Men's Basketball's social media problems

[Blue Man]

As someone who was in comm, studying in these disciplines - I really don't hate the criticism.

She was bad. Obviously no one has told her that, which is why they put her in literally the most important, high-leverage situation a student would ever find themselves.

She needs to know. If you're a student you need feedback - negative or otherwise. It gives her an opportunity to grow and learn. It also allows her to make a decision - do I take this feedback and use it to work on my skills? Or do I think this isn't for me and maybe shift my career focus while I'm still in school and have time.

It would do this girl absolutely no favors to just say "aww you were great" and then either freeze her out and never bring her up on a call again, or worse, to bring her up on a call again.

Kids need to hear feedback. They're not porcelain dolls. Trying to "protect" this young adult from criticism as she's literally in an environment where she's trying to figure out her direction in life is hurting more than it's helping.

She was bad. She shouldn't ever do color commentary for basketball ever again. Potentially ever on camera. UNLESS she does a TON of work - on her speech patterns, annunciations, general ability to talk, and seriously up her knowledge base on whatever sport she wants to talk about.

If no one tells her this, she will go on thinking she's great, potentially wasting a lot of time working towards a career she won't be right for.

AND not for nothing - it's not fair to an aspiring professional like Stone. That kid has legitimate talent. It's insulting to him, and frankly it's insulting to the Harrington School/communications dept to put such a talent disparity on display. Moreover it impacts the kind of highlight reels he can put together for his own career growth.

Stone's definitely not a dick so he's not going to come out and say any of that, but c'mon. The girl was bad. It needs to be said.

[bigappleram]

Not sure anyone singled out the individual? I made a general statement about students calling the games. Not anyone in particular; and this has been going on for years with various students. All good kids and likely will become good on air personalities at some point in time they are just super green.

I agree the blame goes to the decision makers not the students.

I kinda don’t get it tho we can critique the 20 year old student athlete but not the 20 year old student broadcaster?

[Rhody15]

In this day and age you can’t give constructive criticism without people getting mad at you. People get offended at EVERYTHING these days.

If you’re bad at something, you should be told.

If you’re good at something, you should be told.

Regardless of age, gender, height, weight, etc.

It does nobody good to give positive praise and lie to someone if their performance was bad.

And just for the record I did not hear the broadcast, I was at the game. So I have zero idea how the commentators sounded.

[Rhody15]

This is well said. The things that have been said about her and the pile on has been disgusting

Absolutely right. She is a URI Student. I believe only a Sophomore. Would be nice of the moderators would remove those posts.

I support this idea of removal. Really low picking on a student. I would not be happy if it was my daughter and came across this.

If it’s “really low picking on a student” then you shouldn’t ever again talk bad about players on this team if they have a shitty game.

The kids on this team are students, and nobody has any problem talking bad about them each and every game.

[PeterRamTime]

As someone who was in comm, studying in these disciplines - I really don't hate the criticism.

She was bad. Obviously no one has told her that, which is why they put her in literally the most important, high-leverage situation a student would ever find themselves.

She needs to know. If you're a student you need feedback - negative or otherwise. It gives her an opportunity to grow and learn. It also allows her to make a decision - do I take this feedback and use it to work on my skills? Or do I think this isn't for me and maybe shift my career focus while I'm still in school and have time.

It would do this girl absolutely no favors to just say "aww you were great" and then either freeze her out and never bring her up on a call again, or worse, to bring her up on a call again.

Kids need to hear feedback. They're not porcelain dolls. Trying to "protect" this young adult from criticism as she's literally in an environment where she's trying to figure out her direction in life is hurting more than it's helping.

She was bad. She shouldn't ever do color commentary for basketball ever again. Potentially ever on camera. UNLESS she does a TON of work - on her speech patterns, annunciations, general ability to talk, and seriously up her knowledge base on whatever sport she wants to talk about.

If no one tells her this, she will go on thinking she's great, potentially wasting a lot of time working towards a career she won't be right for.

AND not for nothing - it's not fair to an aspiring professional like Stone. That kid has legitimate talent. It's insulting to him, and frankly it's insulting to the Harrison School/communications dept to put such a talent disparity on display. Moreover it impacts the kind of highlight reels he can put together for his own career growth.

Stone's definitely not a dick so he's not going to come out and say any of that, but c'mon. The girl was bad. It needs to be said.

I'm not a communications major, but I went to an acting conservatory in LA so I have a similar qualified perspective.

