I humbly request that we as fans take a breath before posting public comments about our players by name, obvious reference or about the whole team. Keep in mind that these guys are human beings and deserve a level of respect, at a minimum, commensurate with that. We are their fans so you would think they would get a little better than that from us. They work extremely hard and very long hours to represent us and our school. We should be their biggest supporters. We should not be the ones turning on them and, tearing they down and causing them emotional harm.
As an aside, I feel coaches are definitely fair game for harsher criticism for obvious reasons (paid, adults, etc.) but, they are human too so, it doesn’t have to be mean. As an aside, I think talking about firing them right now is moot and a waste of all our time because it isn’t going to happen. About 1.5 to 2 years before his contract expires is when that discussion has any sort of meaning.
I am not calling anyone in particular out and this isn’t just in response to the SLU game so I ask that you don’t take these quotes to search for them and make direct references to them to create further animosity in our fanbase. I pulled them anonymously for a reason. I don’t want anyone to stop posting because of this. We need as many fans in this community as possible. I am just asking if we can be a little nicer when posting about our players. I was a little surprised (well not really) that we were talking that SLU would be a statement win at points before and during the game, and then losing to them by 1 point makes us “suck". That is as bi-polar as it gets.
Keeping that in mind, here are descriptions of our players that have been posted since our SLU loss:
"We don't have good enough players"
Player X "was horrible”
We have “no bench”
“I don’t believe they are any better than that”
“We suck”
Player x "shit his pants”
“This team ... isn’t even really close to good”
Except for player X “…the rest of the team is desperate to lose”
“Player X is missing half of his game”
“This team isn’t destined to do anything”
This team is “uninspiring”
“This team will be easily forgettable"
Does this sound like the supporters of a group of young adults? Isn’t that one of the reasons we follow college basketball (possibly instead of the NBA), to be supporters of young adults and all that entails? They aren’t the best of the best (yet) so it isn’t for that reason.
Trust me, the players know when they haven’t played well. They can feel it immediately. The coaches will likely tell them immediately or almost immediately during the game. They are going to get to watch it over and over again in film review. They don’t need you to publicly point it out in the most hateful way possible. And remember that at times, it may not even be the players fault, it may be the game plan they have been instructed to play. Maybe, just maybe, give them the benefit of the doubt. Why does it always have to be that they suck. Why can’t it be that their defender just got the better of them, or that the guy they defended just played really well that game.
They view our fanbase as their extended families. Many of them are far away from home and immediate family. For some of them this is the first time in that situation. While most of them are legally adults, some of them are as young as 17/18 years old up to 24 and that is not a fully formed adult in my experience with most people of those ages. Hell, I am still growing up and I hope to finish before I die. Keep in mind that I know for a fact that some of them are dealing with: girlfriend problems, problems with a child, family problems, mental health issues, family medical issues, personal medical scares and more. I have been a little vague on purpose and won’t go into more details, because I hope I haven't already said more than I should, so don’t bother asking me for specifics and please don’t try digging into any of these, especially, publicly.
I suggest before posting publicly about one of our players (here, twitter, or any public forum) that you pretend that you are posting about one of your friends. While we will provide constructive criticism of our friends at times, we don’t, typically, use negative adjectives when doing so. I suggest that if you need to vent about a player's poor play or need to throw insulting adjectives around about them or the team’s play, that maybe you do that in a private venue (in person conversation with friends, text a friend, private message, or phone a friend so it isn’t in writing to be quoted publicly somewhere). I am in my 50s and I don’t know that I could handle people watching everything I do at work and publicly airing their every criticism of how I do my job in a mean manner, especially those people that are supposed to be my supporters.
I am not asking people to avoid discussing the games and where we need to improve or situations where a player made a mistake. I am just suggesting that we just try to not be mean and offensive about it.
Feel free to rip me to shreds, though, if you need to do that to someone.
As an aside, I feel coaches are definitely fair game for harsher criticism for obvious reasons (paid, adults, etc.) but, they are human too so, it doesn’t have to be mean. As an aside, I think talking about firing them right now is moot and a waste of all our time because it isn’t going to happen. About 1.5 to 2 years before his contract expires is when that discussion has any sort of meaning.
I am not calling anyone in particular out and this isn’t just in response to the SLU game so I ask that you don’t take these quotes to search for them and make direct references to them to create further animosity in our fanbase. I pulled them anonymously for a reason. I don’t want anyone to stop posting because of this. We need as many fans in this community as possible. I am just asking if we can be a little nicer when posting about our players. I was a little surprised (well not really) that we were talking that SLU would be a statement win at points before and during the game, and then losing to them by 1 point makes us “suck". That is as bi-polar as it gets.
Keeping that in mind, here are descriptions of our players that have been posted since our SLU loss:
"We don't have good enough players"
Player X "was horrible”
We have “no bench”
“I don’t believe they are any better than that”
“We suck”
Player x "shit his pants”
“This team ... isn’t even really close to good”
Except for player X “…the rest of the team is desperate to lose”
“Player X is missing half of his game”
“This team isn’t destined to do anything”
This team is “uninspiring”
“This team will be easily forgettable"
Does this sound like the supporters of a group of young adults? Isn’t that one of the reasons we follow college basketball (possibly instead of the NBA), to be supporters of young adults and all that entails? They aren’t the best of the best (yet) so it isn’t for that reason.
Trust me, the players know when they haven’t played well. They can feel it immediately. The coaches will likely tell them immediately or almost immediately during the game. They are going to get to watch it over and over again in film review. They don’t need you to publicly point it out in the most hateful way possible. And remember that at times, it may not even be the players fault, it may be the game plan they have been instructed to play. Maybe, just maybe, give them the benefit of the doubt. Why does it always have to be that they suck. Why can’t it be that their defender just got the better of them, or that the guy they defended just played really well that game.
They view our fanbase as their extended families. Many of them are far away from home and immediate family. For some of them this is the first time in that situation. While most of them are legally adults, some of them are as young as 17/18 years old up to 24 and that is not a fully formed adult in my experience with most people of those ages. Hell, I am still growing up and I hope to finish before I die. Keep in mind that I know for a fact that some of them are dealing with: girlfriend problems, problems with a child, family problems, mental health issues, family medical issues, personal medical scares and more. I have been a little vague on purpose and won’t go into more details, because I hope I haven't already said more than I should, so don’t bother asking me for specifics and please don’t try digging into any of these, especially, publicly.
I suggest before posting publicly about one of our players (here, twitter, or any public forum) that you pretend that you are posting about one of your friends. While we will provide constructive criticism of our friends at times, we don’t, typically, use negative adjectives when doing so. I suggest that if you need to vent about a player's poor play or need to throw insulting adjectives around about them or the team’s play, that maybe you do that in a private venue (in person conversation with friends, text a friend, private message, or phone a friend so it isn’t in writing to be quoted publicly somewhere). I am in my 50s and I don’t know that I could handle people watching everything I do at work and publicly airing their every criticism of how I do my job in a mean manner, especially those people that are supposed to be my supporters.
I am not asking people to avoid discussing the games and where we need to improve or situations where a player made a mistake. I am just suggesting that we just try to not be mean and offensive about it.
Feel free to rip me to shreds, though, if you need to do that to someone.
