Virgin Islands, August 2019, exhibition trip

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InnervisionsUMASS
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Re: Virgin Islands, August 2019, exhibition trip

Post by InnervisionsUMASS » Thu Aug 22, 2019 7:45 am

UMassfan_19 wrote: Wed Aug 21, 2019 6:20 pm

Probably because they didn't even know a local paper would be covering it. Perhaps I'm the dumb one but it was pretty clear to me the entire time that they were not going to provide highlights and an update would come after the game. It was also clear to me that this wasn't a black out as all the talk was from the perspective of how the department was going to handle it. In addition the games are open to the public anyone could have went to these games. The entire black out was a false narrative born from what I see as a desire to be mad at something. When in reality if one read the information provided by bamford and reported by walfish the picture was crystal clear

Yeah, you're not getting it. See the post above yours. Thanks and have a good day.
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Re: Virgin Islands, August 2019, exhibition trip

Post by eldonabe » Thu Aug 22, 2019 8:19 am

NilesGold wrote: Wed Aug 21, 2019 10:04 pm
eldonabe wrote: Wed Aug 21, 2019 8:06 am
LS71 wrote: Wed Aug 21, 2019 7:40 am Seems odd that Bamford wouldn’t ensure consistency as to how these trips were handed media wise.

I highly doubt RB made that decision in a vacuum. Clearly, they want to keep things under wraps for now - for whatever reason. I believe they call that "controlling the narrative".

There are no rules that say they HAVE TO share any of this and they are choosing not to, so at the very least controlling the narrative of what they want shared.


You can take this two ways I suppose... but if it were me (in MM's shoes), I think I would really like to see what is going on against other competition besides scrimmages among my own players. These kids all live on the social media and I am sure they read all of the stuff here as well as other places, so you DO NOT need a bunch of "message board coaches" spewing shit that may affect your players negatively.

There will be plenty of other opportunities before Game 1 to see these boys in action and get scouting reports. I am beyond curious about what is going to happen this season, but I can wait another month for info.
I think I'm in agreement with Eldon here, shocking I know. I don't quite understand the outrage/frustration that some people seem to have over the lack of media coverage of this trip. The team has 7 freshmen, only 8 guys are playing on the trip (6 of them freshmen), and is totally revamping their defense... maybe they don't want to risk showing that the team is a major work in progress, or maybe they don't want to show anything that opponents can use to scout against them. It's not like the team has been in a communications blackout all summer, McCall and UMass BB has been very visible on social media. I've never been to the The Court Club event before this year, but McCall didn't seem to have too much of an issue communicating there.

It wouldn't surprise me if McCall isn't the most outgoing or personable guy, but it's not like he's a recluse. I could give two shits about coverage of this trip if he has this team playing well for the games that count.

Its like the one time when IV and I agreed on something :lol: :lol: :lol:


As far as I can tell by the general temperature of the room, many of you are down on MM and looking for anything to focus on here that can disparage him further. It's like you all want to anoint Bergeron into the position.... It is subliminal in many cases, and maybe I am wrong, but that is the vibe I get from many here.


As for MM, I have had a few interactions with him and one close friend of mine has played a couple rounds of golf with him. He actually is very personable and extremely articulate when talking hoops. He has said straight out that the hardest part of this job is this social media BS, and that many of his peers have vented the same frustrations. It is impossible to to stop, and he struggles with how to mitigate it as much as possible.

These freshmen come in here and have all been metaphorically "blown" by everybody under the sun on social media... they expect that to continue but the harsh reality is that people suck and all of the praise dries up very fast. At that age, it can be a huge culture shock when you go from the penthouse to the outhouse (so to speak).


Put the pitchforks away and let this guy get this team prepared. We will all get more information about the entire program soon enough, we will all get to see and hear scrimmage and practice updates soon enough.

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Re: Virgin Islands, August 2019, exhibition trip

Post by LS71 » Thu Aug 22, 2019 8:40 am

I have no pitchfork to put away.

I'm not interested in castigating MM or RB.

I'm thinking more like 78 and TheOFFSeason posted, it's about marketing the program to stimulate interest. There are tickets to sell!

If I'm the AD and my men's coach isn't a guy like Calipari, who loves to be in front of the camera/microphone etc., I work with him to develop a marketing strategy that works with that. A little creativity is all that's needed.

