Twitter ban

[RoadyJay]

I read on Luke Murray's Twitter feed that the team will be under a Twitter ban soon. Interesting. I think it's a good idea.

[Rhody74]

I think it was a joke in response to a cryptic tweet by Mike Aaman ...

[rodfromcranston]

There were Twitter moratoriums last season a couple of times.
I've never read any of our players tweeting anything out of line.

[Gonebarongone]

Generally, I hate when schools/programs do this. College is still about education, making mistakes, and learning from them. Testing bounds (and suffering the consequences) is better off being learned at 18,19,20 than in the real world. Who knows what URIs policy is but I would hope it's not a ban.

[twisted3829]

it may be a coaches thing to motivate the players, last year it was until the first win

[rodfromcranston]

Banning Tweets and texts is a Hurley (Bob Sr.) hallmark.
Players are suspended for a half season for violating those rules at
St. Anthony's.
After Will Middlebrooks' admitting Twitter was so a big distraction,
that he deleted his account, it makes you wonder.

[Rhodymob05]

I actually don't think its a bad idea. Keeps players focused and drama free

[Ramtastico]

One thing I noticed across the board is that these kids cannot fall asleep at night. They need women and /or more workouts soon.

[Rhody74]

I try to overlook their personal tweets ..... I have to keep reminding myself that they're 18, 19, 20 years old.

[SGreenwell]

Generally, I hate when schools/programs do this. College is still about education, making mistakes, and learning from them. Testing bounds (and suffering the consequences) is better off being learned at 18,19,20 than in the real world. Who knows what URIs policy is but I would hope it's not a ban.

Eh, I think part of avoiding consequences could be to just remove that temptation altogether. Kind of like how some coaches impose curfews because you're only going to find trouble past a certain time out in the world, it's hard to quantify the benefits of Twitter to the everyday life of a basketball player. Even something like FB would allow for keeping in touch with actual family and friends better than Twitter, and if the coaching staff wants to use withholding it as a motivational tool, that strikes me as a decent compromise.

[reef]

I like the discipline DH is putting in !!

[districtballer]

Yea VCU does this as well. As soon as players get on campus for workouts, Twitter is off-limits until they end their senior seasons.

It's been a good thing for us IMO.

[ATPTourFan]

Wow, so freshman through end of Senior season, District?? Wow.

[districtballer]

Wow, so freshman through end of Senior season, District?? Wow.

Yes.

Shaka implemented this right after the Final Four in 2011 and it's been in effect the last 2 seasons.

We've joked around on our boards that we know when a kid is transferring out when he pops up on twitter again.

Shaka's big on discipline. The same goes for the coaches. None of them have tweeted since either, from Shaka, to the assistants, to the Director of Basketball Operations and the Video Co-ordinator.

[Gonebarongone]

How is this discipline? 99% of college coaches are control freaks, micromanaging every last detail. Usually, to good effect. This is not discipline. Discipline would be telling these kids to think of the consequences. Tell them to think before sending. But, also to trust them. If they screw up, then discipline them. Coaches just don't want the headache. And there is a big difference between Hurley, Sr. doing that to high school kids and Smart doing it to 22, 23 year olds. Sort of ridiculous, if you ask me.

[districtballer]

Not sure anyone at VCU is complaining about it given his results, but everyone is entitled to their opinion.

The kids are all active on other social media platforms (ie. Instagram). Just not Twitter. It's too mainstream and easily shared.

One of the main catalysts was a George Mason player trash-talking VCU before our conference tournament game in 2011. They had beaten us by 20 at home just a week before. One of their players went off on twitter about how our season was over etc. Shaka blew up the tweets and printed them out in the locker room. George Mason was riding a nation-high 16-game winning streak and had just cracked the USAToday Top 25 while VCU had lost 4 of it's last 5 regular season contests.

VCU won by 16 and the win played a large role in VCU getting one of the last at-large bids in the field.

They were allowed to tweet that off season after the Final Four, but as soon as practice started for the new season, that ended.

Folks can have various opinions on the approach, but few would argue with his results. Also he's not dictating to the players, he's holding himself and his staff to the same standard.

[bigappleram]

GBG, media relations isnt necessarily a strong point of a 21 year old. Twitter is media. Governing how your players use it and interact with it is pretty common logic if you want to create an enviroment of discipline and professionalism. Allowing them to experiment and "let kids be kids" as you say sounds like an awfully naive opinion, of either social media or 21 year olds. Take your pick. I would side with Shaka and Dan on this one.

