Sometimes, I hate the Chronicle

[Wander]

http://dukechronicle.com/article/it%E2%80%99s-time-bench-singler

Seriously, wtf

[SCMatt33]

This is one of the stupidest things that I have ever read. Even if benching Singler was a good idea, the article gives absolutely no suggestion for what to do while he sits. He mentions that it will free up time for Mason, but that is preposterous unless you want to play with three big men. It would only put Dre and Kelly on the court more, which isn't a terrible idea, but as starters? I'd rather not.

[Duvall]

http://dukechronicle.com/article/it%E2%80%99s-time-bench-singler

Seriously, wtf

Birds gotta fly, fish gotta swim, and Chronicle sports columnists gotta write poorly reasoned inflammatory columns in hopes of garnering some undeserved attention. It's the Circle of Life.

[KyDevilinIL]

Oh, this stuff goes on at every single student newspaper on Earth, not just the Chronicle.

I was once a columnist at a student newspaper. I still bristle at the generic criticism that the kids write this stuff because "he or she is trying to make a splash/get noticed, etc." That's not really what's going on. Maybe the guy who wrote this really believes Kyle should be benched. Maybe he doesn't. Either way, I suspect that somewhere in his mind he was thinking, "Writing this will help demonstrate that I'm not a Duke homer, even though I write for the student paper."

Young journalists often confuse fairness with taking silly positions simply because the position goes against the grain. I did it all the time. I still do to some degree from time to time, but experience and perspective helps you pull it off without sounding crazy. (I hope, I think).

That said, this is exactly what student media is for. The ideas aren't always fully formed and are sometimes flat wrong. But it's a phase everyone who's learning the trade goes through. Every professional journalist has this sort of stuff in their past; the best ones are the ones who get it out of their system and don't keep doing it.

[Wander]

He mentions that it will free up time for Mason

Why why why why why why why why WHY would your solution for giving your freshman center more playing time be to bench your star small forward who can play guard on a team with only four guards on the roster and is a much better basketball player than your current starting power forward and center?

Yeah, I get what you're saying about the student journalist thing. But it's still stupid.

[barjwr]

He mentions that all of Duke's "away from home" wins have come at neutral sites.

Remind me again: where are tournament games held?

[Lord Ash]

I am not defending the article, but I think a key point the author was making was the idea of Kyle realizing the team can survive without him... I suppose the idea being that he will stop pressing, or he will allow his teammates to "win" a game when he is struggling?

[SilkyJ]

Benching seems a bit extreme. I will say, though, that I was thinking about posting a thread titled something like "Time to face hit: Kyle just isn't that good of a shooter." He's streaky for sure and has great form, but it doesn't look like he's going to be a 40% 3 point shooter.

I ended up not posting it b/c I felt it was too early to jump to that conclusion. Its still early in this season and for the last 2 seasons he has played a lot in the post on D and that can easily have worn him out in terms of affecting his shot. And now of course there's the excuse this year that he is still adjusting to playing outside more...I don't fully buy into either of those, but Kyle has earned the benefit of the doubt in my mind, so I'll wait a little longer before I pass judgement. Maybe he can come back next year, shoot 40% and make my judging much easier :D

[superdave]

So we would play 2 on 5?

[SilkyJ]

So we would play 2 on 5?

I don't know about that, but Mason has GOT to start. I rarely question or disagree with K, but I spent the last two games pleading with Comcast/Samsung/my DVR to play Mason more.

[Duvall]

I don't know about that, but Mason has GOT to start. I rarely question or disagree with K, but I spent the last two games pleading with Comcast/Samsung/my DVR to play Mason more.

You spent the last game pleading to play Mason more? He got 26 minutes.

[CrazieDUMB]

When I first read the title of that article it made me cringe, but I think he does make an interesting point.

"He needs to see that his teammates are fine without him. Singler must realize that he does not have to go out of his way to carry the team, but can simply take whatever defenses give him."

When I first started noticing that he was taking a lot of deep threes, I thought he was just screwing around bc it was early in the season. Now I think this rings a bit true: he's forcing shots because he feels like he needs to be better than the singler of last year, despite the fact that he hasn't really learned how to play the 3.

