Why DBR Has a Rumor Mongering Rule

[Greg_Newton]

This is amazing. I'm not sure if anyone had heard the rumors about UNC and Tarcezwski - even that he committed to them today - but it turns out they were all fabricated and the result of an experiment to test how easy it is to become a recruiting "source". Here's the basic summary:


I am not Jonathon Paige.

There is no Jonathon Paige. There is no SummerHoopScoop. In fact, there never was. A little over two months ago the college basketball season ended and the long off-season of recruiting events and commitment speculation began. Messageboards and popular basketball news sources began to populate with recruiting interviews, videos, news stories, and rumors. The summer circuit circus began and college basketball fans dug in for the slow rolling waves of recruiting information to parse through. Of course, the real issue is-- who's information can be trusted? Sometimes it feels to fans like recruiting services and "experts" are just sorting through twitter feeds and regurgitating third-hand information.

However, a funny dynamic develops as a result. When a recruiting "source" brings good news to a fan base, it is instantly credible and plenty are willing to defend the source with recollections of previous information provided that proved correct. When a recruiting source brings bad news, it is open season. "Never heard of this guy"... "probably some opposing fan base's blogger" .... "I doubt he knows what he is talking about." In short, fans believe what they want to believe.

So, out of boredom and sincere interest in the relationship between the internet, recruiting services, and consumers, I created Jonathon Paige.

If you follow recruiting at all, it's a pretty hilarious/entertaining read... mostly because the biggest prank is at UNC's expense. But even our own "AlaskanAssassin" gets trolled at one point!

http://summerhoopscoop.blogspot.com/2011/06/experiment-in-modern-recruiting-news.html

A nice reminder of why we should trust the Mark Watsons and Jim Sumners of the world and not necessarily take every new poster/blogger who claims "connections" at his word...

[Newton_14]

This is amazing. I'm not sure if anyone had heard the rumors about UNC and Tarcezwski - even that he committed to them today - but it turns out they were all fabricated and the result of an experiment to test how easy it is to become a recruiting "source". Here's the basic summary:



If you follow recruiting at all, it's a pretty hilarious/entertaining read... mostly because the biggest prank is at UNC's expense. But even our own "AlaskanAssassin" gets trolled at one point!

http://summerhoopscoop.blogspot.com/2011/06/experiment-in-modern-recruiting-news.html

A nice reminder of why we should trust the Mark Watsons and Jim Sumners of the world and not necessarily take every new poster/blogger who claims "connections" at his word...

Ha, that is awesome! Thanks for sharing. I love that he mentions "Silent Verbals" for Duke fans. If he had mentioned our "code" words of "Violent Gerbils", I would know for sure he got that from DBR.

Too funny. The guy had 550 twitter followers including one or two of the real "experts". He had to have had a blast working this little project. I applaud him. Best laugh I have had in awhile!

[SCMatt33]

I have a few thoughts on this:

First and foremost: I'm very pleased with how the people here have handled and policed themselves for a long time when it comes to recruiting. There is a very fine line with what is well intentioned speculation about potential recruits and rumor mongering. Rarely do you see posts pointing to random people with few credentials as absolute sources. When those sources are linked, they are done so with necessary caution (including the screen cap of AlaskanAssassin where he readily admits that he had no idea who Jonathan Paige was). Although I rarely partake in recruiting threads, they are one of the backbones of this board and lively discussion on what the future might hold for Duke is a great way to enjoy one's fandom. The problem occurs when people take a random tweet about how a 17 year old kid is feeling on one particular day and start crying wolf. It's good to know that it doesn't happen around here nearly as much as other places and is reined in when it does.

Second, I think that "Jonathan Paige" offers some sound advice when it comes to how to properly evaluate recruiting news as you hear it. I can't say it much better, So I will simply quote his 3 big guidelines:


(1) Only trust PROVEN sources that have a track record and accountability.

For my money, Jeff Goodman is the best overall source in the business. He has tons of contacts, breaks more stories on college basketball than anybody else, and does so in a responsible way. Similarly, Dave Telep might be the best when it comes to contacts and breaking news in the recruiting world. Services like ESPN Recruiting and Scout (and Rivals on occasion) are often panned by college basketball fans, but they remain a valuable resources. Those guys hit the road hard every week during the summer and collect tons of information. Their jobs are not easy and they are likely underpaid. Sure some of them have slight biases that might bother you, but their information is sound 95 times out of 100. They should be your primary resources on national recruiting news. Here is a rough list:

Dave Telep
Brian Snow
Jeff Borzello
Jeff Goodman
Paul Biancardi
Evan Daniels
Eric Bossi

(2) Keep your ears open to bad news as well as good news. When you hear negative news about your school's chances with a recruit from a trusted source or all the facts don't add up in your favor, don't go in to denial about it. Just accept what you are seeing and hearing. A Scout.com analyst is not wrong just because he brings bad news. A random recruiting twitter account is not right just because it tells you what you want to hear. Be smart about what information you hear and where it comes from.

(3) Recruiting is about choices made by 16 and 17 year old kids. They change their minds all the time. When they do that doesn't mean a previous piece of information given by a source was wrong.... just that it is no longer correct.. Accept this fact and move on. Remember, these are kids.

Third, I wanted to propose that DBR puts together its own list of credible recruiting sources. "Paige's" list includes many of the guys at ESPN, CBS, Scout/Fox, and Rivals/Yahoo! who are responsible for breaking recruiting news. There are many guys who cover recruiting on a more local level, some of whom have already been mentioned (Mark Watson, Jim Sumner). There are many out there, and it would probably be helpful, especially to those who are new to recruiting threads, to have that list put into one of the sticky threads. That being said, it shouldn't mean those other sources are automatically unreliable but it's a pretty good idea to question it in your post and ask others who have been around longer if a particular source is known as credible or not.

[sporthenry]

Actually, Alaska Assasin did say to take the tweet with some reservation but the Deandre Daniels recruitment was a mess and every expert said things like that where he was deciding the next day or at one point, one of the ESPN guys just pretty much gave up on the whole thing.

And was that at the point where we had already given up on him? I believe it was so it was just keeping up to date as the recruitment became quite humorous. I think the people in the know on here do a very good job of passing along information or saying whether some of the rumors have any standing so I don't think people on DBR are that swayed by one twitter account, it is most probably the random twitter followers who were Duke fans.