Twitterpretation March 11, 2012
Admittedly, I’m already behind on the coaching search. Much like I was for the football search in December. I’ve been on an extended weekend vacation both times, and each time I tell myself that scrolling through Twitter obsessively looking for coach tidbits instead of sitting on the beach will one day give me high blood pressure. So the majority of the following opinions will likely be wildly misinformed. But that’s kind of the point of blogging.
NIT Picking
I was totally lost with the whole “the Illini will turn down an NIT bid” thing yesterday. I saw the Twitter furor (OK, I didn’t spend the WHOLE day lowering my blood pressure), I saw several articles, and as best I can tell, Mike Davis tweeted that the Illini would turn down an NIT bid and several writers believed him to have inside info. Do I have that right?
I also saw that Paul Klee said on the radio that many Illini players wanted to turn down the bid. Can we even do that? And if a school could do that, do the players really get to vote?
My takeaway – and again, I’m wildly uninformed yet too lazy to research – is that this was much ado about random tweets. Which means it will act as a precursor to the next few weeks, where Twitter will both break the story AND be the source of the first 14 false rumors. I can’t wait. I’ve been polishing my Twitterpretation skills for 3 solid years now. I believe I have the skill set to sort through the morass and find the truth. It’s my time to shine.
My Sources Say
I probably shouldn’t say this, but I’m in a good mood because dawn is breaking over Illinois Basketball and I can’t contain my excitement. And every time I’m in a good mood, I say things I probably shouldn’t.
I’ve read a lot of rumors so far. I’ve had people email things to me claiming that their neighbor’s cousin’s aunt works in the DIA. I’ve seen national writers tweeting opinions. And it’s my honest opinion that 88% of what I’ve read so far is completely fabricated.
Smart has told close friends that he would not take the job. Stevens has informed Mike Thomas that he is interested. Anthony Grant passed out at 31 flavors last night. 88% of it completely fabricated. I’m not shooting the messengers (read: keep those emails coming, folks!) I’m just saying that it’s one big game of telephone, and by the time it’s reaching me, most of it is too jumbled to be true.
As I said above, Twitter will both break the story and provide every false rumor. And because of that dichotomy, writers and bloggers and fans are increasingly comfortable running with a 50/50 rumor that they can simply cover later on. Here, I’ll give you an example.
On Friday, Dan Wolken, a national sportswriter for The Daily, Tweets the following:
Sounds like Shaka is going to take Illinois or is leaning that way, from what I hear.
This sets off a bit of a Twitter furor (including a retweet from yours truly), and so he hedges.
Illinois fans, just remember this stuff is fluid, changes by the day. I’d bet today Shaka takes it, but tomorrow? Who knows until it’s done.
See how that works? Make a statement (“Shaka is going to take Illinois”). But if it gains traction, hedge that statement (“but tomorrow?”). And that’s it. You can use Twitter to both run with so-so information AND cover your bets.
And please note that I don’t have a problem with Wolken doing this. If I have the same information (I won’t), I’ll likely run with it on Twitter (with a hedge). It’s how things work in 2012. The days of needing something firmly sourced, at least for everyone not tied to something in print, are over. It’s now up to the reader to filter the rumors (88%) from the facts (12%).
So keep the rumors coming, Twitterverse. I can’t refresh my screen fast enough.
In Thomas I Trust
I’ve seen several opinions floating around claiming that Mike Thomas isn’t making any friends in Champaign. And they’re always supplemented with “and not just because he fired three coaches – he’s done other things”. My reaction: Hallelujah.
Seriously, there’s nothing that excites me more. Every time I hear it I worry that it’s not true. It’s what I’ve wanted for years.
Leadership isn’t nice. Change doesn’t happen with everyone agreeing. When an athletic department is struggling – and the last 7 years of basketball and the last 20 years of football would suggest we’re struggling – the changes will be ugly. There will be tears and anger and uncomfortable press conferences galore (Megan Weber’s expression on Friday made me sick to my stomach with sadness). But a leader with a purpose will pause to grieve and then return to the tasks at hand. Which, for Mike Thomas, is to return Illinois athletics to national prominence.
In doing that, he will certainly ruffle some feathers. In doing that, he will sometimes be the least popular guy in Champaign. But he’s very much like a parent in this role: it’s not his job to be the best friend and make sure everyone gets want they want. It’s his job to guide and inspire and lead. I’m thrilled of reports of ruffled feathers. I’m thrilled with nearly every move he’s made with the athletic department, from outsourcing media rights to firing Ron Zook and Bruce Weber.
Illinois should not be in the lower tier of athletic departments. We should not be behind Minnesota in athletic department revenue. We should not spend the smallest amount of any Big Ten school (NW doesn’t report) on our football program as we did through the 2000′s. In a Big Ten Network revenue world, nearly every Big Ten athletic department needs to be taking advantage of the network windfall. With the decisions he’s made thus far, it appears Mike Thomas is planning to do just that.
