MU Basketball Program

[Viper]

4ever and his shtick is really getting old here.

And honestly a lot of this boomer schtick is. 18-22 Year old kids can be more than just athletes. Their stance on politics have zero impact on the results on the court.

Happy to expound more if anyone cares to disagree but the attitude from this board toward a great group of kids (OUTSIDE OF BASKETBALL) is disgusting.

Comment away on basektball. Outside of that, STFU.

ah, the bravado behind the keyboard.

[willie warrior]

Difficult to see that MU is now at the bottom rung of BEast, near DePaul who kicked our ass. Ah yes, the state of MU basketball under the Duke wunderkind

[warriors141]

When players engage with fans on twitter you know it is bad. "Don't like it, don't watch" yepI I have taken that advice, as are more and more fans. I have zero rooting interest in the coaches, players, or anyone involved in the program right now.

Not sure I know of any other athletic team telling its own fans not to watch, pretty foolish, but this is where we are at

[mu_hilltopper]

MUBB should absolutely stop posting on social media.    At this point, there is zero upside, tons of down.

[GoldenWarrior11]

MUBB should absolutely stop posting on social media.    At this point, there is zero upside, tons of down.

The program account or the players?  Silencing the program out of fear what the response will be makes the situation worse IMO.  Scholl just needs to tell the coaches and players not to respond to angry or frustrated fans.  You can't really do anything about a parent doing that.

Again, it will get worse in the next few weeks before it gets better. Everybody just needs to brace for it.

[cheebs09]

MUBB should absolutely stop posting on social media.    At this point, there is zero upside, tons of down.

I have enjoyed some of the posts that just say “Final.” And then have the graphic. They used to at least post a little blurb about the game.

I don’t understand MU tagging players. Heck, the coach has deleted his Twitter and in the past MU has disabled comments. It doesn’t take much to realize where the comments are going to go.

[The Hippie Satan of Hyperbole]

Did you ever stop to think that the players and the coaches don’t give a flying unnatural carnal knowledge what you and I and all the other entitled POS fans think?  Probably can’t wrap your head around that can you? 

I mean, it kinda seems like they do care.

[21Jumpstreet]

Why is it thin skinned or some sort of negative that they care? Unless we are well disciplined Stoics or Buddhists, we all care, react emotionally, and are selfish. Why does Theo have to put up with our frustration but we can’t accept his? Yeah, posting on social media after a hard fought loss in response to a fan is likely never going to end well, but it is clearly understandable. If we don’t like it, we don’t have to support MU. Picking this social media reaction as a hill to die on is pretty thin skinned. That’s fine, of course, but call it what it is. The choice to weaponize this social media post against Theo, the players, is worth a little soul searching. The season has sucked, we don’t have to suck, too.

[brewcity77]

The point is Marquette shouldn't be deliberately putting them in the position to have to defend themselves from distraught fans. It's bad enough when we have DJ Newbill's coach, John Dawson's dad, or other family members coming on this site to get into spats with fans, the program itself shouldn't be creating or encouraging those interactions.

[The Hippie Satan of Hyperbole]

The problem was the fan responded to the official MU Twitter account.  Then Theo went after the fan.  And then when the fan tried to scale it back, DJ's mom jumped in.

I mean sure the fan shouldn't have said what he said.  It was an emotional response to a frustrating time no doubt.  But Theo should have stayed out of it...and DJ's mom piling on when the OP was trying to scale back was really bad. 

[MuggsyB]

The program account or the players?  Silencing the program out of fear what the response will be makes the situation worse IMO.  Scholl just needs to tell the coaches and players not to respond to angry or frustrated fans.  You can't really do anything about a parent doing that.

Again, it will get worse in the next few weeks before it gets better. Everybody just needs to brace for it.

This is a scary thought.  Suggestions?  How are you going to "brace" for something worse than yesterday and last  Wed vs Nova?  Are you saying we will plummet to further depths?  I thought this was rock bottom?  I will have to figure out how to prepare.

[panda]

The problem was the fan responded to the official MU Twitter account.  Then Theo went after the fan.  And then when the fan tried to scale it back, DJ's mom jumped in.

