In this edition of Sundt's Scribes, Hal Sundt details the journey of how former Yeomen hoopster and currently NBA Analyst for ESPN Chris Broussard went from a young and aspiring journalist at Oberlin College to main the stage of ESPN's studios.

“How long do you think you need?” asks Chris Broussard, his voice muffled from what I can only guess is the splatter of rain smacking against the windshield of his car as he makes his way to the ESPN Studios in Bristol, Connecticut.

“Let me call you back in about 10 or 15 minutes,” Broussard then casually says. “And then I'll give you the time.”

On this day, Wednesday, April 27th, Chris Broussard is a busy man. The NBA Playoffs are in full force and over the ensuing hours, days and months he will break down the contenders and pretenders for the NBA Championship, debate if (or possibly when) All-Star center Dwight Howard will leave the Orlando Magic, and evaluate the prospects for the upcoming NBA draft, all while managing the constant flow of rumors about a potential (some say certain) NBA lockout.

At this point in his career, Broussard is perhaps more famous for his television spots as one of ESPN's primary NBA analysts. He wears sharp suits; fine shoes and exudes a calm confidence that makes him an ideal and popular television persona. But the attention he has garnered was born out of his ability to write, which he still does quite frequently. He honed his craft while working at ESPN the Magazine and The New York Times before that. An ability that first began to flourish during his time at Oberlin College.

Like most college sophomores, Broussard felt anxious about getting a job in the real world. As his friends confidently declared their future plans to attend law school and medical school, Broussard was at a loss.

“So, I kind of put together this formula,” he says. “I took something that I enjoyed, which was sports, plus something that I was gifted at, which was writing. I was always just able to write from a young age.”

But up to that point in his life, Broussard hadn't written for Oberlin College's school paper, The Oberlin Review. Hell, he never even wrote for his high school paper. Once he decided that he wanted to be a writer he latched on quickly with the Review, but even then his experience was abnormal.

“The articles I wrote for the Review were all about the basketball team, which I played on, so it wasn't exactly objective journalism,” Broussard chuckles. “I would actually be in some of the same articles that I wrote. Then it got so bad I actually started using a pen-name.”

Oberlin College does not offer journalism as a major, but Broussard found plenty of ways to write as he majored in English and served as a writing tutor during his senior year. The closest he came to emulating the type of reporting work he would eventually do for The New York Times and ESPN was when he took a private reading with Professor Len Podis of the Rhetoric and Composition Department.

“I would just watch games on the weekend and write an article and Mr. Podis would critique it for me,” Broussard says. “But that was the extent of my academic training in actual journalism.”

As Broussard continued to get involved on campus he became more and more comfortable communicating. He worked at the college radio station, WOBC, where he deejay'd hip-hop shows and also reported the news and sports scores. Furthermore, he simultaneously improved his memorization skills and quelled any stage fright he may have had by frequently rapping at soul sessions in the Afrikan Heritage House and performing at the 'Sco (Oberlin's on-campus concert venue/bar/dance club).

By the end of his junior year, Broussard landed an internship with the Cleveland Plain Dealer. His hybrid form of journalism training has helped him in the long run, but his first assignment started off much rougher. He was sent out with a staff reporter to cover a minor league baseball game. Broussard was supposed to write a sample piece to prove his writing chops. Unfortunately, he had no clue what he was supposed to do. So, he wandered into the visitor's locker room in search of a few juicy quotes before going home that night to write his story (“I don't know if they expected it after the game, I think they did but I missed that deadline by a mile,” Broussard says). The following day the assistant sports editor essentially tried to convince Broussard to give up.

“But he gave me some constructive criticism,” Broussard recalls. “As an English major I was writing things during a quote like 'Williams stated' or 'responded Johnson' and he would say 'just say said.' From that point on everything I wrote was able to get into the paper. So it took some perseverance, some belief in myself, and some humility to listen to him. I had to walk that line between being confident enough in myself to not let his criticism crush me, but not get so arrogant to the point that I couldn't accept his criticism and learn from it.”

Broussard eventually had 32 articles published that summer and was offered a job with the paper after he graduated.

During our conversation Broussard frequently gives me advice. Make sure you are exact with your quotes he says. You have to be accurate he tells me. Keep me posted on your summer plans he says. On his way to film a segment for SportsCenter, driving in a car nearly 1,000 miles from Oberlin, Ohio, he has plenty on his mind: the road, how he is going to find dinner between the time he finished talking to me and has to be on camera and oh yeah - the upcoming Boston Celtics-Miami Heat playoff matchup.

But I get the sense that he is not too busy to forget his days as a college student scared of the future, frantically jotting down quotes, trying to make a deadline.