Keith Strudler

Director, School of Communication and Media at Montclair State University and Sports Commentator at WAMC, Northeast Public Radio

Dean, School of Communication & Media, Montclair State University @MontclairSCM; Sports Commentator, Northeast Public Radio @WAMCRadio; Husband; Dad

Featured in: Favicon

wamc.org

Articles

Trading tomorrow for today

2 days ago | wamc.org | Keith Strudler

For all but fans of two NBA teams, the basketball season has been over for some time. Yes, Oklahoma City and Indiana just finished a seven-game series to give the Thunder their first ever title, but everyone else’s hopes and dreams ended weeks if not months ago. There’s probably no professional sport with a more extended second season than the NBA, where the original regular season is a faded memory by the time the Finals rolls around.
The price of stadium food

1 week ago | wamc.org | Keith Strudler

One of the most frustrating moments of any live sporting experience is walking around to find a concessions stand only to wait in line for what feels like forever for the opportunity to pay Upper East Side restaurant prices for a street cart sandwich and a drink that may or may not have lost its carbonation. And to return to your seat to realize you just missed the only goal of the entire game. The only thing that’s worse? Not being able to do that.
Playing with the pros

2 weeks ago | wamc.org | Keith Strudler

You may have heard the story of the dentist who’s playing in the US Open Golf Tournament this week. His name is Matt Vogt, and he’s 34 years old and runs his own dental practice in Indianapolis, not far from where he once played college golf at Butler University. Vogt is ranked 1,173rd in the World Amateur Rankings. Meaning he’s not generally a threat to play in one of the nation’s most prestigious golf events, a tournament that allows only 156 players to tee off.
The last game

2 weeks ago | wamc.org | Keith Strudler

Everyone has moments in life when you feel the passage of time, when you realize you’re a long way from where you once were. I had one this week when my oldest son played his very last high school lacrosse game. I actually didn’t make this one in person, since it was about an hour away, but I did watch the live stream and saw his last home game in person just a few days prior.
The Caitlin Clark Effect

1 month ago | wamc.org | Keith Strudler

Years in the future, there will be full bookshelves dedicated to Indiana Fever basketball star Caitlin Clark. Some of those, we assume, will be about her athletic prowess, assuming the former Iowa college star continues her rise into basketball royalty. But some of those volumes, a lot of them I’ll guess, will be about things off the hardcourt – more specifically, Clark’s impact on the economics and sociology of the sport.
Graduation season in Boston

1 month ago | wamc.org | Keith Strudler

We are officially in the heart of college graduation season, with a whole bunch over the past several weeks and a full slate of big name colleges taking center stage this weekend. And there are very few places that celebrate college grads more than Boston, home of what feels like half of the nation’s universities – the other half in Philly, of course.
How dare you want more

1 month ago | wamc.org | Keith Strudler

Fans of the New York Knicks are about to engage with one of the seven deadly sins. And no, it’s not pride nor envy, although I’m sure they’ve been guilty over the years. Knicks fans are about to experience feelings of greed. As you may know, the Knicks are in relatively unfamiliar territory, at least by recent standards.
The law of unintended consequences

1 month ago | wamc.org | Keith Strudler

The law of unintended consequences is both one of my favorite expressions and also probably overused, or at least misused. Because in the end, pretty much everything we do has consequence beyond the intended, assuming there was intention. So it’s more likely you don’t really care much about what else might happen, at least not enough to change course.
Shedeur Sanders’ slippery slide

1 month ago | wamc.org | Keith Strudler

There is little more uncomfortable in sports than watching a top athlete in the NFL draft slide from a high first round prospect to a spot much further down. Maybe someone who was expected to go in the first five picks fall all the way to the second round, and watching their expression every time a team passes. It’s like watching someone get turned down for a job over and over again, only on live television where cameras cut to your face every time someone else got the job.
Saying the impossible out loud

2 months ago | wamc.org | Keith Strudler

There’s a current commercial that I find fairly amusing where a younger married guy starts to say out loud that they’re planning on redoing their kitchen, even though they clearly hadn’t figured out when or how they might pay for it. And as the commercial goes, his uncertainty turns to self-assuredness as he and his wife discuss how they can save for their new kitchen, quartz countertops and all.