Disqus - Latest Comments for tacojohn

Re: Pick to Click: Howard

tacojohn — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 18:30:18 -0000

Jeremiah Rivers

Re: You sign with the school, not the coach, son

tacojohn — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 09:48:54 -0000

This isn't going to change anything. This is what the rule was before. Any "addendum" was just some promise that the recruit would never have been able to enforce through the NLI program or NCAA. Now instead of a written statement on letterhead, it will be an email, or a verbal agreement.

It will scare some kids into signing in the spring, but really this is not a change in policy. This is the NCAA restating what the rule always was.

Re: ITH Super Happy Fun Time Player Profile: Jordan Hulls

tacojohn — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 09:48:33 -0000

I would love if Crean would redshirt Hulls. Hulls as a fifth year senior is infinitely more valuable to that team than Hulls as a true freshman is to this team. But every word I see written about the kid says it isn't going to happen.

Re: Crean via Twitter: Maurice Creek cleared by NCAA

tacojohn — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 02:22:24 -0000

Getting certified as a qualifier and getting through high school are two very different things.

Re: Knight to be inducted to IU Hall of Fame, but will he attend?

tacojohn — Sat, 22 Aug 2009 13:12:22 -0000

This is an absolutely brilliant PR move by the university to "heal" Hoosier Nation, whatever that means. There's a large group of IU fans who believe Knight is dying to come back to IU but the university is refusing to honor him. If Knight doesn't come, those people have two choices: admit that Bob Knight is the one that has a problem with the university and not the other way around, or expose themselves as crazies who are Bob Knight fans and not IU fans.

Re: Report: IU and Duke will get official visits from Irving

tacojohn — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 09:43:42 -0000

I don't think Bassett was ever officially dismissed from UAB. He transferred mid-year and should be eligible to play in January at Ohio. He left amid a bunch of controversy at UAB, but I know for sure he wasn't listed as one of the players who was academically ineligible.

Re: Report: IU and Duke will get official visits from Irving

tacojohn — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 20:39:59 -0000

Official visits are when the university pays expenses for the visit. IU flies them in, puts them up in a hotel, gives them free tickets, feeds them, and gives a current player some money to entertain them (movie, bowling, etc.). Official visits can only last 48 hours. A recruit can only take 5 official visits, and in basketball a school can only offer 12 official visits per year.

During an unofficial visit, the recruit pays all their own expenses except for free admission to an athletics event. Coaches can have unlimited contact on campus, but would use an off-campus contact if they go off campus. Other student-athletes cannot have any contact off-campus on an unofficial visit.

Re: Tom Crean on Maurice Creek’s and Bawa Muniru’s statuses

tacojohn — Sun, 09 Aug 2009 20:07:32 -0000

The NCAA has dramatically limited the options available to you if you aren't a qualifier out of high school. Remember there's three basic requirements:

1) Graduate from high school
2) Get 16 core course credits (basically 16 year-long courses or 32 semesters) from NCAA approved courses
3) Have a corresponding test score and GPA on the sliding scale (higher GPA means lower test score needed, and vice versa)

If you're missing core course credit, you can only get one credit after graduation (three if you have a learning disability). If you're short on the GPA/test score scale, you can still only use one class after graduation to increase your GPA. You can continue to take the SAT and ACT until you enroll in college.

So if they were off the mark by a little bit, prepping for a year might make sense. But if they're coming up very short (hard to believe because IU is still working on this), then you have to go the JUCO route. Enrolling at some other four-year school makes no sense because not only is the kid not eligible where he goes and can't get a scholarship, he has to sit a year as a transfer.

Also don't forget that IU could file for a waiver if the athlete is a little short of the requirements. I'm not going to speculate on what Bawa or Creek's home situations were like so I have no idea what mitigating factors they might have. But the turmoil at IU might make help because IU didn't have the time to advise these kids like they normally might have.

Finally, as far as scholarships go, if either doesn't get eligible, the NLI is null and void. The scholarships are freed up, so Crean would have more to use down the road, or if they were going to prep IU could re-sign them in November.

Re: Should bloggers have a code of ethics like journalists do?

tacojohn — Sun, 09 Aug 2009 19:37:57 -0000

The enforcement would be through an instant loss of credibility. There's so many bloggers that each niche may one day have an entire news industry similar to what exists today. So something unfounded will be outed very quickly, and the loss of credibility and attention will be extremely swift.

I think the code of ethics exists, between when this actually occurs today and the law on defamation. But very soon it will not be appropriate for bloggers to use a bunch of weasel words to post rumor as a fact because there will be enough bloggers posting actual fact in each niche that there won't be room for unfounded rumors.

Re: My Pledge to You

tacojohn — Sun, 09 Aug 2009 13:25:59 -0000

You shouldn't write to the lowest common denominator. One big theme in the world today that explains a lot of problems is that everything is watered down so no one gets left behind. Jokes that might offend anyone are censored. Complex political issues are oversimplified into sound bites. Education makes sure that no one gets left behind, but does it allow anyone to get ahead?