I've seen so many HORRIBLE actors and actresses trot themselves out there and have no idea how bad they are. They can't see it and nobody wants to tell them how bad they are and they suffer for it later when they get no work! Just "awe that was great sweetie"

This really goes for all of them that have been up there with Stone.

She needs to recognize her difficiencies and address them. I'd put her in some speech and improv classes. When you do improv you have no choice but to face what makes you uncomfortable. Get out there be silly, be present in the moment, listen, react and think off the top of your intelligence. At the end of the day it's her personality that needs to shine and she has to find a way to show it on camera. As I see it, she and the others have absolutely zero natural ability to perform in any capacity and would need boot camp like training to rip it out of them somehow.

Get someone up there that can help Stone grow! Someone who he can feed off of and have a repor with. He was quite literally born to do this and these other people were born to never ever be in a position.

[Rhode_Island_Red]

That kid has legitimate talent. It's insulting to him, and frankly it's insulting to the Harrison School/communications dept to put such a talent disparity on display.

Someone who he can feed off of and have a repor with. He was quite literally born to do this and these other people were born to never ever be in a position.

Harrison school? It's the Harrington School.

Repor? You mean "rapport."

Before you expect a 20-year-old to be perfect, try being a perfect adult.

SG EDIT: I've fixed the misattributed quote in this post. SG EDIT X 2: Then fixed my error... doh.

[KeaneyBluBallz]

it's two different things here.

These kids are trying to get their own game tape and gain experience. some of these kids have never been on camera or radio and have zero experience. there are VERY few places for a HS kid to go do this kind of work and have real world experience before they get to college.

how many of the sports comm kids are taking a scholarship to URI for their play by play or color work? I'll wait.

the MBB team; these kids have had a ball in their hand from very early on in their lives. they have been playing ball say at minimum 15 years before they got to URI. well before a comm kid had a mic in their face.

being hand selected to be 1 of 12 is much different than being 1 of however many kids are studying sports communications with open enrollment.

[theblueram]

it's two different things here.

These kids are trying to get their own game tape and gain experience. some of these kids have never been on camera or radio and have zero experience. there are VERY few places for a HS kid to go do this kind of work and have real world experience before they get to college.

how many of the sports comm kids are taking a scholarship to URI for their play by play or color work? I'll wait.

the MBB team; these kids have had a ball in their hand from very early on in their lives. they have been playing ball say at minimum 15 years before they got to URI. well before a comm kid had a mic in their face.

being hand selected to be 1 of 12 is much different than being 1 of however many kids are studying sports communications with open enrollment.

Sports communication, radio talk show host, actor.......none of these needs a degree.

[bigappleram]

it's two different things here.

These kids are trying to get their own game tape and gain experience. some of these kids have never been on camera or radio and have zero experience. there are VERY few places for a HS kid to go do this kind of work and have real world experience before they get to college.

how many of the sports comm kids are taking a scholarship to URI for their play by play or color work? I'll wait.

the MBB team; these kids have had a ball in their hand from very early on in their lives. they have been playing ball say at minimum 15 years before they got to URI. well before a comm kid had a mic in their face.

being hand selected to be 1 of 12 is much different than being 1 of however many kids are studying sports communications with open enrollment.

That is exactly what WRIU is for. Get experience there. The TV/streaming product being produced by the university shouldn’t be an internship for the Comms school, sorry. Not if we are serious about mens bball. Again I’ll ask- do VCU or Dayton have kids calling their ESPN+ games?

[KeaneyBluBallz]

it's two different things here.

These kids are trying to get their own game tape and gain experience. some of these kids have never been on camera or radio and have zero experience. there are VERY few places for a HS kid to go do this kind of work and have real world experience before they get to college.

how many of the sports comm kids are taking a scholarship to URI for their play by play or color work? I'll wait.

the MBB team; these kids have had a ball in their hand from very early on in their lives. they have been playing ball say at minimum 15 years before they got to URI. well before a comm kid had a mic in their face.

being hand selected to be 1 of 12 is much different than being 1 of however many kids are studying sports communications with open enrollment.

Sports communication, radio talk show host, actor.......none of these needs a degree.

perhaps, however 'our' institution is offering a degree in it.

[KeaneyBluBallz]

it's two different things here.

