zls44
Your #icebus Tour Director
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I wish I was really wrong about this.
I wish I was just being my typically overdramatic self when I tried to tell you all about these things...but it'd time for a stark look in the mirror.
All anyone talks about is is how great UConn is. How great the academics are, the university investment, the olympic sports, the football upgrade- that's all well and good.
But they are about to get stuck in a league with SMU and Tulane, and the reason they are stuck in a league with SMU and Tulane is the fault of one group of people and one group of people alone:
The people in charge of the University of Connecticut for the past decade.
Think of all the times they have spit in people's faces. Think of all the bad PR stunts they've pulled. Think of all the stupid crap they let fester, twisting in the wind, content that their own greatness would solve everything. This, sadly, includes Jim Calhoun.
I know, I know- I'm crazy. How could I ever say such a thing because he's a large reason why UConn has a shot to even move on etc.
But look at all the bad crap. Seriously, look at it.
When BC wanted to leave in 2004, Jimmy couldn't just leave well enough alone.
He had to shoot off his mouth about never playing them again. UConn had to wage that dumb frigging lawsuit because of the INJUSTICE of never getting to host Miami in football at home. They couldn't just move on- they had to make a big frigging show of it.
Then there's the APR mess. The APR is total crap, yes..but it's total crap that 340 schools have managed to not screw themselves over with. Instead of trying to fix it- or at the LEAST sham the system as well as every other big school- they decided to give a sermon at the mount through the NCAA appeals process the last few years.
They couldn't leave well enough alone.
There's the Nate Miles investigation. The Josh Nochimson stuff. Instead of fessing up to it, instead of at the least saying it was all a terrible mistake and would never happen again...the university decided this was the greatest injustice since the Dred Scott case and duckk the NCAA and duckk the rules, duckk everyone.
They couldn't leave well enough alone.
Then there's the constant flare-ups with the press. The sniping across the athletic department about all sorts of legal issues we don't even need to get into. Jim completely dicking around with his retirement, holding the program hostage- that is the only way to describe it- to fulfill his own ego, based on a precedent at UNC that was HYSTERICALLY unsuccessful. For the purposes of this, I think a lot of that is meaningless, but there is unquestionably an air around the country that UConn is a dirty program and Jim was a dirty coach.
You can disagree, you can think it's insane- but it's the rub and the reality, and bitching about it ain't gonna change that.
Also, it leads to a larger overall problem, one that's bigger. One that's the real reason UConn is stuck with road trips to SDSU.
The University of Connecticut would not know what PR management looked like if it rolled full speed off of Horsebarn Hill and slammed into the Wilbur Cross Building.
It's a great institution, with some great people, that has accomplished great things.
But when it comes to crisis management? You can't do a worse job. Time, after time, after time, they just take the "screw the court of public opinion, we're right and duckk everyone else" method.
Take the lawsuit.
It's a bad idea to try and make a deal with people you publicly defamed and took to court. Now, we all know that wasn't a UConn lawsuit- it just was filed in CT court. We all know that it was something Pitt was very much party to. But that NEVER gets mentioned.
You can take the theory that this means the ENTIRE MEDIA is out to get UConn and you CANNOT UNDERSTAND OR FATHOM why this is...or you can ask the simple question of why doesn't UConn try and sell it as an act of legal recourse undertaken by a group of schools, including those presently in the ACC, in an effort to protect a $100+ investment?
Take the APR.
Now, as I said, I think that as much of a pile of crap as the APR is, it's a pile of crap 340 schools have managed to put in a ziploc bag and toss in the bin on the way back in the house. But if you're UConn, don't you mention how those bad scores are from students no longer at the school, while the players on the team now are going to classes, keeping solid GPA's, and being forced to serve a suspension from tournament play due to the inactions of players from years gone by?
Was anything I just typed that hard? Was that difficult? Did I just reinvent the wheel with that?
Do you think Louisville or Syracuse would just sit on their asses as the media ripped them apart? Of course not. That's because they know what they're doing- Tom Jurich and Daryl Gross are very smart people, who know the VALUE of public relations. The VALUE of framing an argument and putting your best foot forward. Louisville and Syracuse are going to be in the ACC, and not the University of Connecticut.
It isn't because they're massively better academic or athletic institutions. It isn't because of market share. It isn't because of fanbase sizes. It's because they sold themselves. They made sure the ACC could not say no. They didn't sit on their laurels, convinced the ACC would see them for their own greatness- they took action. They didn't just #BegHarder...they sold themselves.
UConn's still trying to figure out if it can maybe possibly appeal to play in the 2013 Big East Men's Basketball Tournament.
