Courtside Chat – Admire & Kristensen

Courtside Chat #5

(St. Louis, MO) – Michael Admire and Anthony Kristensen are story tellers. During this week’s ‘Courtside Chat’ this pair of journalists each talked about story telling and building relationships. Admire is the ‘voice of Drake basketball and Kristensen is the beat writer for the Evansville Purple Aces.

While Kristensen is in his first season covering the Aces, Admire is a veteran of five Drake basketball seasons. Admire (@Admire_OnAir) came to Drake after working in television in the region for several years. Kristensen (@AMFKristensen) is a recent graduate of the University of Missouri’s famous School of Journalism.

Relationships and Story Telling

These young professionals love their jobs. Each spoke of the value of relationships and their desire to tell good stories. Admire became the Bulldog play-by-play man after the tragic and untimely death of former Drake announcer Larry Cotlar. Larry passed away in flooding that hit the Des Moines area in 2018.

It was the way Drake University and the community responded to Larry’s passing that inspired Admire to consider the Bulldogs’ announcing job. Upon his being named Larry’s successor, Cotlar’s wife, Deb Brewer-Cotlar, offered him sound advice.

 

 

Kristensen has hit the ground running. He also writes about the Southern Indiana Screaming Eagles (Ohio Valley Conference). The first year reporter for the Evansville Courier Press is one of the hardest workers we’ve met. He insists the work is worth it because he has the great opportunity to tell stories. According to Kristensen, relationship building is paramount.

 

 

Admire enjoys being ‘part of the team’. As a television reporter, he needed to be impartial and ‘just a reporter’. As the team’s announcer, he has a chance to truly know the staff and players and be an extension of what they are building.

 

 

Bulldogs and Purple Aces

Wednesday’s double-overtime win over Northern Iowa pushed Drake into a first place tie. Evansville is winless in conference play during David Ragland’s first head coaching season. Each reporter feels fortunate to be associated with their particular program and their head coaches.

Kristensen says Ragland’s job has been made more difficult by the timing of his hiring, but he sees improvements in the team’s play. Ragland has maintained a positive approach to the difficult season and is navigating this season well.

 

 

The Drake rivalry with Northern Iowa is growing into a ‘can’t miss ticket’. The last three times the Valley’s two Iowa-based schools have met, the game has gone into overtime. Wednesday’s game took two extra sessions to complete.

Admire says until recently the rivalry games had gone decidedly in UNI’s favor, but the two schools have now become strong and respected rivals. Drake head coach Darian DeVries played at Northern Iowa and last season the Panthers won the regular season title, while Drake won the conference tournament.

 

 

Drake visits Cedar Falls and the Panthers on February 15.

Our entire ‘Courtside Chat’ can be seen on YouTube. Last week’s chat with Southern Illinois broadcaster Mike Reis and Missouri State beat writer Wyatt Wheeler can be seen here.

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