These kids are trying to get their own game tape and gain experience. some of these kids have never been on camera or radio and have zero experience. there are VERY few places for a HS kid to go do this kind of work and have real world experience before they get to college.

how many of the sports comm kids are taking a scholarship to URI for their play by play or color work? I'll wait.

the MBB team; these kids have had a ball in their hand from very early on in their lives. they have been playing ball say at minimum 15 years before they got to URI. well before a comm kid had a mic in their face.

being hand selected to be 1 of 12 is much different than being 1 of however many kids are studying sports communications with open enrollment.

That is exactly what WRIU is for. Get experience there. The TV/streaming product being produced by the university shouldn’t be an internship for the Comms school, sorry. Not if we are serious about mens bball. Again I’ll ask- do VCU or Dayton have kids calling their ESPN+ games?

well than this is why we can't have nice things. we're hardly serious about our in person game presentation, you want to be serious on a interweb stream?? come on, maaaaaaaaaan.

[theblueram]

it's two different things here.

These kids are trying to get their own game tape and gain experience. some of these kids have never been on camera or radio and have zero experience. there are VERY few places for a HS kid to go do this kind of work and have real world experience before they get to college.

how many of the sports comm kids are taking a scholarship to URI for their play by play or color work? I'll wait.

the MBB team; these kids have had a ball in their hand from very early on in their lives. they have been playing ball say at minimum 15 years before they got to URI. well before a comm kid had a mic in their face.

being hand selected to be 1 of 12 is much different than being 1 of however many kids are studying sports communications with open enrollment.

Sports communication, radio talk show host, actor.......none of these needs a degree.

perhaps, however 'our' institution is offering a degree in it.

Your use of quotes around our says much about you.

[Blue Man]

That kid has legitimate talent. It's insulting to him, and frankly it's insulting to the Harrison School/communications dept to put such a talent disparity on display.

Someone who he can feed off of and have a repor with. He was quite literally born to do this and these other people were born to never ever be in a position.

Harrison school? It's the Harrington School.

Repor? You mean "rapport."

Before you expect a 20-year-old to be perfect, try being a perfect adult.

Did it on my phone, autocorrect. But thanks for pointing it out.

Wow see - hearing criticism didn’t derail my day. But I’m happy you pointed it out so I can change it.

SG EDIT: I've also fixed the quote to the misattributed quote in this post.

[KeaneyBluBallz]

Sports communication, radio talk show host, actor.......none of these needs a degree.

perhaps, however 'our' institution is offering a degree in it.

Your use of quotes around our says much about you.

oh, do tell

[theblueram]

perhaps, however 'our' institution is offering a degree in it.

Your use of quotes around our says much about you.

oh, do tell

You already know.

[Taylor Swift]

Chris DiSano has been doing radio in place of Don Kaull.

I've listened to a few games this season via the Varsity app. Chris does a fantastic job with Steve.

[Taylor Swift]

While on this topic...How about Dan Yorke? He is uninspiring as well.

He definitely loves hearing his own voice though.

[KeaneyBluBallz]

Your use of quotes around our says much about you.

oh, do tell

You already know.

Riiiiiiiiiight

[adam914]

That is true about the advertisements to an extent, but A. they can't tell the people that are watching with sound vs. on mute and as long as the visual is up there you're still getting the ad out and B. Are we getting any of the ad revenue? It seems like the ad money is going to ESPN and not the schools. Yes, indirectly we would get it because more eyeballs equal a more valuable property, which equals higher rights fees, but then you're just circling back to point a

Fun fact, not really related to the rest of your post, but they definitely can tell if you are watching on mute. That shouldn't affect any type of ad revenue though as you mentioned.

Unless they made a horrible deal with ESPN (which we can't rule out!), I'm sure the conference does get a cut of the ad revenue, which I would assume also trickles down to the schools. I doubt we're talking big bucks here though.

[Taylor Swift]

One thing I noticed is that for maybe the past 4-5 years they've had a student who's a reporter for the Cigar to provide reporting on the game. I believe it was most recently Kate Rogerson, who has graduated, but I wonder why they're not doing that anymore? Is it because of covid? I would think not simply because the CIgar employees already have press credentials?

[PeteRI]

Chris DiSano has been doing radio in place of Don Kaull.

I've listened to a few games this season via the Varsity app. Chris does a fantastic job with Steve.

Haven't heard Chris do a game call yet but have always been a fan of his postgame work. The man knows his hoops and how to convey that knowledge.

[RAM67]

That kid has legitimate talent. It's insulting to him, and frankly it's insulting to the Harrison School/communications dept to put such a talent disparity on display.

