun Belt Men’s Basketball Player of the Week Awards. However, they lost their top four scorers from 2014-15 and haven’t won games this year by outshooting opponents. The Mavs have shot 39% from the field as a team, about the same as their opposition,

“You would think if you shoot under forty percent, you’re going to lose basketball games, but the only one we lost was Louisiana Tech,” said Cross.

The Mavs have had almost 60 more attempts from the field than their foes, due in large part to a substantial edge in offensive rebounds. They’ve also had more steals and fewer turnovers. So when you watch them take on their next major conference foe tonight on the Longhorn Network, keep an eye on what happens when UTA doesn’t have the ball. Defense has been the key to their fast start.

“I think it’s been a big part of it,” Cross said. “All the guys buy in.”

Texas-Arlington uses a variety of defenses, including three full-court presses to go with a matchup zone and man-to-man in half-court situations. His players and staff choose sets based on the game situation. No matter what, the defenders have to stay active, even when they go to the zone.

“Even though it’s the zone principles, they’ve always got a man,” said Cross. “Every one of the offensive players should be accounted for. If they’re not, if somebody’s running around and nobody’s with him, then we’ve made a mistake. It’s all about communication.”



To demonstrate how communication fuels good defense, the Mavericks practice the skill. As they prepared for the Texas game at Monday’s practice, when Cross introduced a new concept designed to counter one of the Longhorns’ offensive sets he solicited names for it from the players. As the drills continued, a cacophony of “fours” and “I got balls” and “get high posts” resonated through College Park Center, as it no doubt will at Austin’s Erwin Center this evening.

“It starts with their voices being loud. We try to encourage it in everything we do.”

Some of the first drills the Mavericks run at practice emphasize guarding the dribbler and running at shooters. As much as any previous year, the team has the personnel to execute the schemes well. Long guards who close out quickly help control the perimeter when the Mavs extend their zone: opponents have shot barely 27% from three-point range. Their point guard’s speed also causes issues for opposing ballhandlers.

“Erick Neal is a guy that can really badger the ball and create chaos because he’s the quickest guy out there,” Neal’s coach said, while also praising the work of the post players.
“I’ll give a guy like Jorge Bilbao a lot of credit. He’s our toughness and grit. It starts with him. He has no backdown from anybody he plays against.”

Cross also cited the contributions of Bilbao’s backup, Nick Pallas.

“Those two guys have really anchored our defense.”

Eventually, one does have to score to win ballgames. Cross wants the aftermath of a successful defensive possession to generate offense. Pushing the ball up the floor can create easy baskets when other shots aren’t dropping.

“We play fast. The last five years, we’ve had a top-fifty tempo team in country,” Cross said of the role the transition game plays for his team. “I do give our guys freedom offensively to play fast.”



Cross guided the Mavericks to the only NCAA Tournament berth in the program’s history in 2008. He feels that the true benefits of the big wins they’ve had before Christmas will come as St. Patrick’s Day approaches and the games get more meaningful.

“The biggest thing is just giving our guys confidence, You go into a season and you feel like you can play with anybody, but there’s always that doubt until you knock one of them off,” said Cross. “I think that confidence will help us throughout the season.”

The team may not have reached its ceiling yet. If the shooting improves to match the defense, they could accomplish a lot. But what if the defensive intensity dips? Over his ten years as UTA head man, Cross has developed methods to ensure that doesn’t happen – methods that involve alarm clocks.

“I started a hustle point chart. We keep track of offensive rebounds, defensive rebounds, deflections, dives on the floor, loose balls, charges, and whether we give up and-ones, us versus the opponents. If we lost the hustle points and lost the game, we woke them up at six in the morning and did extra conditioning,” he explained. This year’s team had a taste of what Cross euphemistically calls “championship conditioning” after a scrimmage loss.

“They didn’t like it,” he noted.

This group of UTA student-athletes may not like early mornings, but they have to feel pretty positively about their early season results. If they keep them up, their rewards will include a run to the postseason, as well as a more collegiate approach to sleeping habits.



Rush Olson has spent two decades directing creative efforts for sports teams and broadcasters. He currently creates ad campaigns and related creative projects for sports entities through his company, Rush Olson Creative & Sports.


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