It’s like you’re in calculus with a big, ugly derivative up on the board begging to be solved. You don’t know the answer.

As the teacher walks around the classroom ready to pounce on an unsuspecting victim, the microphone gets passed to you and you realize you had your hand up the whole time.

Now, I don’t speak for everyone in the sports writing community, but sometimes a postgame news conference can feel exactly like that.

To fix the uneasiness of a presser, every sports writer has their old reliables: “Walk me through xyz play.”; “How did it feel to do xyz?”; “What are you taking away from xyz for the next game?”

The press corps devolves into a society of sorts. The most prominent print reporter often goes first, asking about the standouts of the game, television stations ask general questions they can get sound bites from and smaller publications ask more niche questions.

However, a pitfall I have noticed is one question becoming increasingly common: asking about the star player, no matter the context.

In my research on USC women’s basketball, I noticed that some media members have, seemingly, done their best to make freshman guard Jazzy Davidson the only storyline on the team — similar to the sentiment I had heard about junior guard JuJu Watkins.

Granted, the sport determines a lot of a reporter’s strategy. In baseball, for example, it is expected that at least one question will be asked about the team’s starting pitcher. Same for the quarterback in football.

But in a sport like basketball, where it really could be anyone’s night, the excuse doesn’t work as well on me. Especially since it seems to impact the women’s side of the game a lot more. I can’t recall men’s basketball players getting asked about graduate guard Chad Baker-Mazara every game, and he has, without a doubt, played a bigger part in their success than Davidson.

Before USC women’s basketball’s season began, I was told by one of my beat writers at the Daily Trojan that Watkins’ being out for the season was the only storyline heading into the season. 

Frankly, that sentiment bothered me.

Many news writers call sports the easy part of journalism because the story is already there for you. There’s no fanangling or working or digging required beyond getting some colorful quotes to beef up your writing. There is, by definition, always a story to be told.

And now, with Watkins out of the picture for now, the media has found a new storyline to target: Davidson.

Davidson is a definitive star. She’s the biggest player on one of the biggest teams in the country. She’s averaging 34 minutes a game and a team-high 16 points per game. She was also recently named one of just two freshmen on ESPN’s top 25 players in the country.

She is also a freshman who struggles with efficiency and has been shut down in a few games against top opponents.

I decided to investigate.

Through analysis of the news conferences posted on USC Athletics’ YouTube account — accounting for 16 of the Trojans’ 20 games thus far — the answer was there.

Out of about 137 total questions asked in the news conferences, 23 were directed explicitly toward Davidson and 14 were explicitly regarding Davidson, but directed toward one of her teammates or Head Coach Lindsay Gottlieb. Many broad questions, as well as a majority of Gottlieb’s opening statements, also referenced the star freshman in some way.

Altogether, that’s roughly 27% of all questions asked so far this season.

A disclaimer worth noting is that Davidson was not one of the two players selected for media availability at eight of the games posted, and three of the news conferences featured zero questions explicitly about or directed toward Davidson. The data compiled also does not include Thursday’s game against Iowa.

What stood out to me was the number of questions asked of others about her, especially her teammates. Only six of the news conferences analyzed featured no questions of this kind.

In a few different forms, reporters asked questions about how certain losses or matchups with big teams specifically impacted Davidson’s development. Oftentimes, Davidson’s teammates were asked more questions about her or broad team-based questions than they were asked to talk about their own performances, which inspired their selections for the availability.

Now, I want to make a few things clear before I wrap it up. 

For one, none of this is Davidson’s fault. In fact, her media training as a freshman has her dishing compliments like the developing playmaker she is on the court. 

For two, I understand where reporters are coming from. I’ve been told by many editors to make something exciting out of an overall boring game. Talking about stars is the easiest way to do that.

This is nothing new. Especially for women’s sports.

Even on the other side of the USC basketball coin, questions will focus on whoever did well, whether that is Baker-Mazara, playmaking and defensive specialist graduate guard Kam Woods, or role-playing big junior Gabe Dynes.

When talking about women’s basketball, the same few names always come up: Watkins, Caitlin Clark, Angel Reese, Paige Bueckers, to name a few. Davidson’s on her way already.

Without the stars, it’s hard — more like impossible — for the sport to grow. Just look at what Watkins has undeniably done for USC.

But for all USC-focused reporters, that doesn’t mean there isn’t room for a few more questions about players like junior guard Malia Samuels, sophomore forward Vivian Iwuchukwu and senior guard Kara Dunn, especially when they perform well enough to get in front of you.

Sean Campbell is a sophomore writing about all facets of USC sports in a voice- and reference-heavy style in his column, “A Wannabe Sports Writer,” which runs every other Friday. He is also an associate managing editor at the Daily Trojan.