Its been said a million times on these boards before, but now he doesn't have the advantage of driving around bigger slower defenders. It's going to take him a while to find something he's good at (IMO he needs to slash and use his height to shoot over the 3's that defend him), and until then he shouldn't be forcing the stuff he does.

Bench him? Definitely not. I think the author hit on a bit of the problem, but keeping him out is not going to help him redefine his game. Is it so bad to just be patient?

[Duke Parent 06]

Birds gotta fly, fish gotta swim, and Chronicle sports columnists gotta write poorly reasoned inflammatory columns in hopes of garnering some undeserved attention. It's the Circle of Life.

Sometimes the Chronicle should bench its columnists and give more deserving ones a chance.

[KShip21]

"And I’m not talking about a change in name only—he should be limited to about 20 minutes."


This quote almost made me spit my afternoon coffee all over my computer! We're 1-1 in the ACC and you want an All American to play 20 minutes in the next 2 ballgames?

I was at the game Saturday and left the arena fuming over the play of Kyle and Lance, and will admit that i said they should both sit tonight until the first official TO to send a message (once i calmed down I quickly realized that was stupid also) and put dre and mason in their spots. Wanting to see him play 40 combined minutes in the next 2 games is completely assanine. He can't break out of his in-game funk with his butt on a chair......Along with the race article written last year, this article may have ended my days reading the chronicle. Who lets this stuff get published?

[stickdog]

While benching Singler is a ridiculous idea, Kyle needs to stop pressing and forcing the issue on offense. In every recent game he seems dead set on trying to force in 20+ points no matter how many shots it takes. If he would instead concentrate on facilitating his teammates' scoring, opposing defenses would have to adjust and he would get more high percentage scoring opportunities.

[91_92_01_10_15]

I disagree with the author, but I sure hope Kyle read the column.

He may go for 40.

[Devilsfan]

I totally disagree with this author. Sounds like he'd make a good U.S. politician though, being that completely out of touch with his constituents.

[Wildcat]

Birds gotta fly, fish gotta swim, and Chronicle sports columnists gotta write poorly reasoned inflammatory columns in hopes of garnering some undeserved attention. It's the Circle of Life.

I had similar thoughts earlier this season; I was suggesting a little more time to rest/observe the game. This way he can be quasi-relieved of the heavy burden and expectations of being, "Kyle Singler" pre-season All American and NPOY candidate. I don't believe he is truly struggling per se; I think his game is either evolving and he is discovering his strengths and learning how to play at a different position.?.?. I don't truly know though.

What I do find hard to believe is: the number of people who TOTALLY misread someone else's thoughts and dismiss them as either "poorly reasoned, ridiculous, or lack of knowledge and insight. Perception is perception. If 8 out of 10 people perceive something one way; there must be something that they see that quasi-justifies their claims. While the headliner was attention grabbing and maybe a bit sensational, I thought the writers perspective was genuine. We all want Kyle to succeed.

[NSDukeFan]

Sometimes the Chronicle should bench its columnists and give more deserving ones a chance.

The Chronicle never gives the more deserving ones on the bench enough time to develop.;)

[BlueintheFace]

I'm calling it now. Kyle for 25+ tonight.

[Duvall]

What I do find hard to believe is: the number of people who TOTALLY misread someone else's thoughts and dismiss them as either "poorly reasoned, ridiculous, or lack of knowledge and insight. Perception is perception. If 8 out of 10 people perceive something one way; there must be something that they see that quasi-justifies their claims. While the headliner was attention grabbing and maybe a bit sensational, I thought the writers perspective was genuine. We all want Kyle to succeed.

The columnist called for a player to be bench without, as far as we can tell, devoting much time at all to the question of who was going to fill those minutes. How is that anything other than poor reasoning?

[Teton Jack]

If this was the old Soviet Union, summary execution would have occurred 5 minutes after this column was published.

[jimrowe0]

Overall I tend to agree with the premise for the article.

"Rather, it is an acknowledgement that something is wrong with Singler. He does not look comfortable, even though playing the perimeter should be more natural for him than banging in the post. He seems to be forcing shots in an effort to spark his offense, but that has only led to a lower shooting percentage"

"Singler must realize that he does not have to go out of his way to carry the team, but can simply take whatever defenses give him. If he does that, it’s only a matter of time before he starts to look like the Kyle Singler of old. He’s too good of a shooter to stay in a slump forever."

