Beach Ball Notebook: Tournament reaching national TV audience
Games at the 34th Beach Ball Classic at the Myrtle Beach Convention Center are receiving nightly national television exposure for the first time in tournament history.
American Sports Network aired seven live games on Friday and Saturday, and Comcast SportsNet is broadcasting 20 games over the tournament’s five competitive days. The Comcast SportsNet carriers based in Chicago and Philadelphia are airing all 20 games and combined are available throughout the Northeast and Midwest.
Comcast in Las Vegas has also aired some games, and other locations have likely picked up some contests.
The Comcast games include all of the winner’s bracket contests as well as Wednesday’s consolation championship and fifth-, third- and first-place games.
Donald Smith, owner of Lucky Dog Television Productions of Conway, acquired the rights to the tournament broadcasts – which were essentially created for him this year – and worked arrangements with American Sports and Comcast SportsNet with the help of WPDE president Billy Huggins.
“I think with any high school basketball tournament, this just takes it to a whole different level,” Smith said. “I don’t think there’s another high school basketball tournament in the country that’s doing this many games at this level of production. I think Beach Ball Classic has set another mark.”
Beach Ball broadcasts have traditionally been done in-house in the past and have consisted of online streaming broadcasts at BeachBallClassic.com and occasional local TV airings on HTC Cable channel 4.
Smith said last year online viewers were detected in 48 states and more than 20 foreign countries.
“We’re used to it, but not to this level, not to what we had to produce for Comcast and American Sports Network to agree to take it because we have to have a certain level of production,” Smith said.
Smith said American Sports is recording all of the winner’s bracket games, and the networks may air replays at times and in markets at their discretion.
Beach Ball director of broadcasts Allen Smothers said American Sports Network is aired in 78 of the top rated markets across the country through Sinclair Broadcast Group. “This broadcast hits the markets [Myrtle Beach tourism leaders] are trying to get in strong and hard,” Smith said.
Networks or stations that pick up the games split commercial spots with locally-produced commercials. Area companies and organizations that have chosen to advertise to the masses include Southern Asphalt, Ocean Lakes Family Campground and Elliott Beach Rentals, City of Myrtle Beach, VisitMyrtleBeach.com and the new sports complex near the convention center.
“They were intrigued enough about the number of homes we’re going to get to and the possibilities,” Smith said. “This broadcast truly hits the markets we’re trying to get in strong and hard.”
“We’re an eight-hour commercial for Myrtle Beach,” said Beach Ball director of broadcasts Allen Smothers.
The on-air talent has expanded to eight people. Play-by-play is being shared by Smothers, Tyler Watkins, Big South Conference and ACC announcer Mike Hogewood and Layne Harris.
Analysts are Ralph Patterson of ESPN, who is new to the Beach Ball, Tommy Gaither, Wayne Gray and Van Coleman, who will work with Smothers on the semifinal and final broadcasts.
The broadcasts also have intros and halftime shows hosted by Banana Jack Murphy, and coach interviews at halftime and post-game conducted by Caroline Springs.
“We’ve got [up to] four games, and once they take our signal we fill programming from there until the goodbye,” Smith said.
King is dethroned
A case of reckless driving Sunday left a crowd at the convention center unable to watch a famous name in action on Monday.
B.B. King was involved in a go-cart accident at Broadway Grand Prix Family Race Park and broke a rib, rendering him unable to perform.
King, the head coach of Knott County Central (Ky.), was forced to remain in his hotel room Monday night during his team’s tight 50-49 loss to Sagemont (Fla.) High.
“Kids and coaches were riding the race cars, and a couple of the kids turned him around, and the other kid came and T-boned him and it knocked him into the side of the [car] and it broke his rib,” Knott County assistant Roy Conley said. “He gave a cough, and I knew it was broke. You could feel it. It was completely [broken].”
Conley believes the injury to King, in his fifth year leading his alma mater, was accidental. “They wrecked him, and the other kid was coming and couldn’t stop,” Conley said. “He’s got about 10 or 12 pillows around him in the hotel room.”
Hicks credits LeForce
Scott County (Ky.) coach Billy Hicks doesn’t need too much prodding to think about what his other path in life could have been if not for longtime college coach and Conway resident Alan LeForce.
“It probably would have been 80-20 of me being a coal miner if it wasn’t for Coach LeForce,” Hicks said Monday after Scott County’s win over Socastee in the consolation bracket of the Beach Ball Classic. “There was one way I could go to college at that time. That was the only way I was going to go to college, was a scholarship.”
Instead of following his father’s footsteps into the Kentucky coal mines full-time, Hicks parlayed his playing career at a pair of South Carolina colleges into an ultra-successful coaching career of his own.
Now in his 21st season at Scott County, Hicks is Kentucky’s all-time leader in high school victories with more than 880, owns four coach of the year honors and has led his teams to a pair of state titles. If he sticks to his goal of another four or five years in the business, he could feasibly reach 1,000 career wins based on his recent pace.
He credits the beginning of that run to LeForce.
Then the coach at College of Charleston, LeForce was introduced to Hicks during Hicks’ senior season of high school ball in 1969. The Cougars didn’t have any more available scholarships and were full at his swingman position, so LeForce steered him to North Greenville with the potential of signing him after two years.
Wanting to go Division I after one season at the Upstate junior college, and with LeForce still without room, he headed to Wofford for his final three years. LeForce remembered Hicks averaging about 30 points per game against the Cougars in six or seven games.
“He’d come up after a game and say, ‘Coach, you think I could have played for you?’ ” LeForce recalls. “He’s a great guy.”
Said Hicks: “Every time I played College of Charleston, I knew Coach LeForce. I guess I played a little harder.”
The bearded bunch
Knott County Central (Ky.) leads the tournament in at least one category: number of beards. Seniors Camron Justice, who is committed to Vanderbilt, and Evan Hall, who is committed to Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI), are sporting full facial hair, and they made the decision to do it together.
“That’s where the power comes from,” Hall joked. “It’s just so we don’t look like babies. I look like a 4-year-old without it. It’s bad.
“… We used to have really long hair, too, but we got rid of that because it was getting in the way.”
This story was originally published December 29, 2014 at 11:16 PM with the headline "Beach Ball Notebook: Tournament reaching national TV audience."