Someone who he can feed off of and have a repor with. He was quite literally born to do this and these other people were born to never ever be in a position.

Harrison school? It's the Harrington School.

Repor? You mean "rapport."

Before you expect a 20-year-old to be perfect, try being a perfect adult.

Did it on my phone, autocorrect. But thanks for pointing it out.

Wow see - hearing criticism didn’t derail my day. But I’m happy you pointed it out so I can change it.

Do you have two accounts? I Believe Red was referring to the PeterRamTime post.

SG EDIT: I've addressed this in a post below, but, leaving this one intact so that the "chain of events," so to speak, can be seen.

[SmartyBarrett]

One thing I noticed is that for maybe the past 4-5 years they've had a student who's a reporter for the Cigar to provide reporting on the game. I believe it was most recently Kate Rogerson, who has graduated, but I wonder why they're not doing that anymore? Is it because of covid? I would think not simply because the CIgar employees already have press credentials?

Give Aniekan a follow. He doesn't do video I don't think, but he's really solid. Reports on both men's and women's home games.

https://twitter.com/aniekan_okon_

[SGreenwell]

Harrison school? It's the Harrington School.

Repor? You mean "rapport."

Before you expect a 20-year-old to be perfect, try being a perfect adult.

Did it on my phone, autocorrect. But thanks for pointing it out.

Wow see - hearing criticism didn’t derail my day. But I’m happy you pointed it out so I can change it.

Do you have two accounts? I Believe Red was referring to the PeterRamTime post.

No - Rhode Island Red improperly used the quote function, and attributed Blue Man's remarks to PeterRamTime. Since we got a user report about this as well, the IPs don't match.

[RhowdyRam02]

As someone who was in comm, studying in these disciplines - I really don't hate the criticism.

She was bad. Obviously no one has told her that, which is why they put her in literally the most important, high-leverage situation a student would ever find themselves.

She needs to know. If you're a student you need feedback - negative or otherwise. It gives her an opportunity to grow and learn. It also allows her to make a decision - do I take this feedback and use it to work on my skills? Or do I think this isn't for me and maybe shift my career focus while I'm still in school and have time.

It would do this girl absolutely no favors to just say "aww you were great" and then either freeze her out and never bring her up on a call again, or worse, to bring her up on a call again.

Kids need to hear feedback. They're not porcelain dolls. Trying to "protect" this young adult from criticism as she's literally in an environment where she's trying to figure out her direction in life is hurting more than it's helping.

She was bad. She shouldn't ever do color commentary for basketball ever again. Potentially ever on camera. UNLESS she does a TON of work - on her speech patterns, annunciations, general ability to talk, and seriously up her knowledge base on whatever sport she wants to talk about.

If no one tells her this, she will go on thinking she's great, potentially wasting a lot of time working towards a career she won't be right for.

AND not for nothing - it's not fair to an aspiring professional like Stone. That kid has legitimate talent. It's insulting to him, and frankly it's insulting to the Harrington School/communications dept to put such a talent disparity on display. Moreover it impacts the kind of highlight reels he can put together for his own career growth.

Stone's definitely not a dick so he's not going to come out and say any of that, but c'mon. The girl was bad. It needs to be said.

There's a giant difference between constructive criticism like saying she needs to work on speech patterns, annunciations, etc. which I'm hoping she's receiving from Stone and/or professors along with work to improve those versus the insults that have been posted in this thread and things like you saying a college student probably getting their first work in the field probably shouldn't be working in the field at all. I have no problem with the constructive criticism and completely agree that it's necessary. I have a giant problem with the insults to a student getting their first experience in a field. Imagine if we judged everyone's career and trajectory based on their first work.

I also take exception to how this isn't fair and insulting to Stone. She's an aspiring professional, just like him. I bet if you asked him he would honestly say he is happy to work with her and mentor her. Two of the best ways for someone to grow in their field are to get as much experience as possible and to work with people better than you to learn. Other people did that for Stone and I'm sure he's happy to do that for people behind him

[Blue Man]

Did it on my phone, autocorrect. But thanks for pointing it out.

Wow see - hearing criticism didn’t derail my day. But I’m happy you pointed it out so I can change it.

Do you have two accounts? I Believe Red was referring to the PeterRamTime post.

No - Rhode Island Red improperly used the quote function, and attributed Blue Man's remarks to PeterRamTime. Since we got a user report about this as well, the IPs don't match.

