Most outrageous UConn diss

[Madmannsucks]

I was with you until the last sentence. The Duke starting five that year were Shane Battier, Trajan Langdon, Elton Brand, William Avery and Chris Carrawell.

Corey Maggette, Nate James and Chris Burgess were their top three bench guys.

Burgess is the only white man in the bunch.

What are you talking about?

I think THAT may have been, when asked about Duke's 6 Parade All Americans - Kevin Freeman replied, so what, they can only play 5 at a time.

 

[Walker11]

For real. It's a shame what has been done to SI.

Andy Benoit is the best NFL analyst in the biz imo and I am still bitter SI let him go.

 

[superjohn]

Come on, you gotta admit that is funny that he singled out UConn as a lesser program to Rhode Island and the Bonnie's. Gold Jerry, pure Gold. The guy just put himself on the map in a "some guy" kind of way.

We were putrid for a couple of years, so he has an argument from a purely recency standpoint though.

The funniest part is Rhody and the Bonnies are better than BC at basketball and have way better fanbases.

 

[businesslawyer]

This made me laugh.

I am going to hijack here because this is where industry is right now.

I think you guys have to be prepared for even more of this type of writing. The SB Nation, Bleacher, Sports Illustrated (crying here) and I am betting our local media eventually, will become more user-generated content.

The biggest issue of digital publishers is that the ad rates you get just can't support quality writing. For example, when I used to do Athlon's Annual preview for UConn, it was $500 for about 800 words. Now? People write 1000 word screeds for free.

The game in digital media is getting as cheap a copy as possible, fill it with SEO best practices, and then make it viral to generate higher CPM's for the ad. The content and quality is irrelevant to the marketing of the content.

If you paid $10 for the content, and it made $50 or you paid $100 for the content and it made $120. What are you going to choose for a model? Especially if you are just looking to generate free cash out of the business and not interested in investing or building a brand.

You can't spend $100 a story anymore (what we used to get for AP freelancing of about 250 words) and hope to get any ROI on it. Check out CPM calculators.

There is no incentive in the market place for quality anymore, unless you got to a subscription site. That is why the athletic actually has no advertising on it. It' a great marketing tool, and, they decided it isn't worth the investment anyway. That's how bad digital advertising is.

Thank you for that. While this is a problem in sportswriting, it's awful for our country when you realize the same principles apply to newswriting. Content providers are happy giving the consuming public free information, and the consuming public is getting what they are paying for and being dumb downed.

 

[upstater]

I was with you until the last sentence. The Duke starting five that year were Shane Battier, Trajan Langdon, Elton Brand, William Avery and Chris Carrawell.

Corey Maggette, Nate James and Chris Burgess were their top three bench guys.

Burgess is the only white man in the bunch.

What are you talking about?

Come on. Duke has always been a rather white team. It doesn't grate on you when people look at them and say, "These are real student athletes??!" Why do you think they don't do that any more?

The reason the Pittsburgh article was so disgusting is that it was about race, and the words about the temperament of the UConn players was not kind.

 

[Seamus84]

A friend of mine saw this and sent it to me. Figured it was so funny I had to post it. It's an article from this past summer about Makai Ashton-Langford transferring to BC. I think it's from a BC writer on SI.com. Must have a vendetta against UConn. Nice try, dude.

Ashton-Langford, a 6-3 guard out of Worcester and the Brewer Academy in New Hampshire was the #38 ranked recruit in the entire country in 2017, and topped ranked recruit in the state of Massachusetts. He chose Providence that year over BC, Rhode Island, Louisville, VCU, St. Bonnie, and lesser schools like UConn.

Eagles Land Coveted Transfer Makai Ashton Lanford

Highly recruited PC player is now an Eagle

www.si.com

Using the phrase “lesser schools like UConn” has been a running gag on their website, BCInterruption for the last couple years. Not new

 

[MattMang23]

Come on. Duke has always been a rather white team. It doesn't grate on you when people look at them and say, "These are real student athletes??!" Why do you think they don't do that any more?

The reason the Pittsburgh article was so disgusting is that it was about race, and the words about the temperament of the UConn players was not kind.

That’s not what you posted though. You talked about the 1999 game and then said there was a “skin color difference between the two teams.” I thought you were limiting it to the players that night because that was the context and you didn’t say “Duke is a historically white program” or something to that effect.

