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Andy Bitter already lost his creds here at TKP imo & now the joint reporting with the Times & the Pilot (don't know what that has to do with anything) is gone , and the bitching about the press seats at Cassell and finally this about the wait after WVU. I just have lost all respect for him. Do I feel someone should have come out & told them it was going to be a while? Yes, I do but I totally can't respect anyone who is supposed to be a professional and write objective reports (yeah, right) on their area of responsibility to get all unprofessional and go on a tirade that was childish at best. I also believe that reporters can sway "stakeholders" somewhat but not to the extent that ESPN reporters might. Do you think Johnny Lawson gives a crap about what Bitter or Berman says or thinks and therefore stops donating his millions to Tech athletics? I don't think so. I'm not downplaying that Tech should and needs to have good rapport with the media and I believe that Whit will handle this in the future but I also am positive that he won't barge into the locker room and interrupt Buzz having a come to Jesus with his players and tell him to go speak to the media. If Buzz's plan ends up fruitful and we start to win and move up in the ACC, I think the fans, donors and other "stakeholders" will be just fine with their support despite any crybaby reporters.
Was over at friends and we all watched most of the clemson game. The alabama game we started to watch but then it mainly became background noise for us, especially the second half
Damn I fell asleep on the couch and woke up near the end of the WVU TCU game and when I got up all I did was go to bed. Should have made myself stay up later.
Nice work boys!
came back from my morning jog and saw this post--what a great way to start the day! GO HOKIES!
Hot damn and Holy DOGSHIT! Victory up the ass baby! JUST LIKE FOOTBALL!!!
Great call on the survey. I talked to some folks at work about this who are generally in the baby boomer generation who said they watched bits and pieces due to New Years Eve plans and another said they went out and didn't watch. I watched the first half of the first game then played Guitar Hero, had friends over, ate dinner, played more Guitar Hero, played Cranium, watched the ball drop, and finished cranium. So I guess for me those things were worth missing the games over.
With that being said, I guess I'm a bit of a traditionalist in that I HATE the Peach Bowl being at noon on NYE. One of my favorite traditions is the Peach Bowl lead up to the ball drop. But I also hate how ESPN has started spreading the bowl games out and not overlapping any, so then you're stuck with a bad game. I get it, but I don't like it haha.
Personally, I'd rather close a game out than worry about the stress.
Didn't watch either game because I really don't give a damn about anyone involved.
That blocking foul on LeDay late was atrocious. That was a textbook charge, outside the restricted zone, with the defender square to the shooter and not moving before he went airborne. In fact, UVa got bailed out a lot late in that game. Numerous times they simply got out of control around the rim forcing bad shots up and were bailed out by the whistle on some really iffy crap. But I guess you get those calls when you are a top 5 team.
That said, I did find it amusing to see time and time again idiots over on TheSabre blaming the refs for the loss, as if they were somehow in our pocket last night. They are reaching Tobacco Road levels of delusion.
Agreed. It didn't reflect well on this site in the first place, and it really doesn't now.
Saw the final score when I woke up this morning. What a way to start the day.
Kept saying this team has too much talent to be that bad. You don't stockpile 4* players at every position and stay bad for long. Our problem has always been experience and the lack of it. So I'm not surprised when we have games like we did against WVU. However, I am surprised we did this to the Hoos last night. I was hoping they could keep it close and walk away with the experience that they are better than they thought. Games like that show things might be coming together a bit ahead of schedule. The next 2-3 years when this same team is playing with experience and the confidence knowing they are capable of playing with the best, good luck stopping them.
There is potential with this team. We aren't there, yet but man is it going to be fun when they are.
It was an amazing win. They looked like a confident and competent team. I'm glad 'this' team showed up. Now Buzz needs to get them in this mindset for every game and it will be a superb season.
While watching the game down the stretch, it looked like the refs were trying to help UVA back into the game with some VERY questionable calls that the replays confirmed were obviously wrong. Such is life in the ACC.
Hell yes what a great Tuesday morning read!
I think people are sick and tired of seeing Alabama in there every damn year. I know I am
I am proud to say I am eating my words this morning. After WVU, I buried the Hokies. Let's wait another year. As ProudHokie says, Heart won this game. No doubt! True grit, BYOG as Dabo says. To know you can win means a great deal. To never give up and continue to fight is what it's all about. I have loved VT from the moment we moved to Virginia. So proud of you!!!!