LMAO did I get accused of DC_Ramming?

[Blue Man]

As someone who was in comm, studying in these disciplines - I really don't hate the criticism.

She was bad. Obviously no one has told her that, which is why they put her in literally the most important, high-leverage situation a student would ever find themselves.

She needs to know. If you're a student you need feedback - negative or otherwise. It gives her an opportunity to grow and learn. It also allows her to make a decision - do I take this feedback and use it to work on my skills? Or do I think this isn't for me and maybe shift my career focus while I'm still in school and have time.

It would do this girl absolutely no favors to just say "aww you were great" and then either freeze her out and never bring her up on a call again, or worse, to bring her up on a call again.

Kids need to hear feedback. They're not porcelain dolls. Trying to "protect" this young adult from criticism as she's literally in an environment where she's trying to figure out her direction in life is hurting more than it's helping.

She was bad. She shouldn't ever do color commentary for basketball ever again. Potentially ever on camera. UNLESS she does a TON of work - on her speech patterns, annunciations, general ability to talk, and seriously up her knowledge base on whatever sport she wants to talk about.

If no one tells her this, she will go on thinking she's great, potentially wasting a lot of time working towards a career she won't be right for.

AND not for nothing - it's not fair to an aspiring professional like Stone. That kid has legitimate talent. It's insulting to him, and frankly it's insulting to the Harrington School/communications dept to put such a talent disparity on display. Moreover it impacts the kind of highlight reels he can put together for his own career growth.

Stone's definitely not a dick so he's not going to come out and say any of that, but c'mon. The girl was bad. It needs to be said.

There's a giant difference between constructive criticism like saying she needs to work on speech patterns, annunciations, etc. which I'm hoping she's receiving from Stone and/or professors along with work to improve those versus the insults that have been posted in this thread and things like you saying a college student probably getting their first work in the field probably shouldn't be working in the field at all. I have no problem with the constructive criticism and completely agree that it's necessary. I have a giant problem with the insults to a student getting their first experience in a field. Imagine if we judged everyone's career and trajectory based on their first work.

I also take exception to how this isn't fair and insulting to Stone. She's an aspiring professional, just like him. I bet if you asked him he would honestly say he is happy to work with her and mentor her. Two of the best ways for someone to grow in their field are to get as much experience as possible and to work with people better than you to learn. Other people did that for Stone and I'm sure he's happy to do that for people behind him

Ummm...that's constructive. Idk if you're in a performance-based field or not, but as someone who is (and also studied at the same school and had concentrations in and around on-camera work) - that's about as constructive as you can get.

And not for nothing...she was live. On a nationwide stream. Literally the one of the most high profile opportunities one can get at ANY level...not just a wet behind the ears student.

This isn't us coming into the studio during Com 311 and blasting her for being bad. She was forced upon all of us as an abject professional. So she doesn't get the immunity from criticism to "work out the kinks." If you're on a professional broadcasting platform, as a representative of the school, being broadcast across the world to alums who would like to watch their basketball team - you're live. You get all the criticism and accolades that come with it.

Just like the players on the court. They're in school too. Are you not allowed to criticize Ish when he makes a stupid drive? What about when the Mitchells take a stupid foul?

No one's going into practice to heckle these guys, but when it's game time everything is fair game.

I agree with everyone that she should have NEVER been put in that position, and the blame lays largely on their shoulders. But if people aren't openly critiquing then how does any feedback happen? Do we just persist with niceties and pretend someone is good to spare their feelings?

And as for Stone - I'm not going to speak for the kid, but he's one of the nicest people you could ever come across. OF COURSE he's going to work with and mentor her, and will never say a bad thing. Doesn't mean it's fair to him. Doesn't mean there isn't a part of him deep down that doesn't wish he would get paired with an actual professional. But to call her an "aspiring professional, like Stone" is like calling me a "golfer, like Tiger Woods."

Some people just have "it" and some people don't. Stone does. This girl does not. Not to say she can't learn and develop to some degree of professionalism - but Stone was out-of-the-box talented. On-camera work is as much a gift as it is a learned skill. Just like playing basketball, or another sport, or sales, or anything.

All of this boiling down to the main point - she never should've been put in that place. I don't know who her professors are, who the producers are - but that was just a bad call from the jump. No one stepped up to say "hey, you're not ready' or maybe no one knew and when the bright lights came on she just wilted.

