The Basketeers
Grant started it. In the fall of 2021, one of the eighteen new students in my first-semester writing course was a smiley young basketball player from Springfield, Missouri, named Grant Harper. Improbably enough, he seemed just as eager to talk proper comma placement as he was to talk hoops after class, so it wasn't long before he recruited his best friends on the team, a pair of fellow frosh hoopers named Mason Ballay and Dwight "DJ" Newsome, to join him in my spring writing course. They all started hanging out after class, sometimes to talk about the readings and their papers (and proper comma placement), but more often to dish on the latest NBA and sports gossip. When I offered a new course called "Hollywood Hoop Dreams" the next spring, my Three Basketeers all signed up, leading to more thoughtful papers and conversations in class, after class, in my office, on the court after games, and more. When two of the Basketeers, Grant and Mason, sadly let us know t...