But those plans will involve ruffled feathers and fired coaches. Hallelujah.
I agree wholeheartedly with you sentiments on Thomas. Simply put, Guenther and large portion of the traditional money crowd (those empty seats in A section) were happy being in their little club, happy with athletic department mediocrity, and just happy that the department was run in a way that it stayed out of trouble.
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The University of Illinois as an institution has not put an institutional priority on having a successful athletics program (Men’s FB & BB). Unfortunately the state of IL is a mess, the state political leaders are clowns, and the UI President has turned out to be a clown as well (I was hopeful that he would demand excellence in athletics per his early comments, but he has much bigger fish to fry now – he is from Iowa after all, what did we expect?)
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What we are left with is Mike Thomas who by all accounts since day 1 has established high standards, accountability, and is prioritizing championships. I don’t think the guy is perfect, but I for one REALLY appreciate his approach.
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Who cares if Thomas is ruffling some local feathers? The cure is winning. Win and he will have all the support and funds rolling in he needs. At least he is demanding championships and seems be willing to allocate the resources to make that a possibility. The old regime seemed content to commit as few resources as possible… just be happy we do things the right way was the message. Blah… you can still do things the right way and be aggressive and kick ass. That’s what I hear when I hear Thomas talk.
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Anyway… I sure hope he does win because I’d hate to see what comes next if he leaves the UI unsuccessful.
Preach on brother! I would love to see another network step up and take charge on the media end as well.
Should we root for the Shockers to beat VCU in the first round, even though it might take a little shine off of Shaka’s star? Or do we want VCU to win a couple of games, and risk him staying or fielding other top offers? (This may have already been mentioned, but is Illinois the top vacancy in the country right now?)
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I love that old ‘telephone’ game!!! “Shaka Smart is going to Champaign purple monkey refrigerator”.
I loved the comments about Thomas. I’ve read a lot of posts saying he’s a bad guy, but I couldn’t agree more with what you said in regards to needing a new leader who isn’t afraid to piss some people off. PS – We root for VCU to make the sweet 16 and lose to a 1 seed.
I met Mike Thomas at Schucks the other day and he took forever in the self-checkout lane. The fact that our Athletic Director could not figure out how to use a little computer tells me everything I need to know about the man and his “abilities”.
Stop trolling Ned Franklin.
Schnucks does not have self checkout lanes.
He specifically typed “Schucks”.
There are certainly enough old school media types hyping their own personal choices for the openings, including the football one. Disappointing, really. The basketball hire will be a litmus test for Mr. Thomas.
The more i read, the more i’m convinced that the problem is with the players’ disconnect with reality. As they go for ice cream with their ex-coach, they continue to try and tune out the “haters”. Do they understand that the haters have a point? The haters hate because you’ve brought a once-proud basketball program (top ten all time?) to its knees.
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You were so bad that you lost at a rate I’ve never seen in my lifetime. You were so bad that they paid your coach $4 million to go away.
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BP thinks he is a lottery pick? The guy was ranked #948th in the country in effective FG%. Yes…947 players shot better than him. But…he was top 30…top 30 in the number of TOs during the year.
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So here is a guy that performed so bad, but thinks he is top in the country, and tunes out the “haters”. A new coach may not be enough. These players are out of their minds. And so is anyone who is a “fan” of them. And its not just BP, ML is gonna get his butt kicked in the pros. And DJ better wake up from his slumber.
DanO, your comment is wildly misinformed. You really don’t know what you are talking about. You’re just spewing garbage. And nice job not showing all of Brandon’s stats just the negative ones and it was his mom who said he’s a lottery talent but wasn’t playing like it.
back up your statement…where am i misinformed? u want more stats? he’s 992 in FG %, he’s 552 in FT %, he’s 667 in rebounds per game, he’s 351 in assist per game. why is this garbage? tell me why you like his game. tell me why he has elevated illinois basketball. he thinks he is a marquee player and he makes the team unwatchable. and he’s only one of the problems. do you like rooting for him? why?
Didn’t say that I like his game and that he has elevated Illinois basketball. And those numbers you put up are hilarious, most of them aren’t very relevant especially when you rank him in the entire NCAA and not show the actual numbers…. The guy averages around 15 points per game (including one of the best individual performances in Illini history), so he’s proven to be a solid player. He has never said that he is a marquee player, you are using a quote from his mother who admitted he was underachieving. He’s quite a talent and I enjoy rooting for him. You are using Brandon as a scapegoat just like many other stupid Internet “fans”, just like Juice(football) and Mike Davis(last season) were scapegoats for unsuccessful teams in the past. Is Brandon a great player? No. Has he frustrated me at times? Yes. But he’s definitely not the player you are making him out to be. If you don’t like the Illini, then there’s a simple solution. Stop following the team. No one will care if you leave, DanO.
bobj – I apologize for making you upset. I need to work on my mollycoddling skills. Please let me stay.
No one’s upset, bro. At least it’s good to hear that you give up on your pointless bashing of players, DanO.