I mean sure the fan shouldn't have said what he said.  It was an emotional response to a frustrating time no doubt.  But Theo should have stayed out of it...and DJ's mom piling on when the OP was trying to scale back was really bad.

It was a rather innocuous comment too, comparatively speaking.

[21Jumpstreet]

The point is Marquette shouldn't be deliberately putting them in the position to have to defend themselves from distraught fans. It's bad enough when we have DJ Newbill's coach, John Dawson's dad, or other family members coming on this site to get into spats with fans, the program itself shouldn't be creating or encouraging those interactions.

Marquette isn’t putting the players in a position to defend themselves, the fans are, and yeah maybe some player parents, too. I think we want the program to encourage and create interactions with the program and players. We love the feeling of being on the inside, in the know, close to the players, able to attend super secret stakeholder practices. That’s a reason why we love MU basketball. What should happen is fans should have more respect and dignity. Challenge, yes, disrespect, no. Question defensive scheme, yes. Challenge heart, no. This isn’t on Theo.

[NolongerWarriors]

I don't know if other players do this since I don't follow any, but I saw Theo retweeted some of his individual highlights from the loss vs SH.  I can understand doing that if you win the game, but it looks a bit "me first" when the team loses the game and the season is a train wreck.

[GoldenWarrior11]

This is a scary thought.  Suggestions?  How are you going to "brace" for something worse than yesterday and last  Wed vs Nova?  Are you saying we will plummet to further depths?  I thought this was rock bottom?  I will have to figure out how to prepare.

Well, we can still lose out.  We could still lose to DePaul again.  We can lose in the Wednesday game at the BET.  Each of those, separately, would cause frustrations and anger to spike, but all three? 

Look, after the St. John's loss (and that was after the DePaul and Providence losses), we were going to be underdogs in nearly all of the remaining games (we were favorites at home vs. Butler).  The collapsing trajectory after St. John's was very real and a strong possibility.  With how we have been playing and our continued struggles against conference competition, we very much need to play both a great 40 minutes of basketball coupled with our opponents playing below their standards just to win games (I actually was surprised we forced Seton Hall to devalue the basketball as much as we regularly do - but we aren't a strong outside shooting team, so unless John AND Garcia take over, it is still hard to do enough to win).

[21Jumpstreet]

I don't know if other players do this since I don't follow any, but I saw Theo retweeted some of his individual highlights from the loss vs SH.  I can understand doing that if you win the game, but it looks a bit "me first" when the team loses the game and the season is a train wreck.

Of course personal social media accounts are selfish, but that doesn’t make them “me first” in the way I think you are implying. It’s for his family, friends, followers, memories, and yeah maybe a little STFU to those that question his heart. Even in a terrible latter half of the season, we have had some good moments, individually and collectively. Good on ya Theo.

[MU82]

Marquette isn’t putting the players in a position to defend themselves, the fans are, and yeah maybe some player parents, too. I think we want the program to encourage and create interactions with the program and players. We love the feeling of being on the inside, in the know, close to the players, able to attend super secret stakeholder practices. That’s a reason why we love MU basketball. What should happen is fans should have more respect and dignity. Challenge, yes, disrespect, no. Question defensive scheme, yes. Challenge heart, no. This isn’t on Theo.

I really appreciate your tone and your optimism, and as I said earlier in this stream I am on Theo's side.

However, players simply can't win in this situation. There is zero potential upside for them and 100% potential downside.

I agree with what brew and Sultan have said this morning. Players should not be put in a position to have to defend themselves. There are ways of limiting negative interactions without shutting down social media, and Marquette should take advantage of those.

[brewcity77]

Marquette isn’t putting the players in a position to defend themselves, the fans are, and yeah maybe some player parents, too.

Yes they are. It's simple, don't tag the players. It's unnecessary & shouldn't have happened. And Marquette is aware, so I'll be interested to see how they handle it going forward.

[NolongerWarriors]

I really appreciate your tone and your optimism, and as I said earlier in this stream I am on Theo's side.

However, players simply can't win in this situation. There is zero potential upside for them and 100% potential downside.

