Brandon Harris's Sportswriter Profile

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Brandon Harris

Joined 9 months ago

6 articles written
18 comments posted
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Brandon's Fans (7)

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Brandon's Bio

I'm a 23-year-old graduate of the University of Arkansas. I'm a native Memphian, though I spent my high school and college years in the Natural State. I'm a sales consultant for a flooring company in my "real job," but my passion (and degree) is in sports journalism.

I love all sports, but I'm a basketball fanatic.

I've freelanced for the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, the Morning News of Northwest Arkansas, the Fort Smith Times Record, the Pine Bluff Commercial and the Jonesboro Sun. I've also worked for various Web sites and spent the summer of 2008 working as an associate reporter covering the Cincinnati Reds for MLB.com.

But alas, I got into sports journalism about 50 years too late.

Brandon's Recent Articles

Memphis at Disadvantage in Battle for Top Seed

Published 8 months ago
472 reads 20 comments

Hard To Argue With Memphis Tigers' Performance

Published 9 months ago
869 reads 0 comments

Ugly Or Not, Memphis Continues To Perform, Improve

Published 9 months ago
513 reads 1 comments

Brandon Writes About

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The Short List What Brandon thinks about sport's most pressing questions

Favorite Athletes

Baron Davis, Gilbert Arenas, Dwight Howard
Favorite Sports Teams

Memphis Tigers, Arkansas Razorbacks, Memphis Grizzlies, Atlanta Braves
Favorite Coaches

John Calipari
All Time Sports Moment

Pretty much every part of the 2007-08 college basketball season except for the last 2:12 and overtime periods of the national championship game
Most Memorable Game Attended

Memphis vs. Tennessee, Feb. 24, 2008
Most Unbreakable Sports Record

Memphis' 38 wins in 2008
Ruth or Mays?

Mays
Unitas or Montana?

Montana
Jordan or Russell?

Jordan
Gretzky or Orr?

Gretzky
Pele or Maradona?

Maradona
Federer or Sampras?

Federer
Tiger or Nicklaus?

Golf isn't a sport
Petty or Earnhardt?

Racing isn't a sport
Schumacher or Senna?

Schumacher
Pac 10, Big 12, Big 10, SEC, ACC, or Big East?

SEC, and it's not even close

Bulletin Board (4) Post a note »

by Leroy
8 months ago

Hi Brandon, how are you today?

I wrote a very passionate piece that I think you will enjoy and perhaps relate to:

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/138849-enhancing-everyones-enjoyment-of-the-bleacher-report-community

Please give it a read and let me know what you think!

Thanks.
by Brittany
8 months ago

Hey..yeah still writing about the Rays, trying to stay relevant in this crazy industry. I've been job hunting like crazy but can't find a thing. I'm considering making the shift to broadcast since I've got some experience in that area and helped out MLB.TV a little as well. What are you up to post-interning?
by Nathan
9 months ago

Oh - sorry about that -- Jameson Fleming. He's the college basketball "community leader" ... we were talking about the KenPom stats on one of those threads; I think the one you were referring to.

He said he wanted to write an article on how to use the KenPom stats in context as opposed to using them in the manner of what I referred to as "lazy journalism".

Some people have used the RPI that way in the past -- if you don't want to research all the teams, but you want to write an article on the top 64 that will get in, you just look up the RPI table and put the higher team in, instead of looking at a more in-depth analysis of the actual schedules, trends, last 10 games, margin of victory where appropriate, etc.

Not everyone does that w/ KenPom, but there's a good chunk of people who do. I think the site is a great resource when used in context, don't get me wrong.
by Nathan
9 months ago

I think you misunderstood what I meant by "lazy journalism". An example I've run into is when someone posts a bracket, and are asked "why did St. Mary's get a 12 seed and LSU get a 6 seed"? (I'm picking random teams), and the writer responds with "Because LSU's KenPom rating is higher and they have a better offensive and defensive efficiency," and that's their only argument.

The post I quoted from rivals.com was an example, also -- that really was the whole post. The writer just said one team was better than the other team (UConn over Duke, I think it was) because they were higher in the KenPom rankings.

Creating the STATS aren't lazy journalism! Using them as the only basis to judge teams is. That's the point I was trying to make. The stats are very useful if used in the right context, as you'll see in an article from Jameson soon.

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