Austin Basis waxes poetic about basketball, his co-stars & "Math's big episode" of 'Life Unexpected'

Austin Basis has been promoting the heck out of tonight’s episode of Life Unexpected. And why shouldn’t he? For one thing, he is immensely proud of the show, on which he says he and his fellow cast and crew “try not to violate the truth.” His passion for the project is inspiring, sure, but why you should really want to tune in is because all season long, his character of Math has been steadily gaining traction—first with a new crush (Arielle Kebbel’s Paige) and then with a new gig (coaching basketball). And tonight it all comes to a head.

“I think [“Team Rebounded”] is big because I like, whether it’s comedically or dramatically, when you get to see or get to do another layer of the character. And I feel that while it’s the same character, you get to see them in a new situation, whether it’s the asking of the girl out or the coaching or it’s having an argument or going head-to-head with Baze. A lot of times it’s just the comedic relief lines and you get to give the voice of reason speech or the advice speech, so when it gets beyond that, and…you have those elements in there, but you know, you get to expand out and see a full arc for the character in the episode, it’s what I am kind of excited about," Basis told LA TV Insider Examiner on a phone call to promote "Team Rebounded".

You can take a look at the preview clip from the episode below to see more of to what Basis is referring.

Basketball, a new motif for Life Unexpected, is once again front and center in tonight’s episode. Basis, who played JV basketball for a year when he was still in school, welcomed the athletic challenge.

“I really studied up on the coaching aspect of it," he shared. "What catchphrases are good and what are positive because [he] really wants them to have a positive experience. Write that down! A positive experience.”

Noted!

He also feels the sports analogy works to explain his relationship with his on-screen BFF, too: “In one of the early episodes last year, you see a picture of Math and Baze from high school winning their regional championships or something, so in my estimation of their relationship in a nutshell is that Baze is the quarterback and Math was the center who hiked the ball to him.”

Okay, we admit it, he almost lost us there since we know nothing about sports, namely football. But the whole idea of Math being the good and loyal friend/teammate who helps his buddy achieve victory became clear when we started thinking about how he’s always been there, somewhat on the sidelines, since day one (the pilot).

But not anymore.

“Everyone’s work in it is awesome,” Basis continued, “but [tonight] you’ll get to see, like, my character and Kerr’s character have an arc. In this episode you see more of a full character storyline with Math and Ryan and obviously there’s funny aspects to Math, but Ryan is dead serious, and so it’s a really, really good episode for both of us.”

LA TV Insider Examiner assumed Math and Ryan crossed paths because Math shows an interest in Ryan’s sister, which Basis confirmed was part of the episode: “You’ll get to see the results of that and how they feel, and there’s a simultaneous storyline with that—Baze and Math are dealing with Math and Paige, while also getting ready to coach their first JV girl’s basketball game.”

Basis isn’t in next week's episode (205, the big Life Unexpected/One Tree Hill crossover episode), though, so chances are things don’t go exactly as Math might hope for Paige and himself…otherwise she probably would have brought him to the great outdoor concert as her date. But exactly what goes down can only be found out by tuning into The CW every Tuesday night at 9pm.