Anyway, it annoys me when anyone degrades a UConn athlete for not being a student when it’s in comparison to another team. People who have dealt very personally with these guys will tell you that we have not had all that many serious “student-athletes” on our team in years past, but I imagine that’s likely the same across high-major D1 basketball programs.

 

[upstater]

That’s not what you posted though. You talked about the 1999 game and then said there was a “skin color difference between the two teams.” I thought you were limiting it to the players that night because that was the context and you didn’t say “Duke is a historically white program” or something to that effect.

Anyway, it annoys me when anyone degrades a UConn athlete for not being a student when it’s in comparison to another team. People who have dealt very personally with these guys will tell you that we have not had all that many serious “student-athletes” on our team in years past, but I imagine that’s likely the same across high-major D1 basketball programs.

I found the quote that annoyed me. He basically blasted Calhoun for not having students on the team compared to Duke. But he put it this way, after lumping UConn in with UNLV and Louisville, "If they want to field a basketball team with a collective IQ in the single digits, that's up to them."

By the way, doing this search not only brought me back to the days when the MLS had 12 teams, but some very weird details were featured in the Gazette. Like these:

"You never know what can spark a hockey scrap. Just ask Jim McKenzie of the Mighty Ducks recount his scuffle with Stars goalie Ed Belfour: "I forechecked him and maybe bumped me a little. Then he hit me and I hit him. Then he said something about how Duke would win the national title, and I said it would be UConn and it escalated from there."

Or this one:
"There's a train of thought that UConn G Khalid El-Amin, short and roly-poly, doesn't look like he belongs on a basketball court. Apparently, a security guard at Tropicana Field thought the same. With a Championship T-Shirt over his uniform, the security guard thought he was just another rowdy who had come out of the stands to party after the game. So he escorted El-Amin off the court to the guard's protestations."

 

[MattMang23]

I found the quote that annoyed me. He basically blasted Calhoun for not having students on the team compared to Duke. But he put it this way, after lumping UConn in with UNLV and Louisville, "If they want to field a basketball team with a collective IQ in the single digits, that's up to them."

By the way, doing this search not only brought me back to the days when the MLS had 12 teams, but some very weird details were featured in the Gazette. Like these:

"You never know what can spark a hockey scrap. Just ask Jim McKenzie of the Mighty Ducks recount his scuffle with Stars goalie Ed Belfour: "I forechecked him and maybe bumped me a little. Then he hit me and I hit him. Then he said something about how Duke would win the national title, and I said it would be UConn and it escalated from there."

Or this one:
"There's a train of thought that UConn G Khalid El-Amin, short and roly-poly, doesn't look like he belongs on a basketball court. Apparently, a security guard at Tropicana Field thought the same. With a Championship T-Shirt over his uniform, the security guard thought he was just another rowdy who had come out of the stands to party after the game. So he escorted El-Amin off the court to the guard's protestations."

That McKenzie quote is gold. He was a beauty.

 

[HooperScooper]

Using the phrase “lesser schools like UConn” has been a running gag on their website, BCInterruption for the last couple years. Not new

Ah, O.K. now I see. SI allows that crap on their website?

 

[Chin Diesel]

This made me laugh.

I am going to hijack here because this is where industry is right now.

I think you guys have to be prepared for even more of this type of writing. The SB Nation, Bleacher, Sports Illustrated (crying here) and I am betting our local media eventually, will become more user-generated content.

The biggest issue of digital publishers is that the ad rates you get just can't support quality writing. For example, when I used to do Athlon's Annual preview for UConn, it was $500 for about 800 words. Now? People write 1000 word screeds for free.

The game in digital media is getting as cheap a copy as possible, fill it with SEO best practices, and then make it viral to generate higher CPM's for the ad. The content and quality is irrelevant to the marketing of the content.

If you paid $10 for the content, and it made $50 or you paid $100 for the content and it made $120. What are you going to choose for a model? Especially if you are just looking to generate free cash out of the business and not interested in investing or building a brand.

You can't spend $100 a story anymore (what we used to get for AP freelancing of about 250 words) and hope to get any ROI on it. Check out CPM calculators.

There is no incentive in the market place for quality anymore, unless you got to a subscription site. That is why the athletic actually has no advertising on it. It' a great marketing tool, and, they decided it isn't worth the investment anyway. That's how bad digital advertising is.