Do I think that we should flat out bench Singler? No, but it might be helpful to cut back his minutes for the reasons above. Also that would allow for our bench players (dawkins and mason) to see more playing time. Which in the long run, I think, would be a good thing.

[KShip21]

Recent Casey Peters Tweet

Casey_Peters Game day!!! Let's goo!!!! School newspaper is unbelievable....crazy man...expect a big game tonight from my boy and our whole squad.

[RelativeWays]

Might be time for K to Boeheim the Chronicle.

[stickdog]

Might be time for K to Boeheim the Chronicle.

Meeting in K's office. No tape recorders allowed.

[BlueintheFace]

Meeting in K's office. No tape recorders allowed.

Doors closed, brass knuckles on the table...

[Newton_14]

Doors closed, brass knuckles on the table...

And K makes the kid "an offer he can't refuse":D

[Exiled_Devil]

Reference point:

UNC was 0-2 in conference play at this point last year.

While Kyle has not lived up to expectations this year, he is still averaging 15 ppg. Slightly down from last year, yes. But that is not a poor scoring record.

I have a sinking feeling that whenever we lose our next game - this week or in the end of February - we will see more articles about the 'inevitable downward spiral' of the program. Ugh. This desire to see negatives in Duke's players and program drives me nuts.

[dukestheheat]

I think that the writer (I don't know the writer) is in class and maybe was asked to write some sort of column that would evoke ire or take a contrarian viewpoint.

When I was in school at Duke, a group of sportswriters at the Chron actually gave grades to Duke basketball players; I remember in my mind's eye the report that was given for each player. A grade was given and then to the right of the grade an explanantion was given as to why that grade was given.

I remember reading that, at that time, and thinking 'man, K probably won't like this at all'. He didn't, and he called the 'writers in and he took care of that PDQ (pretty darned quickly).

I can only think K is having a similar reaction to this article.

A side story that fits well here: I also remember one time driving out in eastern North Carolina (heading to Elizabeth City, NC, on business) on a hot summer day, in the Ford Explorer, with the windows rolled down and the cruise control on, and all of a sudden here comes an F-16 flying low over the field at a very high rate of speed. The almost blew me off of the highway. I was in awe of the power of that thing, and I remember telling myself that I just did not want to be on the RECEIVING end of anything that the US military could throw out. I think the same thing goes with K; his mere presence just demands respect and that is just the way it is.

dth.

[uh_no]

He mentions that all of Duke's "away from home" wins have come at neutral sites.

Remind me again: where are tournament games held?

neutral sites....generally....much like MSG

[JaMarcus Russell]

When I was in school at Duke, a group of sportswriters at the Chron actually gave grades to Duke basketball players; I remember in my mind's eye the report that was given for each player. A grade was given and then to the right of the grade an explanantion was given as to why that grade was given.

I remember reading that, at that time, and thinking 'man, K probably won't like this at all'. He didn't, and he called the 'writers in and he took care of that PDQ (pretty darned quickly).

I can only think K is having a similar reaction to this article.

I don't know what Jim Boeheim did at Syracuse, but I know that lots of coaches, including Coach K, have reacted when the student newspaper has not been 100% supportive. I was never affiliated with the Chronicle while I attended Duke, but I think it's very petty for coaches to go after student columnists. Do they barge into the offices of the Durham Herald Sun, Washington Post, New York Times, etc when they get less than favorable coverage?

The Chronicle (Duke), The Reveille (LSU), and many other student papers receive as much funding from the university as those "professional" newspapers do. Even if an article is not well-reasoned, I don't see why a coach has to flex his muscles when he is unhappy with the coverage of his team, much I like I hate to see a coach flex his muscles when a passive fan cheers against Deon Thompson.

[dukestheheat]

^^^^

JaMarcus,

If you're on the basketball team, and you're working as hard as you can in practice to get better, how would you feel if, in the student newspaper, you were given a grade by your peers as to how you're performing?

K was upset (as I remember it, and remember, it's been awhile) b/c the players were graded by their peers as to their performance. To play at this level (and, for K) is admirable and to write a column and give a player a grade is petty and potentially demeaning to the player. I'm amazed at what our athletes can do and 'who am I!?' to have the arrogance to sit down and give this college player (insert name) a 'C-' in performance for Duke basketball!

