Rodney Hood: Lonely

[JasonEvans]

If you have not read the Chronicle's article with Rodney Hood about his frustration with NCAA rules that prohibit him from traveling with the team then you are missing something.

Where he watches, though, varies. Because there is no cable in the dorm rooms, he said he often watches with some of the managers in the locker room and uses halftime as an opportunity to get in a quick workout.

Sometimes the quiet-mannered Hood likes to go to the Buffalo Wild Wings near Chapel Hill because he is less of a celebrity there, farther away from Duke.

The people who work at Buffalo Wild Wings know him, he said, but help him keep a low profile in contrast to his popularity on the Duke campus.

-Jason "I suspect Wild Wings will have more folks than usual next away game, looking for the tall guy in the corner trying to go unnoticed" Evans

[Lord Ash]

I'm sorry... the dorm rooms don't have cable? What the heck is that? How can they not have cable? Just... those guys didn't get cable? Who doesn't have cable? I am blown away by that.

Oh, and interesting article

[MCFinARL]

If you have not read the Chronicle's article with Rodney Hood about his frustration with NCAA rules that prohibit him from traveling with the team then you are missing something.



-Jason "I suspect Wild Wings will have more folks than usual next away game, looking for the tall guy in the corner trying to go unnoticed" Evans

Thanks for sharing--that is a bittersweet story, and Hood sounds like a good guy. I note the NCAA response to questions about the rule--along the lines of "imagine if football programs had to pay for all ineligible transfers to attend away games"--but the rule could allow them to play without requiring it, no? If that would give bigger budget programs an advantage in recruiting transfers, well, those programs already have recruiting advantages. Or for that matter, they could make the rule for football different than for other sports.

One question--I thought my daughter had cable TV in Edens a few years ago. Or was that just some sort of internal school network?

[Bluedog]

Thanks for the link Jason. A good read and a rule that does seem a bit odd, much like the fact that Seth Curry wasn't allowed to get an NCAA Championship ring in 2010 even if he paid for it himself. Makes no sense. Although I can understand it being at the school's discretion as paying for additional traveling members in a sport like football (as cited) can be quite expensive. So perhaps the NCAA has the rule as they don't want certain institutions to have an advantage on gaining transfer students if they can afford the extra traveling costs or not...just trying to think of some rationale behind it.

On another note:

There’s no TV in the Duke dorm rooms [...] Because there is no cable in the dorm rooms.

Did they change the cable options at Duke or something? When I was there (not that long ago...), you had to pay for a TV/cable in your own room, but it was an option. In addition, every single dorm common room had cable, which is often where I'd go to watch the games since I didn't pay for cable in my room. Is there no longer cable in dorms at all? That seems hard to believe. I can understand if Rodney doesn't really want to watch it in the common room with a bunch of other students, though.

I'm definitely looking forward to watching Rodney next year though - seems like we got a good one!

Edit: I see other people beat me to the cable questioning.

[Kedsy]

...much like the fact that Seth Curry wasn't allowed to get an NCAA Championship ring in 2010 even if he paid for it himself.

Are you sure about this? I thought I read that Seth does have a championship ring, but he did have to pay for it himself. It's a bit hazy and I don't have a link, so I suppose it's possible it was all a dream.

[Bluedog]

Are you sure about this? I thought I read that Seth does have a championship ring, but he did have to pay for it himself. It's a bit hazy and I don't have a link, so I suppose it's possible it was all a dream.

Yep, there was a thread about it on this site:
http://www.dukebasketballreport.com/...mpionship-Ring

And during the next year's Countdown to Craziness, Seth was unable to participate in the festivities surrounding it and Coach K wasn't too pleased about it:

"One of the tragic things about our NCAA rules is what happened tonight where Seth Curry could not get a ring or watch," Krzyzewski said. "It's just totally, totally wrong that a kid who's on scholarship last year and participated in every practice [couldn't get a ring]."

Krzyzewski: "Tonight ... I only felt sad about one thing and that was [Curry not getting a ring]. That is totally, totally wrong, totally wrong, because he's a scholarship player. It's just horrible. And there's no way of getting around it. You can't even buy it.."
http://www.aolnews.com/2010/10/16/se...pionship-ring/

[Dev11]

The university recently got rid of cable service in dorm rooms because not enough students were paying for it, and as of 3 years ago, it was really expensive for whatever reason. They still have cable in the common rooms.

That said, there are plenty of places on campus to watch cable. It seems weird that he feels like he needs to go to a bar to see the game, although I suppose if he's a quiet dude who doesn't want to be bothered it makes sense.

[devil84]

That said, there are plenty of places on campus to watch cable. It seems weird that he feels like he needs to go to a bar to see the game, although I suppose if he's a quiet dude who doesn't want to be bothered it makes sense.

