Been there, covered that.

And it never gets old.

Basketball has a way of doing that, setting up the kind of drama that’s a thrill to see and a challenge to report. The biggest challenge (aside from trying to keep up with who did what, what exactly was that, time on the clock, score): coming up with a new word to describe it.

Buzzer beater. Heartbreaker. Down-to-the-wire. Epic. Classic. Monumental. Nail-biter. Seen them all for more than 20 years, and each time I say that’s the reason why I got into the business.

The hardwood game probably is my personal favorite (but fear not baseball and football loyalists, for those are not far behind). I have seen the little 5-foot-nothing guard leap up and throw back a missed jumper, with 6-foot-plus monsters on the other team, with little time to release the rock, make it, and win a region tournament and state qualifying game. And that was in girls action.

No other setting can lead to this kind of drama more than the playoffs, seeing a program try so hard to reach a new level, like simply the Final Four.

What’s more impressive is how, at the high school level, the young ladies will get the same kind of support and enthusiastic response as the boys. That’s was the atmosphere last Friday in Tift County High.

Colquitt County’s Lady Packers are down, and down fairly significantly, to the Tift County Lady Blue Devils in Tifton. It was going to take a major comeback effort, and with only one quarter to do it, but that’s what coach Rondesha Williams received from a group that, I’ll say it again, could line up side by side and show extremely slight differences in height from one to another.

In Georgia high school girls basketball, I have seen live ball players I would label as ‘serious.’ The most ‘serious’ would be Nausia Woolfolk of Peach County High. You saw something special when Woolfolk hit the court. She is now a freshman at Florida State.

These Lady Packers have some ‘serious’ talent, and it was the cool determination of Za’Nautica Downs that made the go-ahead 3-point shot fall in the final minute of regulation. Tift County then had a girl sink the tying basket and force overtime. Kudos goes out not only to the players for their efforts, but for the packed gym of fans from both sides showing what I just described above. What the girls teams were doing mattered to them, representing their school and leaving it all out on the floor.

Confession: I hate girls basketball … wait, wrong verb tense … hated girls basketball way back in my younger years. Didn’t care for it growing up, for it just didn’t compare to what I was seeing out of the Showtime L.A. Lakers, Dominique Wilkins in Atlanta, etc. Never even went to a women’s game while attending UGA, even though Andy Landers’ team won an SEC championship when I was there.

But, when becoming a professional sports journalist at this local level, I knew covering the girls team was a part of the job, and I was going to do it like a professional. The good news is this girls team at Wayne County, when I first saw it, was very good. Consider that moment an instant conversion in terms of appreciation. They go on and win a, yes, dramatic region tournament final at Dodge County.

Since then I have covered teams that were both very good and not good at all. I was there last March when Veterans High faced Americus-Sumter (a former team of mine) for the AAAA state championship in Macon. I tried to get good photos, but can’t help but think I was placed too far away from the court to be successful.

(What does that mean? Think back. It turned out the goals weren’t properly set, making 3-point attempts longer than they should be. Veterans was like 1-for-12).

Going from the action Friday in Tifton, I tune in Saturday for Georgia at Florida. Yes, Georgia success on the basketball court is as big a deal to me as success on the gridiron. Maybe I’m one of the few who will say that, but that’s the way it’s always been. Losing that game Saturday in overtime after being ahead most of regulation, that hurt.

A couple of years ago the Bulldogs had a chance to knock off that mighty Kentucky team but couldn’t get the job done. Maybe if the game had ended five minutes early …

No moment was more emotional, however, than in 2008 winning the SEC Tournament during circumstances where the Dogs had to play two games in one day (one against UK). Georgia was the bottom seed that year, but it didn’t matter. Didn’t do very well in the ensuing NCAA Tournament game, but it didn’t matter.

The circumstances, if you remember, was the Friday night tornado that ripped through Atlanta and shook up the Georgia Dome. This writer was in Atlanta, but not in the Dome. Close, Philips Arena seeing the Hawks play. Getting out of town was every man for himself with traffic lights not working.

Getting back to Bulldog basketball, I know the UGA nation will get behind a good team (yes, the women’s club also). When things aren’t going well … ‘Well, football’s the only thing that matters there.’

Sorry, that’s an attitude I cannot take. The biggest example would be the mess created by Jim Harrick in 2002 where a really good team had to pull out of the SEC Tournament. Can’t say that wasn’t a bad decision, saving yourself the embarrassment of potentially giving back a banner for NCAA violations.

(They know what I’m talking about in Michigan.)

But when you want to discuss how awful that situation is … ‘Well, football’s the only thing that matters there.’

That may have been the concession after Saturday’s loss to the Gators (where you would also think only one thing matters). The good news is, there’s still a ways to go in the conference schedule, and anything can happen in the tournament (see, again, 2008).

And I will echo what Williams says about inviting community support to Colquitt County basketball for the girls and boys. Don’t let the feelings from those unbeaten starts go away just because things didn’t go well last Friday.

There will be a stretch of five home games in a row starting Jan. 24, and three of those will be in Region 1-7A. And then there’s the tournament, Feb. 9-10 in Lowndes, where, remember, anything can happen.