Either way, she was live on the broadcast and that means any and all criticism is fair game.

This board crushed the pep band for YEARS (until they finally got fixed in the past few seasons) - so yes, we will continue to point out things that are bad and things that are good surrounding this program.

[Blue Man]

Harrison school? It's the Harrington School.

Repor? You mean "rapport."

Before you expect a 20-year-old to be perfect, try being a perfect adult.

Did it on my phone, autocorrect. But thanks for pointing it out.

Wow see - hearing criticism didn’t derail my day. But I’m happy you pointed it out so I can change it.

Do you have two accounts? I Believe Red was referring to the PeterRamTime post.

SG EDIT: I've addressed this in a post below, but, leaving this one intact so that the "chain of events," so to speak, can be seen.

OMG. Seriously 67, do I strike you as the type of person who lacks self-confidence that would require me to build a second profile on a URI basketball message board to agree with my posts? I lack many things, but confidence is not one of them. I certainly don't need reassurance to think what I post is awesome.

Of course I agree with my posts. I think they're great. And I certainly don't care if anyone else does or not.

But c'mon. I would think I would be known a little better by now

[KeaneyBluBallz]

Did it on my phone, autocorrect. But thanks for pointing it out.

Wow see - hearing criticism didn’t derail my day. But I’m happy you pointed it out so I can change it.

Do you have two accounts? I Believe Red was referring to the PeterRamTime post.

SG EDIT: I've addressed this in a post below, but, leaving this one intact so that the "chain of events," so to speak, can be seen.

OMG. Seriously 67, do I strike you as the type of person who lacks self-confidence that would require me to build a second profile on a URI basketball message board to agree with my posts? I lack many things, but confidence is not one of them. I certainly don't need reassurance to think what I post is awesome.

Of course I agree with my posts. I think they're great. And I certainly don't care if anyone else does or not.

But c'mon. I would think I would be known a little better by now

internet message board famous. if that doesn't ooze confidence, I don't know what does.

[steviep123]

How you do anything is how you do everything.

Have you read the "Orphan X" Series by Gregg Hurwitz? An "Orphan's" second commandment is "How you do anything is how you do everything." Great series. If you liked the Bourne Identity, you'd love this.

[Blue Man]

Do you have two accounts? I Believe Red was referring to the PeterRamTime post.

SG EDIT: I've addressed this in a post below, but, leaving this one intact so that the "chain of events," so to speak, can be seen.

OMG. Seriously 67, do I strike you as the type of person who lacks self-confidence that would require me to build a second profile on a URI basketball message board to agree with my posts? I lack many things, but confidence is not one of them. I certainly don't need reassurance to think what I post is awesome.

Of course I agree with my posts. I think they're great. And I certainly don't care if anyone else does or not.

But c'mon. I would think I would be known a little better by now

internet message board famous. if that doesn't ooze confidence, I don't know what does.

[Taylor Swift]

I was certain I followed most of the necessities for Rhody Hoops on social media, but who is the "she" that people keep referring to like she's a disaster?

[steviep123]

I was certain I followed most of the necessities for Rhody Hoops on social media, but who is the "she" that people keep referring to like she's a disaster?

The color person during the game vs. SJU on epsn+

[bigappleram]

Let me just soften this criticism a bit...it wasn't just the young lady they had work the SJU game. It's every student color commentator they have put on there. Stone is great on play by play and his youthful energy is a huge asset in that role. Color commentary is different animal - it requires context, experience and some deep knowledge of the sport. Unfortunately those are tough things for a student to possess at this point in their life. Which is all good, they should work out all those kinks on WRIU

[RAM67]

That kid has legitimate talent. It's insulting to him, and frankly it's insulting to the Harrison School/communications dept to put such a talent disparity on display.

Someone who he can feed off of and have a repor with. He was quite literally born to do this and these other people were born to never ever be in a position.

Harrison school? It's the Harrington School.

Repor? You mean "rapport."

Before you expect a 20-year-old to be perfect, try being a perfect adult.

SG EDIT: I've fixed the misattributed quote in this post.

I was just ball busting, but since you fixed it, is it The Blue Ram or Blue Man that made the post? If it was The Blue Ram, then nothing was fixed, except changing the name to a third poster.

[theblueram]

That kid has legitimate talent. It's insulting to him, and frankly it's insulting to the Harrison School/communications dept to put such a talent disparity on display.

Someone who he can feed off of and have a repor with. He was quite literally born to do this and these other people were born to never ever be in a position.