I realize the writer has to write, but there are several other ways to let the player know you don't approve of performance.

dth.

[BlueintheFace]

"The first day back and we read in a student newspaper and it’s benching our guy. Welcome back I guess. Unbelievable. For those people in support of Kyle should be really happy. He had a hell of game. He had a double-double without going to the bench.”

-K

[Duvall]

"The first day back and we read in a student newspaper and it’s benching our guy. Welcome back I guess. Unbelievable. For those people in support of Kyle should be really happy. He had a hell of game. He had a double-double without going to the bench.”

-K

Boom. Roasted.

I guess the guy got what he wanted - a Hall of Fame coach is talking about him.

[Dukeface88]

We can't bench Singler; LT can guard 3s, but the drop off in offensive production from having him on the perimeter is too great to use him that way barring significant foul trouble. However, I'm at least somewhat sympathetic to the writer. I suspect he was trying to emphasize the point that Kyle is forcing it a bit too much; something numerous posters here have said as well. Is there a better way to get that point across? Sure, but this is a student writing for a school paper. You can't expect Pulitzer winning journalism. Also, I believe that editors choose the titles, not the writers. In this case, the title makes this article sound significantly harsher.

[JaMarcus Russell]

JaMarcus,

If you're on the basketball team, and you're working as hard as you can in practice to get better, how would you feel if, in the student newspaper, you were given a grade by your peers as to how you're performing?

I wouldn't like it one bit, but I would also realize that I get to go to Duke for free, I play 20 games a year on national tv, and I am one of the most high profile students on campus. For the very same reason there are going to be lots of perks as a big name student-athlete, there will also be some negatives. Higher highs and lower lows. Besides, I am sure that any D-1 athlete other than maybe some of Mack Brown's most prized recruits have heard much more negative stuff from their coaches on an almost daily basis.


K was upset (as I remember it, and remember, it's been awhile) b/c the players were graded by their peers as to their performance. To play at this level (and, for K) is admirable and to write a column and give a player a grade is petty and potentially demeaning to the player. I'm amazed at what our athletes can do and 'who am I!?' to have the arrogance to sit down and give this college player (insert name) a 'C-' in performance for Duke basketball!

I realize the writer has to write, but there are several other ways to let the player know you don't approve of performance.

dth.

Fwiw, I disagree with the general premise of the article about benching Singler (especially without offering legitimate solutions), and I don't like the idea of grading basketball players either, but I don't understand why a writer should feel arrogant for pointing out the flaws of a basketball player.

Also, the coach should not be in a position to threaten the writers or the newspaper. He can state his displeasure, but would he ever consider marching down to the headquarters of the local newspaper and telling the editor in chief that he wants to talk to one of his writers? Maybe Bobby Knight would have done something like that back in the day, but I can't think too many other guys would do something similar.

In that case, why treat college newspaper writers any differently? Just because they are not "old enough"?

[SilkyJ]

You spent the last game pleading to play Mason more? He got 26 minutes.

I still feel like K was giving Lance minutes and it was clear how much more effective Mason was. If he can be starting and playing 30 by season's end we will be a much better team, I think. But I guess I should have said it a bit differently: last game I was really saying "look at how well he's playing, we need to keep playing him."

He played 20 minutes tonight, but obviously struggled at times.


I'm calling it now. Kyle for 25+ tonight.

Not quite, but as K points out 15 and 10 aint so bad. Maybe expectations for Kyle are/were just a little unreasonable. Kyle is still playing at an All-ACC level, if not All-American, and does lots of other things well besides scoring. The fact that we get an average of 7 boards a night from our small forward is a pretty nice luxury.

[KyDevilinIL]

I don't know what Jim Boeheim did at Syracuse, but I know that lots of coaches, including Coach K, have reacted when the student newspaper has not been 100% supportive. I was never affiliated with the Chronicle while I attended Duke, but I think it's very petty for coaches to go after student columnists. Do they barge into the offices of the Durham Herald Sun, Washington Post, New York Times, etc when they get less than favorable coverage?

Nope, they don't. Because coaches know student columnists are students. K or any coach can moan and gripe about professional coverage, but he can't do a single thing about it if the reporter/editors aren't cooperative. But on campus, about 80 percent of the time the students back right down because they think the coaches' threats carry some weight, even in the newsroom. In reality, though, if the student paper fights back, there's still not much a coach or administrator can do publicly without being labeled a censor. It happens all the time, and that rarely ends well for the coach or administrator.