I don't know where this ranks in greatest wins for Hokie basketball, but this has to be way up there. Heart won this game, not talent. Go Hokies!
I watched half of the Clemson game as we got back late from a "happy noon year party" (for the kids) and saw only the first quarter of the Bama massacre as the wifey and I may have had a few too many adult beverages at said kids party and post party and we may have passed out early...
I see Buzz dancing surpassing Beamer dancing soon! ;) Lets Go Hokies!
yes, winning means more press coverage. That's how it works. Still doesn't make reporters stakeholders. It makes them reporters, just means there are more of them when we are winning.
I actually don't find Berman's tweets that bad either, so what are you talking about? My post here is in response to Bitter. I think Bitter is the most disgruntled out there. As I posted above and in the other thread, my main grievance is with him. I think his perspective of Buzz being obligated to him before the team is bullshit. He isn't obligated to Bitter first and he needs to learn that. And his posts were hyperbolic.
So what rings false? I think it's your assumption that I am talking about Berman. And just because Bitter didn't continue the hyperbole in his article does not mean he wasn't hyperbolic in his tweets. This isn't the playground where I say "you smell" one minute and "you're my best friend" the next and it's all swings and seesaws. If at some point either in his article or in his tweets he said: you know what. bad form on my part for calling him a jerk and exacerbating the situation. Instead, he doubles down and insinuates that Buzz is obligated to address him before coaching the team. No, it does not work that way.
you and I fundamentally disagree here.
I don't mind them using twitter. Even airing our grievances on twitter is acceptable. here's how I would see that tweet looking like to where it was actually reporting the sports news: Hey sports fans, an hour and counting. Buzz still rallying the troops. Might be good to get coordination on lengthy pep talks in the future.
This makes the point that they were made to wait without word. Makes the point that there is a lack of professional courtesy. AND reports on sports which is their job.
How does that compare to: "kind of a jerk move by Buzz"? That is hyperbole. That is not reporting.
My point about watergate and always waiting for sports is that sports reporters are there at the pleasure of sports. Unless they are some kind of investigative reporter then they need to wait for sports to happen. Off season reporting is also of this ilk, because it must wait for the season of sports to happen before they can report on the previous year and speculate on the upcoming year. Additionally, off season is routine in that you wait for Signing day to happen and report, you wait for Spring Ball and report, you wait for offseason injuries or incidents and report, you wait for next year recruit commits and report, you wait for summer practice and report... it's all a waiting game. They are not out there working deep throat and investigating what is going on under the hood. they are reporting on the vehicle. Nothing wrong with that, but there is always the constant that they must always wait for sports to happen. that's the business model.
So yes, it sucks they waited nearly 2 hours. But it's not the slap in the face they are making it out to be. Nor is it some designed scheme of Buzz to blow them off. So again, stop being hyperbolic and do your job, which is wait for sports to happen and report it. If you feel that your job is being impeded then bring it up professionally, don't be hyperbolic on a public forum for splash effect.
"Stakeholders have a vested interest in the success of the program. "
and does a winning program garner more coverage at all levels, damn right it does, more pages get viewed and paper bought. They benefit just as much from wins, just look at the state of DC sports media, your analysis rings false.
Lets take a look at Berman's Tweets then since they seem to be most controversial.
About 45 minutes post game after the WVU guys had come through he tweets "Buzz still mtg with team" and then updated 8 more over the next hour. And had over 40 tweets in just the second half of the actual game. That isnt badgering on Twitter, that is literally tweeting at a reduced rate keeping followers informed of why they havent seen quotes yet.
He also did address them for a few minutes and so did LeDay, and you know what in the gamr article Williams isnt roasted for hosing the reporters, it is a bit of a lyrical entrance and thats basically it.
So your narrative too of the hyperbolic media ring false as we dont see him hit for it in their actual articles, simply the platform which keeps everyone up to date keeping people up to date
I certainly agree this was not some nefarious plot to avoid talking about a bad loss or anything like that.
'owever, if you feel slighted in that relationship I cannot think of a worse way to express that than calling someone a "jerk" on twitter. Or blasting Twitter every 5 minutes you can't get what you want. That's pathetic. Have the professional courtesy you say you deserve and bring up to the man himself and work it out."
But I want to address this and the related sentiment above on your post, where you mention hashing it out or bringing it up behind closed doors. Certainly that is a desirable avenue for redress to get policies changed or SOP's modified to react to new situations.