So, how much would you get for writing your post.

 

[Edward Sargent]

A friend of mine saw this and sent it to me. Figured it was so funny I had to post it. It's an article from this past summer about Makai Ashton-Langford transferring to BC. I think it's from a BC writer on SI.com. Must have a vendetta against UConn. Nice try, dude.

Ashton-Langford, a 6-3 guard out of Worcester and the Brewer Academy in New Hampshire was the #38 ranked recruit in the entire country in 2017, and topped ranked recruit in the state of Massachusetts. He chose Providence that year over BC, Rhode Island, Louisville, VCU, St. Bonnie, and lesser schools like UConn.

Eagles Land Coveted Transfer Makai Ashton Lanford

Highly recruited PC player is now an Eagle

www.si.com

Yeah he is a BC grad. Ask him where's his Beanpot?

 

[JohnFSilver]

I supported myself and my family as a writer for 15 years, and it was a substantial supplement to my income for another 20 or so. I backed away from it when health issues and especially the cost of being self-employed with health issues ate up my savings and forced and me to get a steady job. I always figured I'd go back to it when I retired. But in the meantime, the market has changed so much that I don't see the point in doing it. What used to be a $1200 a pop regular market for me is now mostly written in house, and the infrequent freelance piece in the same mag now pays about $200. Others that were $500 to $1000 a pop mostly aren't even in the print pub business any longer, or if they are, they don't want a 1000 word article any more. 500 words and a bunch of product placement pics is it, and they'll pay "up to $50" for it. I wonder how any print pubs are surviving, even paying those kind of rates. The action is now online, and there are too many guys willing to do it for exposure, and the opportunity to plug their "sponsors".
You don't have to be able to actually write, and you don't need to do any research. Take some pics, maybe shoot a little video clip to go with it, and regurgitate the same thing everyone else is writing.

I hear you.

I stopped freelancing. I was asked in October to right a 2000 word feature for a magazine for $500. That's insane. That is insane how much work goes into a takeout like that.

 

[Psolo12]

I hear you.

I stopped freelancing. I was asked in October to right a 2000 word feature for a magazine for $500. That's insane. That is insane how much work goes into a takeout like that.

You were a freelance writer and used the word right when you meant write?

 

[Travelman6]

You were a freelance writer and used the word right when you meant write?

That is why they have editors. I knew journalists who went to some of the best journalism schools in the country (GW for example) who told me that I would be shocked if I were to see the error-ridden first drafts a lot of writers turn in.

 

[JohnFSilver]

You were a freelance writer and used the word right when you meant write?

I wrote that with my thumbs while watching TV, eating food, and watching other sports and reading something else. I mean, really? You get on people for message board posting?

 

[JohnFSilver]

That is why they have editors. I knew journalists who went to some of the best journalism schools in the country (GW for example) who told me that I would be shocked if I were to see the error-ridden first drafts a lot of writers turn in.

This is true. They don't pay journalists for 100% clean copy. They pay journalists for the story, reporting, talent ,and structure. And, when something is on deadline, there is an editor to save you.

Think about this, you write a story, are tweeting blogging etc., and writing fast and there are 15K screaming people. That's a talent. First year working as a journalist on a story...I was 5 minutes late getting copy to desk. Press foreman (Jose!) comes up and says "Get the **** Story in now; you are 5 minutes late, you are pushing back the run"

I also had a colleague who was very late on a deadline. As the story goes, the editor threatened to drive to new jersey and murder him. I think the editor was serious. LOL.

 

[CL82]

I hear you.

I stopped freelancing. I was asked in October to right a 2000 word feature for a magazine for $500. That's insane. That is insane how much work goes into a takeout like that.

Unless you chug out crap, and maybe even still, because even crap takes time. Which gets us back to your original point.

 

[Waquoit]

I loved Ball Four when I first read it as a 12-year old. I learned a lot, including the perfect three words to deal with this knob: Consider the source.

 

[Chinokafor]

I wrote that with my thumbs while watching TV, eating food, and watching other sports and reading something else. I mean, really? You get on people for message board posting?

You were doing all that at once? Man, that ain't write.

 

[Edward Sargent]

Yeah he is a BC grad. Ask him where's his Beanpot?

Actually I know some BCers (my daughter went there) who still find the "Where's your laptop?" chant funny