Many student newspapers fund themselves as much as possible through ad sales and try to be as independent of the university structure as they can. That restricts or even eliminates the influence the administration has over the content of the paper. In other words, so there's no confusing the newspaper for the campus or public relations office.

The worst thing about young journalists is that often they won't stand up for what they write. In this particular case, who knows. If the kid stands by what he wrote, good for him, no matter what K or anyone else says. But in cases where a kid writes something, gets bashed, then disassociates himself from it at the first sign of trouble, that's more disgusting than writing something silly to begin with. It just proves you should've kept your mouth shut the whole time.

[davekay1971]

Beyond the obvious question about who fills Kyle's minutes, when he's about the closest thing this team has to a 3, there's the author's simple lack of understanding about why you bench a star.

Benching a star is usually done to send a message to the star - you need to work harder, you need to focus more, we can do this without you. Does anyone, anyone at all, think Kyle needs any of those messages sent? Kyle's struggled simply with transitioning to more of an outside game after 2 years of banging in the post. That's it. How does benching him help him with that? It's stupid.

[BlueintheFace]

http://www.wralsportsfan.com/voices/blogpost/6806172/

K might kill that kid.....

[CLT Devil]

I get the sense that the 'writer' has limited knowledge of basketball, and in particular how to get out of a shooting slump (shoot more, not less.) The thing that really irks me is that this kid wrote this article and obvisouly the players and coaches have read it. It's one thing to post your thoughts on a message board, but the student newspaper should be supportive of the program.

Seriously, after one loss where Kyle had a bad shooting game this guy writes this crap? Part of me agrees with an earlier poster that he was prob listening to some professor about objectivism and the lightbulb went on. Has the guy not been watching Singler play for the last 2.5 years? Part of what makes Singler a great player is that he is not afraid of anything on the court. He's the kind of player that could miss 15 straight shots and then still want to take the last shot of the game for the win.

On a lighter note, this reminds me of when Duke and UNC played a couple of years ago and they gave an 'edge' to positions and factors, such as Ty Lawson got the edge over Paulus at PG...the guy gave K the edge over Roy for Coaching...and man did he get ripped for it! Hard to disagree though.

I think the hardest thing about something like this is the players are being judged by a peer, which is different than the national media. I bet they can't help but wonder who is thinking the same thing while they eat their Alpine bagel, in a place that should be their home turf, and that has to be disheartening. I hope the writer got whatever rise he wanted, and I would love to 'retort' his article.....what an idiot.

[bigj4194]

my $0.02 on the issue about the chronicle is the following: people are just starting to hate the chronicle? I went to duke for 4 years and couldn't stand it after the first semester of freshman year. it has just gone straight downhill in my opinion, especially the sports writers. This article was just the icing on the cake.

Oh and K's response. wonderful :)

[stickdog]

I don't know what Jim Boeheim did at Syracuse, but I know that lots of coaches, including Coach K, have reacted when the student newspaper has not been 100% supportive. I was never affiliated with the Chronicle while I attended Duke, but I think it's very petty for coaches to go after student columnists. Do they barge into the offices of the Durham Herald Sun, Washington Post, New York Times, etc when they get less than favorable coverage?

The Chronicle (Duke), The Reveille (LSU), and many other student papers receive as much funding from the university as those "professional" newspapers do. Even if an article is not well-reasoned, I don't see why a coach has to flex his muscles when he is unhappy with the coverage of his team, much I like I hate to see a coach flex his muscles when a passive fan cheers against Deon Thompson.

How is K "flexing his muscles" any more than the Chronicle columnist? He merely spoke out in the press, just as the columnist did.

If someone posts something here you disagree with, are you "flexing your muscles" when you respond?

[stickdog]

It just proves you should've kept your mouth shut the whole time.

exactly

[JaMarcus Russell]

How is K "flexing his muscles" any more than the Chronicle columnist? He merely spoke out in the press, just as the columnist did.

If someone posts something here you disagree with, are you "flexing your muscles" when you respond?

What Coach K did last night is entirely fine. I clearly referred in my post to coaches who schedule meetings with columnists and berate them which is something that many coaches have done before, but only with college columnists who are easily intimidated.