But the public airing of grievances is also one as well, and Twitter is not an inherently good or bad tool for this.
In this age where we all talk about transparency from our govt, from our cable bill, from our food ingredients, I dotn mind some from our reporters and our Athletics teams. You mentioned Watergate earlier, hyperbole I know right here, but that never would have broken if Woodward and Bernstein took your advice about handling percieved wrongs in person.
I would rather know why coverage might shift on a person, and if there is an underlying factor, and judge based on available evidence if I believe response were adequate or not. I also am pretty bummed that Buzz tried to have it both ways, that he doesnt use Twitter great, and doesnt follow reports, but gets mad when he feels he is treated unfairly. To be a bit of both as everyone is is fine and human, but it isnt a great basis for a complaint.
So in the end I reject that pretty much all the tweets sent that night were out of line. They were keeping everyone informed of up to the minute reporting on the Team, and are valuable for recording the on going situation and VT's response, or lack there of to mitigate it.
And there is nothing wrong with saying you feel another person broke standard professional conduct expectations, ergo acted like a jerk, if we didnt have outsiders able to call us on stuff what sort of world would it be? That isnt being hyperbolic, its drawing attention to a sudden unwarned of deviation from a pattern followed by essentially every coach at every school and that is time tested. I would be more concerned if the reporters did not comment on it.
And one final point a sit is indeed late and im starting to get into rambling.
Im sure Bitter would be very surprised that sports reporting MUST ALWAYS wait for sports to happen. Sinc eyou know most of his articles do occur during the off season. I know the larger point you were making about the relationship. But you have to admit that it is an imperfect model at best, and that there are plenty of other ways a reporter could construct a meaningful article other than from notes from a post game press conference. But the limited number and comparative meaningfulness of games to us fans means it behooves everyone invovled to disseminate as much information as possible from them.
But that is it, im sure everyone will be another day into the rebuild, the team wont need another meeting, everyone will have learned something and cooled down more,a nd the win will still look damn great in the morning.
Stakeholders have a vested interest in the success of the program. Reporters will report whether the program wins or loses. They are not stakeholders. They are reporters.
Regarding time: I said the issue is "they were unwilling to wait". You countered by saying you reread the tweets and their first response was "WTF". And you think that doesn't prove my point? Their first reaction was "WTF" because they were unwilling to wait. simple.
His contract acknowledges required media interactions, both with Press Conferences, and the in house IMG deal.
Yes and I am sure every one of those reporters has a contract that states they are required to wait and report on sports. Buzz wasn't "blowing them off" either. He was leading his team. I am sure he would have taken whatever time necessary after he was done to address the media had they asked for it. They simply could have told Whit or the athletics dept staff that they need Buzz after the meeting, and could have gone off to do what they needed. That is as simple as Buzz sending someone out. Yet, instead they took to twitter to be hyperbolic.
Weird how leadership could come from reporters as well and not just the coach, right?
And you sure as shit can figure out how to do both. Again the simplest question here is do we think that is something Beamer would have done? He managed to win at the highest levels, indeed higher levels than Buzz, so clearly his approach was successful and one that has always been seen as desirable.
Again, where are you reading that Buzz was 'blowing them off"? He wasn't. He was coaching his team. In regards to Beamer, do I even need to say the words "they'll get after ya" to point out the media's eternal frustration with Beamer for not giving anything substantial in press conferences? It's been a gripe for more than a decade. Yet it was there every damn presser. Buzz on the other hand seems to give honest, thoughtful responses to questions with great detail. He simply believes he needs to put coaching the team before his other job responsibilities, which it is.
I watched both games intently because I love the game and these are the marquee games of the entire year. I wanted to see if the top teams from each conference could hold their own or whether the plucky underdogs would find a way to make it competitive.
I learned that MSU and OK overachieved during their conference schedules and that they are built to win their conferences but not robust enough to win it all. I also learned that Stanford really dropped the ball against Northwestern early in the year. I would have watched the FSU Houston game too but I was at work. To me, the scheduling of the Peach Bowl was the only true travesty of the day for an East Coaster like myself.
Throughout bowl season, the only times I've tuned out of games is when they are lopsided combined with teams I don't really care about or who are not good. The Oregon/TCU Alamo Bowl is why this strategy fails sometimes.