[Gonebarongone]

All these responses bring me back to my original point. If your ONLY goal is to win games in a college setting, then a twitter ban is probably appropriate. I don't disagree that there is way more downside than upside. We all know that most of the coaches who say "I am builder of men!" are full of it. But, if you were really trying to let these kids turn their ability to put a ball into a hoop into four years of learning how to thrive as an adult, you don't put the lids on stuff like this. You let the dopey tweet that fires up some other team be a learning experience. Don't you want kids to have these learning experiences when they are in college? Not when they are trying to find a job or, worse, after they get one?

[districtballer]

To say that Twitter is the only place where someone can learn these experiences isn't accurate. Life in college is chock full of them. It's also inaccurate to assume that the only reason a coach would ban Twitter is because his only goal is to win games in a college setting. Massive over-generalization IMO.

You can learn from real life experiences in college in ways that don't publicly open you up to literally anyone and everyone on the internet to scrutinize and take advantage of the way Twitter can. Countless generations of people grew up without Twitter to teach them valuable life lessons in the past.

That's a stretch IMO. Shaka or any coach that bans Twitter isn't short-changing his players on a fundamental life-learning experience by doing that. Far from it.

[Gonebarongone]

To say that Twitter is the only place where someone can learn these experiences isn't accurate. Life in college is chock full of them. It's also inaccurate to assume that the only reason a coach would ban Twitter is because his only goal is to win games in a college setting. Massive over-generalization IMO.

You can learn from those in ways that don't publicly open you up to literally anyone and everyone on the internet to scrutinize and take advantage of the way Twitter can.

That's a stretch IMO. Shaka or any coach that bans Twitter isn't short-changing his players on a fundamental life-learning experience by doing that. Far from it.

Agree to disagree, I guess. No one's life is ruined if they don't get to tweet. I agree with you on that. It's more of a philosophical thing. College is not about accumulating one huge life lesson, it's about accumulating thousands, in and out of the classroom or on/off the court. These experiences/mistakes form the person you become. Why not let them? It's because they fear not being able to control something. Nothing more. Nothing less. I'd actually have less of an issue if this was done at the pro level. We are paying you millions, keep your mouth shut. A simple employer/employee situation.

[seanmc94]

Personally,
I joke all the time that if social media was around when I was 20; I'd probably be in prison. Deff wouldn't be in the wine and spirits business. All my wackiness and poor behavior is just hearsay; not forever on the Internet

[bigappleram]

i would guess shaka and dan believe their primary job is to win basketball games and field a team the school can be proud of...i would guess monitoring social media so they can find teachable moments falls low on their job description. i would assume this is the same for most of the 300+ Div 1 coaches. i am not sure depriving someone of 140 character stream of consciousness messages is really robbing them of much, likely saving them from themselves. so again, likely doing them a favor versus robbing them of some valuable rite of passage.

[ace]

But Hurley and Smart, so far, handle their players being on Twitter very differently. Not sure why they're being linked together. The initial tweet was about album releases, hardly anything controversial, or cryptic for that matter. I think the VCU policy is unnecessary, but it's also not my concern.

[Rhody72]

It is not the medium that can be the problem but the message.

[Rhody74]

Guess you're not a Marshal McLuhan fan .... the medium IS the message.

[bressler3south]

Marshal Dillon?!?!?!?!?!?

[RhodeIslandRams]

Rhody74 with a media reference...gotta love that! First learned that in Jor 210 at URI in 1975

[rodfromcranston]

OK, gang. I was told by a very reliable source, that this was just a joke
between Aaman and coach Murray.
Nothing more.26 posts for naught.

[EasyEdBrown]

I bet you saw it on Twitter.

[rodfromcranston]

Bet it was tweeted to my account.

[Ben]

What would Belichick do?

[rodfromcranston]

Luke Murray
@L_Murr

@RodfromCranston Just joking with Mike. I think our guys have a good handle on the medium.

01:05 AM - 28 Aug 13

[ramfan85]

When I was in school the big thing was to keep us from drinking during the season. Now, it's keeping athletes from tweeting. The world has changed.

[Ramtastico]

My wife is banning me from facebook AND twitter. She does not believe I really have that many female model friends from FL and CA.

[bressler3south]

You sure know how to live, Ramtastico!!!!!!!!!!! And, dangerously, at that!!!!!!
P.S. Maybe you could get back your Twitter and Facebook accounts from your wife if you could prove to her that you had boring female model friends from South Dakota or Wyoming!!!!!

[Rhody72]

Sounds as though Luke understands that it is the message and NOT the medium in this case.