Harrison school? It's the Harrington School.

Repor? You mean "rapport."

Before you expect a 20-year-old to be perfect, try being a perfect adult.

SG EDIT: I've fixed the misattributed quote in this post.

I was just ball busting, but since you fixed it, is it The Blue Ram or Blue Man that made the post? If it was The Blue Ram, then nothing was fixed, except changing the name to a third poster.

I don't know. Are you just a dick or think your a comedian?

[SGreenwell]

That kid has legitimate talent. It's insulting to him, and frankly it's insulting to the Harrison School/communications dept to put such a talent disparity on display.

Someone who he can feed off of and have a repor with. He was quite literally born to do this and these other people were born to never ever be in a position.

Harrison school? It's the Harrington School.

Repor? You mean "rapport."

Before you expect a 20-year-old to be perfect, try being a perfect adult.

SG EDIT: I've fixed the misattributed quote in this post.

I was just ball busting, but since you fixed it, is it The Blue Ram or Blue Man that made the post? If it was The Blue Ram, then nothing was fixed, except changing the name to a third poster.

Doh! To paraphrase a famous man, I suppose I just blued myself.

[PeterRamTime]

As someone who was in comm, studying in these disciplines - I really don't hate the criticism.

She was bad. Obviously no one has told her that, which is why they put her in literally the most important, high-leverage situation a student would ever find themselves.

She needs to know. If you're a student you need feedback - negative or otherwise. It gives her an opportunity to grow and learn. It also allows her to make a decision - do I take this feedback and use it to work on my skills? Or do I think this isn't for me and maybe shift my career focus while I'm still in school and have time.

It would do this girl absolutely no favors to just say "aww you were great" and then either freeze her out and never bring her up on a call again, or worse, to bring her up on a call again.

Kids need to hear feedback. They're not porcelain dolls. Trying to "protect" this young adult from criticism as she's literally in an environment where she's trying to figure out her direction in life is hurting more than it's helping.

She was bad. She shouldn't ever do color commentary for basketball ever again. Potentially ever on camera. UNLESS she does a TON of work - on her speech patterns, annunciations, general ability to talk, and seriously up her knowledge base on whatever sport she wants to talk about.

If no one tells her this, she will go on thinking she's great, potentially wasting a lot of time working towards a career she won't be right for.

AND not for nothing - it's not fair to an aspiring professional like Stone. That kid has legitimate talent. It's insulting to him, and frankly it's insulting to the Harrington School/communications dept to put such a talent disparity on display. Moreover it impacts the kind of highlight reels he can put together for his own career growth.

Stone's definitely not a dick so he's not going to come out and say any of that, but c'mon. The girl was bad. It needs to be said.

There's a giant difference between constructive criticism like saying she needs to work on speech patterns, annunciations, etc. which I'm hoping she's receiving from Stone and/or professors along with work to improve those versus the insults that have been posted in this thread and things like you saying a college student probably getting their first work in the field probably shouldn't be working in the field at all. I have no problem with the constructive criticism and completely agree that it's necessary. I have a giant problem with the insults to a student getting their first experience in a field. Imagine if we judged everyone's career and trajectory based on their first work.

I also take exception to how this isn't fair and insulting to Stone. She's an aspiring professional, just like him. I bet if you asked him he would honestly say he is happy to work with her and mentor her. Two of the best ways for someone to grow in their field are to get as much experience as possible and to work with people better than you to learn. Other people did that for Stone and I'm sure he's happy to do that for people behind him

Ummm...that's constructive. Idk if you're in a performance-based field or not, but as someone who is (and also studied at the same school and had concentrations in and around on-camera work) - that's about as constructive as you can get.

And not for nothing...she was live. On a nationwide stream. Literally the one of the most high profile opportunities one can get at ANY level...not just a wet behind the ears student.

This isn't us coming into the studio during Com 311 and blasting her for being bad. She was forced upon all of us as an abject professional. So she doesn't get the immunity from criticism to "work out the kinks." If you're on a professional broadcasting platform, as a representative of the school, being broadcast across the world to alums who would like to watch their basketball team - you're live. You get all the criticism and accolades that come with it.

Just like the players on the court. They're in school too. Are you not allowed to criticize Ish when he makes a stupid drive? What about when the Mitchells take a stupid foul?

No one's going into practice to heckle these guys, but when it's game time everything is fair game.

