Benjamin Dickson

TBT Content Intern

April 2022-August 2022
WRITTEN PROJECT 1 - “NASTY NATI” STORY

https://thetournament.com/news/cincinnati-bearcats-alumni-accepted-to-play-in-tbt-2022/
 PROJECT 1 REPORT (WEEK 4)
The “Nasty Nati” story marked my first story for TBT. Each year, there are college alumni teams that
participate in the tournament, and the University of Cincinnati would enter a brand new team in 2022. The
assignment began with a call with Kevin Johnson, a former Cincinnati men’s basketball player who would
be the general manager for the Cincinnati alumni team – Nasty Nati. My job was to find all of the different
angles that could be used. Cincinnati would be able to play in their hometown and have a potential rivalry
game against the Xavier alumni team. The overwhelming narrative, though, is that Cincinnati could use
this experience to get back on the map as a premier college basketball program. The school has a new
coach but is looking to find the success it once had. Cincinnati was also looking for a better showing in
TBT 2022; “Bearcat Jam” was a Cincinnati alumni team that had a poor showing in 2018. My conversation
with Kevin was great, and it led me to a conversation with Coreontae DeBerry, another former Cincinnati
player that would be playing for the team. Ultimately, I had great information from both sources, and I was
able to get the story published April 27. The process helped me learn about a new team and new players
while improving my storytelling ability.
WRITTEN PROJECT 2 - “THE PANAMANIACS” STORY

https://thetournament.com/news/new-mexico-state-alumni-team-accepted-to-play-in-tbt/
 PROJECT 2 REPORT (WEEK 6)
My second story for TBT was very similar to my first. It would be to take on the task of
finding the story of a new alumni team that will play close to home with a potential rivalry
matchup abound. Just like I did with Nasty Nati’s Kevin Johnson, I conducted an interview
with Brandon Mason, who would be the general manager of “The Panamaniacs.” We
talked a lot about New Mexico State basketball and the rivalry between NMSU and New
Mexico State. Mason was an incredible person to talk to about the rivalry; he played at
NMSU and coached at UNM. While I tried to get in touch with a specific player for this
story, I never received a response. It made me realize how hard the industry can really be.
However, through my own research and the conversation with Mason, the story came out
great. This process helped me learn how to deal with adversity within the industry, and the
storytelling aspect was basically the same as the first project.
WRITTEN PROJECT 3 - RUCKER PARK ANNOUNCEMENT STORY

https://thetournament.com/news/tbt-rucker-park-regional-a-landmark-moment-in-summer-basketball-history/
 PROJECT 3 REPORT (WEEK 7)
This story was a much different assignment than my first two team profile stories. I was
assigned to write a story about legendary Rucker Park becoming the site of the first
outdoor regional in TBT history. This required research about the venue and past logistics
of TBT. It would be written in a breaking news format, which is much different than the
feature style of writing. I wanted to organize everything in a seamless way while keeping it
as brief and organized as possible. In my opinion, one can never get enough experience
writing in this type of format. You will never know when you need to write within time
constraints or adhere to these certain standards – whether it’s in journalism, PR or any
similar medium. I enjoyed writing this because it came out at the same time of the
announcement. Though it may not be the deepest look into a subject, it was still valuable
writing experience.
WRITTEN PROJECT 4 - JUSTIN MOSS FEATURE

https://thetournament.com/news/blue-collar-us-justin-moss-return-to-buffalo-a-full-circle-moment/
 PROJECT 4 REPORT (WEEK 9)
This was my favorite story to work on because it came on my own volition. I was looking
for a powerful story to write about a TBT player, and Moss’ story should be shared. In the
story, I detail his entire journey. He has dealt – and still deals on certain things – with a
heart condition, school dismissals and all different types of adversity. This was probably
one of the toughest interviews I had to conduct because it required asking a lot of tough
questions. I personally believe the story came out extremely well. It was a pleasure to
share the story of someone like Moss. This experience helped me become a better
interviewer, reporter and writer all together.
ON-SITE INTERVIEW REEL
 INTERVIEWS EXPLAINED (WEEKS 15-END)
During the actual tournament, I embarked on a 12-day trip to Rucker Park on Syracuse. I
was fortunate enough to conduct pregame and postgame interviews with plenty of
superstars, and I turned them into a reel featured on the last slide.

The interviewees (in order from first to last): Lance Stephenson, Nigel Johnson, Britt
Booker, Trey Davis, Thomas “Snacks” Lee, J’Covan Brown, Devante Carter, Thomas
“Snacks” Lee, J’Covan Brown, Rusty Featherstone/Liam Cullagh, Edric Dennis, Dee Bost,
Nick Perkins, Wes Clark
 RESEARCH - WEEK 1
A lot of my work with TBT required necessary research before doing! In order to create a
story idea or build a profile on a player, you must know their background. Examples of
research below:
TBT TEAMS SHIFTS - BEGAN WEEK 2 → THRU REST OF
INTERNSHIP
As part of my internship, I helped out the team relations department in building profiles for
both teams and players. I would voluntarily sign up for two-hour shifts in each week of the
internship, starting in week two. In the next few slides, I will attach examples of profiles
(hyperlinks attached) that I built leading up to the actual tournament.
 ANNOUNCER PREP PROJECT (WEEKS 9-15)
In terms of providing professional value to TBT, this project was probably the most
important part of my internship. Over the course of about a month and a half, I conducted
43 interviews with various general managers and players from the different teams in TBT
2022. It would require a ton of dedicated time to obtain contacts and then schedule times to
talk with those contacts. Oftentimes, I would have to talk to players four and five on my
list because the first three would not answer me. Overall, it was a project that taught me to
be timely, organized and efficient in gathering information. After each phone call, I would
fill out a form that would be sent to ESPN. The point of this project was to gather key
information about teams and players that the network could use on their broadcasts of the
TBT games. It was incredibly time-consuming, but it was more fulfilling to hear
information from my interviews on the ESPN airwaves. In the following slides, I will
attach a few examples of the 43 forms that I filled out.
Divine Myles (player)
Billy Clapper (general manager)
Eric Washington (player)
Cristina Desemone (general manager)
 OTHER IN-PERSON CONTENT (WEEKS 15-END)
Outside of the various on-site interviews that I conducted at the actual tournament, there
was plenty of other content that I captured as well. These included game highlights, game
celebrations, warmups, practice videos and more. I’ll attach several of those videos with
tweets hyperlinked in the following slides.
UPDATED RESUME -
AUGUST 2022