Sunday, February 12, 2012

Scanning the SoCon - Week 15

Scanning the SoCon - Week # 15

1. Davidson
2. Ga Southern
3. UNCG
4. Wofford
5. Elon
6. Samford
7. Charleston
8. Furman
9. Chattanooga
10. App State
11. Western Carolina
12. Citadel

What role do you believe that blogs and message boards play in a basketball program? What role should they play? Is their role too big or too small?

DavidsonCats- The best thing that the Davidson board has done is to keep distant fans tied in to the program. Passionate fans need a central place to follow the action, celebrate the successes, and vent about the failures. The boards provide this central place. Some people (coaches, players, administrators) should avoid the boards. We are fan sites.

MocsMania- Oh, the million dollar question. I do believe that there is plenty of negativity on message boards, and that is OK. They are for honest discussion. Coaches and players should do everything they can to avoid the message boards, because they serve no good purpose for them. I think their roles have become too big in many cases, because many of the questions that get asked of the coaches and players are driven by the blogs and message boards.

TheSportsArsenal- I know there are people who say that recruits read message boards, etc., and that negative posts can impact recruiting, and I suppose the case could be made that blogs have an effect as well. I'm a bit dubious about all that, at least with regards to schools in the SoCon. There really aren't that many fans on those forums. At any rate, it seems to me that these days players/recruits are more likely to be directly engaged via twitter than message board or blog posts. Blogs really shouldn't play any role in how a basketball program operates -- with the exception of my blog, of course. Alas, I do not believe the denizens of the hoops program hang on every word I type. For shame, for shame.

UNCGBasketballFan- I could probably write a book on this subject. Obviously, UNCG fans have had some first hand experiences with this exact question this year. I think that there is always a line that the message board/blogger fans flirt with between being critical and just being mean. These players are just kids that have a lot on their plate and we (me included) forget that sometimes. However, I think these sites all serve a great purpose. They allow fans to meet and interact regardless of the university/fanbase size. So, in that respect, I think these sites should be embraced by the school for the impact they have on the program and the "buzz" they can generate.

2 comments:

JohnMoc said...

One of the answers I'm most disappointed in for myself. I wanted to say so much more, and yet felt like I didn't have the energy to go into it right now. I may have to right more on this later on this summer, because I do think it's an important discussion to have.

Dash said...

Yea. Like I said, I could probably write a book on the subject. I wrote a ton and then went back and edited it down to a paragraph.