I agree with everyone that she should have NEVER been put in that position, and the blame lays largely on their shoulders. But if people aren't openly critiquing then how does any feedback happen? Do we just persist with niceties and pretend someone is good to spare their feelings?

And as for Stone - I'm not going to speak for the kid, but he's one of the nicest people you could ever come across. OF COURSE he's going to work with and mentor her, and will never say a bad thing. Doesn't mean it's fair to him. Doesn't mean there isn't a part of him deep down that doesn't wish he would get paired with an actual professional. But to call her an "aspiring professional, like Stone" is like calling me a "golfer, like Tiger Woods."

Some people just have "it" and some people don't. Stone does. This girl does not. Not to say she can't learn and develop to some degree of professionalism - but Stone was out-of-the-box talented. On-camera work is as much a gift as it is a learned skill. Just like playing basketball, or another sport, or sales, or anything.

All of this boiling down to the main point - she never should've been put in that place. I don't know who her professors are, who the producers are - but that was just a bad call from the jump. No one stepped up to say "hey, you're not ready' or maybe no one knew and when the bright lights came on she just wilted.

Either way, she was live on the broadcast and that means any and all criticism is fair game.

This board crushed the pep band for YEARS (until they finally got fixed in the past few seasons) - so yes, we will continue to point out things that are bad and things that are good surrounding this program.

They probably threw her out there for diversity, equity and inclusion...

[Rhody15]

Here's a gem.

To celebrate national popcorn day, The Ryan Center is selling $2 bags tonight.

Only thing is, it's from 6-7, meaning the deal expires before the game even starts.

Seriously who the hell comes up with these things?

[RAM67]

Harrison school? It's the Harrington School.

Repor? You mean "rapport."

Before you expect a 20-year-old to be perfect, try being a perfect adult.

SG EDIT: I've fixed the misattributed quote in this post.

I was just ball busting, but since you fixed it, is it The Blue Ram or Blue Man that made the post? If it was The Blue Ram, then nothing was fixed, except changing the name to a third poster.

I don't know. Are you just a dick or think your a comedian?

You have certainly proven over time that it takes one to know one.

[Rhody72]

The real question is: will the student improve from broadcast to broadcast? I remember how stiff and awkward Jonathan Lemire sounded when taking over for Kasie Hunt on Way To Early. Now he is fine.

[theblueram]

I was just ball busting, but since you fixed it, is it The Blue Ram or Blue Man that made the post? If it was The Blue Ram, then nothing was fixed, except changing the name to a third poster.

I don't know. Are you just a dick or think your a comedian?

You have certainly proven over time that it takes one to know one.

So you are a comedian. But I don't go around and quote posts and change the name on a post to intimate that someone else posted it. So I guess your a dick.

[RAM67]

Refer to your moderator, who changed the name of the poster. I don't think we have that capability. And by the way, my original post had nothing to do with you. You apparently jumped into something that had been directed in jest to Blue Man not you.

And I would expect Steve to correct this misinformation.

[theblueram]

Refer to your moderator, who changed the name of the poster. I don't think we have that capability. And by the way, my original post had nothing to do with you. You apparently jumped into something that had been directed in jest to Blue Man not you.

And I would expect Steve to correct this misinformation.

Perhaps this is all a misunderstanding, but something happened that attributed posts to me and I wasn't involved.

[bigappleram]

Last night was the double whammy - my ears and my eyes hurt.

[RhodeIslandRams]

Some very valid points.

First of all there's an image we put out there.
There's a balance needed with the two people: this sounded like Stone and a rookie, so it draws negative attention.

Also I've had at least 30 difference TV and radio co hosts over the years. It's near impossible to get the timing down with someone with no experience. All the tosses to break, tosses to replay vids etc is actually easier alone than with someone who does not know the way things go.

But in this case, it was serious enough to make it hard to even understand what she was saying. No knock on her, she's get better. But who made that decision?

[reef]

Paige is not very good as a commentator, hopefully they go back to one of the other students next game

[RhodeIslandRams]

To be fair, Stone has gotten pretty solid, so it draws attention to a more "student sounding" co host or color commentator

[bigappleram]

I watched the Umass v SLU game on ESPN+. A Umass production. Shockingly they didn’t turn their broadcast into an intern program.

[RI_Bred]

My wife walked into the living room mid-game while the color commentary was speaking. Knowing nothing about the situation, her first words to me were "So URI is having the students announce the games again?". Telling.