I wish I was just being my typically overdramatic self when I tried to tell you all about these things...but it'd time for a stark look in the mirror.
All anyone talks about is is how great UConn is. How great the academics are, the university investment, the olympic sports, the football upgrade- that's all well and good.
But they are about to get stuck in a league with SMU and Tulane, and the reason they are stuck in a league with SMU and Tulane is the fault of one group of people and one group of people alone:
The people in charge of the University of Connecticut for the past decade.
Think of all the times they have spit in people's faces. Think of all the bad PR stunts they've pulled. Think of all the stupid crap they let fester, twisting in the wind, content that their own greatness would solve everything. This, sadly, includes Jim Calhoun.
I know, I know- I'm crazy. How could I ever say such a thing because he's a large reason why UConn has a shot to even move on etc.
But look at all the bad crap. Seriously, look at it.
When BC wanted to leave in 2004, Jimmy couldn't just leave well enough alone.
He had to shoot off his mouth about never playing them again. UConn had to wage that dumb frigging lawsuit because of the INJUSTICE of never getting to host Miami in football at home. They couldn't just move on- they had to make a big frigging show of it.
Then there's the APR mess. The APR is total crap, yes..but it's total crap that 340 schools have managed to not screw themselves over with. Instead of trying to fix it- or at the LEAST sham the system as well as every other big school- they decided to give a sermon at the mount through the NCAA appeals process the last few years.
They couldn't leave well enough alone.
There's the Nate Miles investigation. The Josh Nochimson stuff. Instead of fessing up to it, instead of at the least saying it was all a terrible mistake and would never happen again...the university decided this was the greatest injustice since the Dred Scott case and duckk the NCAA and duckk the rules, duckk everyone.
They couldn't leave well enough alone.
Then there's the constant flare-ups with the press. The sniping across the athletic department about all sorts of legal issues we don't even need to get into. Jim completely dicking around with his retirement, holding the program hostage- that is the only way to describe it- to fulfill his own ego, based on a precedent at UNC that was HYSTERICALLY unsuccessful. For the purposes of this, I think a lot of that is meaningless, but there is unquestionably an air around the country that UConn is a dirty program and Jim was a dirty coach.
You can disagree, you can think it's insane- but it's the rub and the reality, and bitching about it ain't gonna change that.
Also, it leads to a larger overall problem, one that's bigger. One that's the real reason UConn is stuck with road trips to SDSU.
The University of Connecticut would not know what PR management looked like if it rolled full speed off of Horsebarn Hill and slammed into the Wilbur Cross Building.
It's a great institution, with some great people, that has accomplished great things.
But when it comes to crisis management? You can't do a worse job. Time, after time, after time, they just take the "screw the court of public opinion, we're right and duckk everyone else" method.
Take the lawsuit.
It's a bad idea to try and make a deal with people you publicly defamed and took to court. Now, we all know that wasn't a UConn lawsuit- it just was filed in CT court. We all know that it was something Pitt was very much party to. But that NEVER gets mentioned.
You can take the theory that this means the ENTIRE MEDIA is out to get UConn and you CANNOT UNDERSTAND OR FATHOM why this is...or you can ask the simple question of why doesn't UConn try and sell it as an act of legal recourse undertaken by a group of schools, including those presently in the ACC, in an effort to protect a $100+ investment?
Take the APR.
Now, as I said, I think that as much of a pile of crap as the APR is, it's a pile of crap 340 schools have managed to put in a ziploc bag and toss in the bin on the way back in the house. But if you're UConn, don't you mention how those bad scores are from students no longer at the school, while the players on the team now are going to classes, keeping solid GPA's, and being forced to serve a suspension from tournament play due to the inactions of players from years gone by?
Was anything I just typed that hard? Was that difficult? Did I just reinvent the wheel with that?
Do you think Louisville or Syracuse would just sit on their asses as the media ripped them apart? Of course not. That's because they know what they're doing- Tom Jurich and Daryl Gross are very smart people, who know the VALUE of public relations. The VALUE of framing an argument and putting your best foot forward. Louisville and Syracuse are going to be in the ACC, and not the University of Connecticut.
It isn't because they're massively better academic or athletic institutions. It isn't because of market share. It isn't because of fanbase sizes. It's because they sold themselves. They made sure the ACC could not say no. They didn't sit on their laurels, convinced the ACC would see them for their own greatness- they took action. They didn't just #BegHarder...they sold themselves.
UConn's still trying to figure out if it can maybe possibly appeal to play in the 2013 Big East Men's Basketball Tournament.