Still gotta put fannies in the seats to generate revenue for the program and fill the Bill!
"Win without boasting, lose without crying." -- Julius Erving

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Re: Virgin Islands, August 2019, exhibition trip

Post by InnervisionsUMASS » Thu Aug 22, 2019 8:47 am

eldonabe wrote: Thu Aug 22, 2019 8:19 am As far as I can tell by the general temperature of the room, many of you are down on MM and looking for anything to focus on here that can disparage him further.


I'm down on the weird stance the department has taken on this. Whether that's from McCall, from the Department/Bamford, or both, I don't know.


McCall is going into year 3 essentially the same way he went into years 1 and 2... with a shitshow that continues to stem from the DK firing/Kelsey debacle. I'm not giving up on the guy, nor should anyone else, especially considering we may have a Chaz-type transformative player like Mitchell on the roster.
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Re: Virgin Islands, August 2019, exhibition trip

Post by UMassfan_19 » Thu Aug 22, 2019 8:50 am

InnervisionsUMASS wrote: Thu Aug 22, 2019 7:45 am
UMassfan_19 wrote: Wed Aug 21, 2019 6:20 pm

Probably because they didn't even know a local paper would be covering it. Perhaps I'm the dumb one but it was pretty clear to me the entire time that they were not going to provide highlights and an update would come after the game. It was also clear to me that this wasn't a black out as all the talk was from the perspective of how the department was going to handle it. In addition the games are open to the public anyone could have went to these games. The entire black out was a false narrative born from what I see as a desire to be mad at something. When in reality if one read the information provided by bamford and reported by walfish the picture was crystal clear

Yeah, you're not getting it. See the post above yours. Thanks and have a good day.
Yeah I did and I think it's misguided and wrong

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Re: Virgin Islands, August 2019, exhibition trip

Post by Floyd » Thu Aug 22, 2019 8:52 am

Not that I want to get into this shitfest but, "pitchforks and outrage" are a little more extreme than some fans who'd like to see or hear about a revamped team and staff in their first public appearance, no? Nobody is staying home from work to watch a preseason scrimmage. Nobody is disecting who is on the floor or what they're running. People just want to see the new team. I don't see the big deal with some online tape, highlights, or commentary, but if they don't want people to see any, that's fine. But don't get down on people who actually follow your program, buy tickets, and have true passion for your team and have interest. And if you don't like the attention, get used to it, its part of the big check. Something to remember when they're looking for donations, season tix renewals, and fans at games, or the frequent phone calls to give, give, give.
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Re: Virgin Islands, August 2019, exhibition trip

Post by TheInsider » Thu Aug 22, 2019 9:21 am

I'm not sure how wanting to get some info and scores for the team you follow turned into "pitchforks" for the coach and AD. I have no ill-will towards MM.. I want him to succeed.. and outside the fact that RB has fired some good people (non-coaches) and performed some nepotism by bringing in his people (well that and the powder blue Rhode Island colors he always seems to wear) I have no issue with him. Its not unrealistic for fans to want a little game info from a pre-season trip. They could have dripped out the basics and people would have been happy.

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Re: Virgin Islands, August 2019, exhibition trip

Post by Jackson96 » Thu Aug 22, 2019 9:58 am

eldonabe wrote: Thu Aug 22, 2019 8:19 am These freshmen come in here and have all been metaphorically "blown" by everybody under the sun on social media... they expect that to continue but the harsh reality is that people suck and all of the praise dries up very fast. At that age, it can be a huge culture shock when you go from the penthouse to the outhouse (so to speak).
Only metaphorically?

Puts basketball away. There goes that plan.
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Re: Virgin Islands, August 2019, exhibition trip

Post by NilesGold » Thu Aug 22, 2019 10:30 am

TheInsider wrote: Thu Aug 22, 2019 9:21 am and outside the fact that RB has fired some good people (non-coaches) and performed some nepotism by bringing in his people (well that and the powder blue Rhode Island colors he always seems to wear) I have no issue with him.
If you're going to throw that out there you need to offer specifics to support it.

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Re: Virgin Islands, August 2019, exhibition trip

Post by 69MG » Thu Aug 22, 2019 10:49 am

I'm not going to try to psychoanalyze why the school is not providing info and frankly I don't care why as long as we get as much as we did from the local newspaper. I'm more interested in results than spin.