If building trust with people means anything, it means they can take a joke and see one when it's coming. If a bunch of people come here for a headline that says "10 -no- 4!! Days to Become a Social Media Expert" and don't realize that's a joke, I'd ask myself two questions:
1) Do I really want to ensure that I'm keeping that type of audience around?
2) Am I really that worried about offending or misleading those people?

Re: Tom Crean on Maurice Creek’s and Bawa Muniru’s statuses

tacojohn — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 09:49:44 -0000

By Whom: The NCAA Eligibility Center

When: It gets done when it gets done. Can't help you.

Re: Open Thread: Which incoming freshman will make the biggest impact?

tacojohn — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 11:31:21 -0000

October 16. It's always the Friday closest to October 15th.

Re: 72 ways Gen Y can be more eco-friendly

tacojohn — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 10:33:41 -0000

That "avoid biofuels" one is bound to spark some controversy, but I agree.

Re: Jack Keefer sounds off on Dominique Ferguson

tacojohn — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 10:22:14 -0000

He didn't just question his work ethic, he aired private information (information that might be protected by federal law) about his academic situation. And it was information that could be pretty damaging to his recruitment.

If Keefer wants to pop off that Ferguson "didn't have the desire or work ethic to be a Wildcat on or off the court," that's one thing. But to take a shot at him with specific information about his college eligibility is another.

Re: Dear Gary Vee,

tacojohn — Tue, 26 May 2009 11:47:37 -0000

GV,

However disingenuous and inorganic you pimping a book comes off as, it's even more disingenuous and inorganic when you apologize and promise (I think there's a promise in there) to cut back on the pimping. You're a natural salesman, so promising that you're going to stop selling something is the real disservice.

That fact that you run a wine shop and make daily wine videos, and haven't used the latter as a platform to overtly market the former should be plenty of evidence that you aren't Billy Mays or the Sham-Wow guy.

I'm willing to bet somewhere in your book you talk about how specific tastes are becoming and how that allows anyone to #crushit. Some people's tastes are so specific that they include "God forbid anyone try to make a buck off what I enjoy" or "How dare you slightly change what I started watching." For those people, like water off a duck's back...

Keep #crushingit!

Re: More on the NCAA and Twitter

tacojohn — Thu, 14 May 2009 16:17:38 -0000

Did the compliance contact clear up why someone from the PR department is giving interpretations that the groups that are supposed to do that in the NCAA haven't given?

Re: When There’s Nothing On The Horizon You’ve Got Nothing Left To Prove: Saying farewell to the 2008-09 Indiana Hoosiers

tacojohn — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 11:44:29 -0000

We learned that Crean could coach up and make competitive a team composed of players playing out of their roles and at a level some never expected. That's a lot different than taking a talent laden team and taking it to a title, which is the true measure of on-court success at IU. And while the returns from Marquette are good on that front, it might be a while before we learned whether he can really coach.

Re: http://www.insidethehall.com/2009/01/26/the-morning-after-minnesota-2/

tacojohn — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 10:55:21 -0000

It might be Business 101, but they teach the exact opposite in Sports Marketing 101.

Re: A lesson in motivational speaking: The fist

tacojohn — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 12:35:41 -0000

I would totally run through an open door for that guy after that. Is there a second part where he runs out of the room yelling "Let's goooooo!" and no one follows?

Re: Year in Review: Ten most popular posts

tacojohn — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 12:52:55 -0000

All of them surprise me, I can't believe not a single post regarding Kelvin Sampson and the infractions case made the top 10.

Re: Watford turns in a pair of 30-point games

tacojohn — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 12:42:06 -0000

Is unbeated better than both undefeated and unbeaten?

Re: Candy Stripes: Up in smoke

tacojohn — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 19:48:29 -0000

One argument would be that Crean is not exactly the squeaky clean, white knight he's sometimes portrayed to be. You could say that oversigning itself is a somewhat questionable move morally. I would respond that we should see how that works itself out before calling him out on it.

Also, maybe another idea would be that Crean did something wrong by cleaning house as throughly as he did. I would say mounting evidence suggests that is not true.

Another might be that Crean is not taking the program in the proper direction competitively. Again, I'd respond it's way too early to tell.

Also guys, your new header and titles look very much like Coca Cola logos. Big new sponsor?

Re: Eric Gordon confirms it: Drugs pulled last year’s team apart

tacojohn — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 01:18:04 -0000

I always knew Ahfeld was involved with the drugs. No other way he could get from the bench to the midcourt stripe that fast, every timeout, every single night.

Re: No TMA this morning; open thread instead

tacojohn — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 13:10:58 -0000

Out here on the West Coast, that's In-N-Out Burger. Any meal that causes you to feel like the grease is coming out of your pores while you eat it is both a guilty pleasure and will taste great.

Re: And finally, they’ve all surfaced, let’s move on

tacojohn — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 18:03:05 -0000

Kinesiology is hit or miss. I would say, as a gross generalization, kinesiology majors and schools like HPER tend to either be really good, serious majors (like at IU), or jokes where athletes are stuffed (like it used to be at Michigan).