Twitter and Recruiting?

All three of my brothers (Josh, Devin and Kaelan) are athletes and love watching and playing sports; however, they are not just huge sports fans but true "students of the game." They never cease to amaze me when it comes to discussing players, their contracts and statistics and don't even get them going on draft picks and the top ranked high school basketball recruits in the nation! Last night, as I was ichating with my brother Josh, he asked me if I had heard of Kyrie Irving. I hadn't and he went on to explain something to me that I found incredibly interesting....

Kyrie Irving is a 17 year old point guard from New Jersey who is ranked in the Top 10 high school basketball recruits in the nation by three of the top recruiting sites (Scout, Rivals and ESPN Recruiting). What makes this kid so interesting is the fact that he has 2,396 followers on twitter and updates his "fans" and college coaches via his tweets. Many of his followers are students at Duke, Kentucky, Georgia Tech, Texas A&M and Seton Hall; the five universities Irving is most interesting in. These students send Irving encouraging messages trying to convince the young player to attend his/her university. Many college coaches are following him on twitter to see what he thinks about their universities. One of Irving's tweets said: "Duke official was great! I enjoyed every single second....everything there fits me and is right for me...you never know what will happen!"

The coolest thing is the fact that Duke students were prepared for his visit and were determined to make him feel welcome. Irving of course let his followers know in advance when he was coming, "Duke visit in 2 days...school tmrw but I gotta say I'm excited..." Duke Blogger is a website dedicated to updating fans on Duke basketball and once they saw that Irving was coming to Duke for an official recruiting trip they spread the word! They put out messages telling everyone at Duke to make Irving's visit one to remember and dedicated Duke fans listened. When Irving showed up on campus he was welcomed by a massive sign on the side of a dorm building listing all the previous Duke point guards that have led the basketball team to a national championship. Irving was very impressed to say the least.

It's crazy to see how social media can be used as one more tool for college coaches in recruiting. Crazy college basketball fans are also taking advantage of following top recruits on twitter and reading their favorite blog site; these fans can actually say they were a part of Kyrie Irving's recruiting trip and if he commits, they can take partial credit for bringing him to Duke!

Athletes and Social Media

Athletes and social media generally don't mix well together. More and more athletes are garnering negative attention when involving social media. The latest incident involves Tyshawn Taylor and his facebook status updates. Before and after the highly publicized feud between the KU football and men's basketball teams Taylor took it upon himself to post his feelings on his facebook for everyone to see. Some of the posts include: "I got a dislocated finger...from throwing a punch...so don't let the news paper gas yall up aite," earlier he wrote "real (racial slur)s do real things...point plankn," and finally before the actual fights, "keep my name out ya mouth for you get smacked in it."

Unfortunately for Taylor and KU Athletics these status updates from Taylor were blasted all over Fox News, Sportscenter, ESPN's website and numerous people have now blogged about it. I'm from California and shortly after the fight I received several calls and texts from family and friends back home asking what the hell was going on! Within hours people all the way from the West Coast knew about the incident between our football and basketball teams thanks in large part to Taylor's facebook status posts. Although the fight itself would have brought enough media attention, Taylor's statements on facebook were what Fox News, Sportscenter and other major media outlets focused on. When will athletes learn that what they post on their twitter and/or facebook accounts is not private!

It is one thing for a person to express how they feel through a social media site but unfortunately athletes do not have this privilege because what you say as an athlete not only affects you, but your team and what you do and say represents your team. In Taylor's case, he not only represented himself poorly but he embarrassed his team AND the entire University of Kansas. KU is a very respectable university and people think highly of Kansas, especially because it's in the heartland of America. Universities such as USC and Miami have a reputation of their athletes getting into trouble and not putting out a positive image, but KU does not want to fall into the same category as these other universities.

Having been an athlete myself here at KU I know for a fact that coaches and administrators beg us to be cautious about the type of information we put up on facebook and twitter. They understand how it can affect negatively on the university and the athletic department. I know both the football and basketball team as well as Taylor could not fathom how much national attention this incident would bring. It just goes to show you how viral something can be when involving social media, so many people now have access to sites such as twitter and facebook and they are paying attention!

Media Stirring the Pot

Anyone who is a sports fan and/or watches Sportscenter regularly probably saw parts of the San Francisco Giants vs. San Diego Padres game the other night (Sept. 7).  After the very heated and emotional game Sportscenter, radio stations, websites and their discussion boards went on to discuss the game at length especially in relation to the Giants upcoming series with the Los Angeles Dodgers.  

The Giants' newly acquired pitcher, Brad Penny, took the mound against the Padres and gave yet another impressive performance to help the Giants with a win.  But more people were apt to talk about Penny's response to the home run hit by Padres' Adrian Gonzalez in the top of the 6th. Penny was less than pleased when Gonzalez hit a home run off him.  Penny felt Gonzalez stood and admired his home run a bit too long and had a few choice words for him as he jogged to first and again when he rounded third. This display came a mere 24 hours after "the bowling ball" act put on by the Milwaukee Brewers after Prince Fielder hit a walk off home run.  One could say the Giants were still pissed off and looking to take it out on someone.  Penny took it upon himself to let some frustration out on Gonzalez.    After the game Penny admitted, "I'm a guy who wears my emotions on my sleeve," and went on to explain that he was not the only one, "They [the Padres dugout] were barking at me, too." 

Needless to say the Giants and Penny were the talk of sports stations and websites that night and on into the next day.  The media continues to "stir the pot" by preparing fans for Penny's upcoming start this weekend against the Giants' rivals, the Los Angeles Dodgers.  Penny left the Dodgers last year with bitter taste in his mouth and when reporters asked Dodgers' third base coach, Larry Bowa, to comment on Penny he had this to say: "You mean the same guy who was never on time, out of shape and has one complete game? He has more stuff to worry about than me. He has to worry about getting people out. He was never on time, he never helped the kids out. You go right down the line, everybody who was on the DL watched the games. But not him. He was out of there."

The tension between Penny and the Dodgers is much anticipated by fans and is something that the media is thriving on.  Media outlets are setting the stage for an explosive series between the Giants and Dodgers.  Lets hope for bloggers and commentators it's an exciting one; if not what else are they going to talk about? Simple Stats? Boring!