It's particularly difficult to watch with a bunch of Duke students who watch the game quite differently as fans than a team member would. Note that the managers that didn't travel are also watching in the locker room, instead of in the commons rooms. Could you sit next to a team member and not ask when Ryan's foot is going to get better, why is Hairston playing and not Murphy, and what's up with Mason's free throws? The locker room or a bar where nobody knows who you are sounds like a much better alternative.

[uh_no]

I'm sorry... the dorm rooms don't have cable? What the heck is that? How can they not have cable? Just... those guys didn't get cable? Who doesn't have cable? I am blown away by that.

Oh, and interesting article

the university refuses to provide cable service...it's awful and makes me sad that something that was such a huge part of my undegraduate experience (hanging in someone's room watching sports) is no longer a possibility.

as petty as it sounds, watching sports on TV is something that i enjoy very much, and the lack of the ability to do that may have swayed my matriculation decision.

[Bluedog]

the university refuses to provide cable service...it's awful and makes me sad that something that was such a huge part of my undegraduate experience (hanging in someone's room watching sports) is no longer a possibility.

as petty as it sounds, watching sports on TV is something that i enjoy very much, and the lack of the ability to do that may have swayed my matriculation decision.

Well, I'm sure people use WatchESPN (relying on a parent's or friend's login...) and utilize the HDMI hookup from their laptop to the TV to watch sports. And with Duke's internet speed, buffering shouldn't be a problem, although I'll admit the quality isn't as good as an HDTV. I never shelled out the money for cable myself while at Duke and most people I know didn't either, but certainly knew of those that did. With Hulu and everything else that contains online streaming, paying for cable while in college is becoming increasingly rarer, I'd imagine.

[-jk]

Youngsters: we didn't have any cable except in the commons room. Al Gore hadn't invented the Internet, yet, either. We did have phones, though - on a party line so we shared with another room.

Now, get off my lawn!

-jk

[ChillinDuke]

the university refuses to provide cable service...it's awful and makes me sad that something that was such a huge part of my undegraduate experience (hanging in someone's room watching sports) is no longer a possibility.

as petty as it sounds, watching sports on TV is something that i enjoy very much, and the lack of the ability to do that may have swayed my matriculation decision.

Me too, I reckon.

It seems somewhat bizarre not to at least have the option to purchase cable for your room. I'm sure they did cost-benefit analysis and all that. But I mean, c'mon. Students don't have the ability to purchase cable if they so choose? And it's 2013?

- Chillin

[AtlDuke72]

the university refuses to provide cable service...it's awful and makes me sad that something that was such a huge part of my undegraduate experience (hanging in someone's room watching sports) is no longer a possibility.

as petty as it sounds, watching sports on TV is something that i enjoy very much, and the lack of the ability to do that may have swayed my matriculation decision.

In the late 1960's and early 1970's the dorms had one phone for about 50 people. Didn't seem like that big of a deal at the time. Durham and Duke have not changed all that much!

[Native]

I'm sorry... the dorm rooms don't have cable? What the heck is that? How can they not have cable? Just... those guys didn't get cable? Who doesn't have cable? I am blown away by that.

Yeah, they did away with cable in dorm rooms after they did a survey a couple years ago and found that they could save a million or two by removing cable that, frankly, students didn't use. While it kind of stinks not having cable in the rooms, it's not the worst thing ever.

People still get together in common rooms to watch sports and stuff together — especially the new K4 atrium which hosts a 100+ inch television.

[HaveFunExpectToWin]

As an employee of a large telco, it disturbs me that we are teaching the youth how to cut the cord. Seems short-sighted to not subsidize the undergrad cable TV experience. Are you listening TWC?

[Billy Dat]

We didn't have cable in our rooms at the start of the year, but we did have a bunch of engineers who knew their way around cable wire, splicers and boosters. Viola - cable for all.

[subzero02]

No cable and no beer make Homer something something

[CrazyNotCrazie]

I didn't watch a lot of TV, and 3 out of 4 years didn't even have a TV, but my Duke experience would have been diminished without cable - the commons room TV only takes you so far. One would think there is a Duke alum high up at one of the cable (or Dish) companies who can rectify this situation!

[Dev11]

I didn't watch a lot of TV, and 3 out of 4 years didn't even have a TV, but my Duke experience would have been diminished without cable - the commons room TV only takes you so far. One would think there is a Duke alum high up at one of the cable (or Dish) companies who can rectify this situation!

As one who did a few minutes of irate screaming when the news came down that Duke was cancelling cable, I'm glad that the issue is finally coming to the forefront. Duke Basketball does a lot of good in the community.

[moonpie23]

Are you listening TWC?

hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaa.......that 's sooooo funny.....TWC doesn't LISTEN!! THEY TALK!



and it goes like this:


"welcome to time warner cable. this call may be monitored for quality!"

and that's about it...