I agree with what brew and Sultan have said this morning. Players should not be put in a position to have to defend themselves. There are ways of limiting negative interactions without shutting down social media, and Marquette should take advantage of those.

But Theo wasn't defending himself.  The initial tweet wasn't directed at him, it was at the official MU account.  Theo sought out the confrontation.  And the OP wasn't attacking any player specifically or even generally.  Could not have been more gentle as far as "sports talk" goes on twitter.  And the guy (kind of cowardly, imo) walks back his remark, then Carton's mom gangs up on him, lol?  The entire MU bball program is a dumpster fire.

[Lennys Tap]

Fans are frustrated. So are players, coaches and parents. All understandable. But here’s the thing - telling a fan (“respectfully”, lol) to STFU on the heels of other demands he’s made to the Marquette faithful was immature at best. But that’s Twitter...

[The Hippie Satan of Hyperbole]

But Theo wasn't defending himself.  The initial tweet wasn't directed at him, it was at the official MU account.  Theo sought out the confrontation.  And the OP wasn't attacking any player specifically or even generally.  Could not have been more gentle as far as "sports talk" goes on twitter.  And the guy (kind of cowardly, imo) walks back his remark, then Carton's mom gangs up on him, lol?  The entire MU bball program is a dumpster fire.

Theo was tagged on the response because MU tagged him in the highlights.  So yes, MU put him in a position where he felt he needed to defend himself.  But IMO he shouldn't have engaged.  And DJ's mom's response was much worse.

[MU82]

Fans are frustrated. So are players, coaches and parents. All understandable. But here’s the thing - telling a fan (“respectfully”, lol) to STFU on the heels of other demands he’s made to the Marquette faithful was immature at best. But that’s Twitter...

This.

Theo was tagged on the response because MU tagged him in the highlights.  So yes, MU put him in a position where he felt he needed to defend himself.  But IMO he shouldn't have engaged.  And DJ's mom's response was much worse.

And this.

Players and parents can't win in these situations.

[GoldenWarrior11]

There is not a college athletics program, or a basketball program, social media account in the country that avoids publishing or updating team news/results/highlights out of fear of negative responses from fans or alumni.  Zero.  Requesting our MUBB social media to not "tag" players in postgame results declare that our program (our coaches, our players, our families) simply cannot be mature enough to handle such an audience or vehicle for communication.  Should the school eject fans that boo at home games too?  (The obvious answer is no as well). 

There is zero consequence to a fan on social media to criticizing a player or coach on social media.  None.  However, players can be suspended, disciplined and/or kicked off team for what they post and what they say to these fans on social media.  It is what it is.  Marquette cannot change that, the athletic department cannot change that and our basketball program cannot change that. 

Our players (and parents) need to be better.  Period.  None of them will change those opinions of fans.  They need to handle it better. 

[shoothoops]

The problem with social media here is whoever is running the @MarquetteMBB account. Everyone knows the program is a dumpster fire and yet they continue to tag the players in their posts. The reason Theo & Jen Carton were alerted to the responses was because Marquette's own social media manager tagged those accounts, which meant every response to the original tweet would also tag them unless the user went out of their way to remove those tags. Marquette should be smarter than that as they are opening up their players to abuse which leads to these kinds of interactions that make everyone involved look bad. Shame on Marquette for not being smarter than that.

I agree with this.

I don't really see the fuss or big deal with regards to Theo etc ..a college kid with a tweet he or she would like back, that isn't ideal, but not exactly extreme either.

A better strategy would be for MU Social Media to read the room better and not tag players on tweets. And of course for it would be better for players to have a better awareness. But this twitter stuff, unless it gets very extreme in some way, is pretty far down my list of concerns and priorities. Is this really any different than fans etc ..saying something to a player at a game, on the street, at a bar or party? Sure it's captured in writing. But the content here from Theo for example didn't register too high on my big deal scale. I'm a bit surprised and taken aback by some of the response.

[jesmu84]

Folks on this board: "we love Al cause he was a badass who didn't take crap from anyone and who didn't back down in any situation. He said what he wanted"

Same folks: "I can't believe Theo said something insulting. That's such a bad look for a MU rep"