The optimism involved in our interviews with basketball coaches is easy to understand, considering that everybody’s record starts at 0-0 and every team is in contention. Most of the play-callers like to harp on optimism, on the positives and on the fresh start.

Then there are the honest coaches.

Let’s face it, some schools don’t have good teams and the coaches know it. Very few, however, will admit it on the phone with a reporter while on the record.

Honesty has trouble finding its way into preview stories for teams that aren’t likely to do well, as you likely saw in the Tuesday and Wednesday editions. (You can read them HERE ).

And the great teams that know they’ll be good usually try to downplay it. It’s a tough balance, because being honest with the media is obviously a noble thing. But on the other hand, a coach that is too honest could damage the psyche of his or her team and possibly anger players and parents alike, or give the players a false sense of ego.

Good coaches know how to walk the tight rope and give the media the truth while still putting a positive spin on it. The neophytes usually just don’t answer the question or dance around it to the point where we might as well not have discussed it.

As a reporter, I love honesty, bluntness and color in quotes, even if a coach is basically saying that his or her players are terrible. I don’t get paid to make people smile.

Then again, maybe it’s not that sad that coaches have a filter. I would hate it if a preview article discouraged a team and made parents angry.

I prefer to do that with my game stories.