Speaking of results, does anyone realize that we are only returning 29.4 points a game (not counting KTM who I don't think will play much if at all)? I expect all 5 of the returning players to increase their scoring, but how much more can we expect? That puts a lot on the freshmen to get us up to 75 points a game. Just putting this out there to get us back to basketball instead of pitchforks. :lol:

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Re: Virgin Islands, August 2019, exhibition trip

Post by TheOFFSeason » Thu Aug 22, 2019 10:56 am

Floyd wrote: Thu Aug 22, 2019 8:52 am Not that I want to get into this shitfest but, "pitchforks and outrage" are a little more extreme than some fans who'd like to see or hear about a revamped team and staff in their first public appearance, no? Nobody is staying home from work to watch a preseason scrimmage. Nobody is disecting who is on the floor or what they're running. People just want to see the new team. I don't see the big deal with some online tape, highlights, or commentary, but if they don't want people to see any, that's fine. But don't get down on people who actually follow your program, buy tickets, and have true passion for your team and have interest. And if you don't like the attention, get used to it, its part of the big check. Something to remember when they're looking for donations, season tix renewals, and fans at games, or the frequent phone calls to give, give, give.
In 2019 just about every team has some access, if not full streamed games, to their overseas trip. No one is hiding plays or creating a culture by blacking out their whole trip.
Bamford made a reply like ‘let’s be honest, winning puts fans in the seats’. I will not argue against that being a big part of it but if you look at this year’s team you cannot expect a lot of winning, so is he ok with low attendance this year and he will wait to they win 20+ to see the stands get busier? I would not think this is acceptable and neither was his response.
Not everybody is Calipari but there are many things you can copy that he did without having his personality. He took his team to practice at schools in different communities his first 2 years so that people could get to know him, the team and create some connection and when the team made the NIT in the second year the tickets to the Cage were getting hard to come by.
McCall is the opposite...he doesn’t want anyone around and the business aspect of UMass basketball suffers. Bamford should see this differently but his comments say otherwise.

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Re: Virgin Islands, August 2019, exhibition trip

Post by Floyd » Thu Aug 22, 2019 11:17 am

69, from everything we've heard, Tre Mitchell will be a huge factor on this team. Good passer, scorer, rebounder, and teamate. Haven't had that package in a big for awhile. We've heard he makes everyone else better too, and that will change this team quite a bit. Those attributes create balance, and we've got talent on this team that will make up that offense. All for one, one for all.

OFFSeason is exactly right. Creating the excitement is huge to bring in fans. Use any chance you have to help create that.
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Re: Virgin Islands, August 2019, exhibition trip

Post by 69MG » Thu Aug 22, 2019 12:08 pm

Floyd wrote: Thu Aug 22, 2019 11:17 am
OFFSeason is exactly right. Creating the excitement is huge to bring in fans. Use any chance you have to help create that.
100% agree. Cal and DK were great at promoting the team and generating interest. That has been lacking under the current regime. Maybe because DK was from Springfield, but more than once he held events open to the public at the Basketball Hall of Fame. He had dunk contests, 3 point contests, autograph sessions, etc. Maybe there's time to do this in various venues across the state during Sept.

From my brief interaction with the players, they are very personable and would create new fans if people got a chance to meet them.

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Re: Virgin Islands, August 2019, exhibition trip

Post by JoleonLescottsHair » Thu Aug 22, 2019 12:23 pm

NilesGold wrote: Thu Aug 22, 2019 6:03 am
78 wrote: Wed Aug 21, 2019 10:31 pm
MJatUM wrote: Wed Aug 21, 2019 3:11 pm The fan-interaction-via-Twitter skill is ranked about 978427892384682347th on my list of what I'm looking for in a coach.
It's called marketing the program to generate fan interest. And when the program sucks, that's a key part of the job. I didn't mention Twitter in my post, but whatever. It's just amazing how piss poor men's basketball is marketed versus the other sports I mentioned.
FWIW, McCall and UMass MBB in total has been much more active on social media than his predecessor were. They've done a lot of marketing this Summer alone.
It doesn't matter. That reality goes against what some here appear to need. People 'deserve to know' and/or want their opinions of MM confirmed. That about covers it. This is perhaps the dumbest thread ever. Non issue turned into silly entitled rants.

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Re: Virgin Islands, August 2019, exhibition trip

Post by TheInsider » Thu Aug 22, 2019 12:36 pm

No one "deserves to know". Its just strange to shut out a fan base when you revamp your team and staff.. people are hungry for info because they have an interest in the team.. shutting them out may diminish their interest. It seems like marketing 101.. shit I don't know if this level of knowledge even rises to a 100 level course..

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