11.16.2008
4.04.2008
KEEPING UP TO DATE ON MAYAGATE
Jeff Jacobs the Hartford Courant dropped this strange quote by the caustic creepy coach from the North:
"We've had to answer a lot of questions about how we recruit, what we did in recruiting, what we didn't do," Auriemma said on the conference call. "I, quite frankly, am sick of it. Our university spent a lot of time and a lot of effort having to defend ourselves against a lot of accusations that turned out to be nothing, or the NCAA would have come down hard on us — which they didn't."
Auriemma was making it sound as if he was blaming Tennessee for having to endure the scrutiny.
"That's where the allegations came from, the SEC," he said. "That's public knowledge."
The clouds that Summitt brought are dark ones. For months, nameless people also have speculated in chat rooms that Auriemma may have made callous remarks about Summitt's personal life. I've gotten my share of e-mails on it. Auriemma has flatly denied such a thing. You see what Summitt's silence has done. How can Auriemma defend himself against stuff like that?
"spent a lot of time and effort?" on what?
Filling out that secondary violation form that's been floating around the net?
And as far as "nameless people in chat rooms making callous remarks about Summitt's personal life? Well try on this one from The Boneyard
By Gotham Blue
The SEC reported the FACT that someone at UConn arranged a PRIVATE TOUR of ESPN for Maya Moore and her mother. That is a fact.
It does not matter who revealed the information to the SEC does it? The information was correct. Why should anyone care who brought it to the attention of the SEC?
What does that change?
Actually the only story today in the Tennessean revealed by a search for "Pat Summitt" includes this:
Walking the fine line between getting him to play by the rules without exposing the kids who are not at fault seems like Pat to me. So she is leaving it up to him if he wants talk about it. He knows what he did and Pat knows. Now we wait to see if he will do as he has said and talk about it if he gets to the final four. Meanwhile she is doing exactly what she said she would do.
Knowing the situation and knowing what the NCAA will or will not do the best strategy to keep a cheater form cheating may well be the threat of exposure to bad publicity instead of relying on an ineffective NCAA to properly investigate and punish offenders for cheating.
For instance we know that a coach from UConn arranged a private tour of ESPN
But here is what we do not know
Did Maya tell her friends that her decision to sign with UConn was greatly influenced by that visit?
Who took Maya and her mother to ESPN?
Who did they meet on that tour?
What was said to Maya on that tour about her future and ESPN?
Was Rebecca Lobo involved?
Was Doris Burke involved?
Did they stay the night in Birstol?
At whos expense?
Did ESPN offer to help Mrs Moore with the sale of her products?
How many UConn fans work at ESPN in Bristol?
How many UConn supporters work at ESPN in Bristol?
Was Maya promised an internship or any part time employment?
How many on screen personalities did she meet?
How many of them encouraged her to sign with UConn?
Was she told that they would try her out as a color commentator after graduating from UConn while playing in the WNBA?
Once we know that the illegal arrangement for the private special tour was made and that the NCAA considered that a secondary violation we know that the NCAA waited on a report from UConn and that nothing else was done.
UConn issued a statement that the investigation has ended.
But none of the questions above were either asked or answered
So you can believe whatever you wish about the situation
I believe that the questions above are very relevant and important because Pat would never violate the spirit and letter of NCAA regulations and put herself in a position where these questions could be asked.
The NCAA is either unwilling or incapable of investigating to the point of getting the answers to my questions. As far as I am concerned if you or anyone else does not think that undue influence by the major force in WCBB broadcasting on an impressionable HS junior is possible you aren't thinking.
Like Caroline Doty telling the press that she made up her mind while eating Wendy's in Geno's office Maya may well have told someone that she made up her mind because of something to do with someone at ESPN.
If you think that is fair and within the rules then you and I have very different views of the situation.
"We've had to answer a lot of questions about how we recruit, what we did in recruiting, what we didn't do," Auriemma said on the conference call. "I, quite frankly, am sick of it. Our university spent a lot of time and a lot of effort having to defend ourselves against a lot of accusations that turned out to be nothing, or the NCAA would have come down hard on us — which they didn't."
Auriemma was making it sound as if he was blaming Tennessee for having to endure the scrutiny.
"That's where the allegations came from, the SEC," he said. "That's public knowledge."
The clouds that Summitt brought are dark ones. For months, nameless people also have speculated in chat rooms that Auriemma may have made callous remarks about Summitt's personal life. I've gotten my share of e-mails on it. Auriemma has flatly denied such a thing. You see what Summitt's silence has done. How can Auriemma defend himself against stuff like that?
"spent a lot of time and effort?" on what?
Filling out that secondary violation form that's been floating around the net?
And as far as "nameless people in chat rooms making callous remarks about Summitt's personal life? Well try on this one from The Boneyard
By Gotham Blue
- Member
Posted: Thursday April 3 8:13 PM
Re: Fly on the wall...
The SEC reported the FACT that someone at UConn arranged a PRIVATE TOUR of ESPN for Maya Moore and her mother. That is a fact.
It does not matter who revealed the information to the SEC does it? The information was correct. Why should anyone care who brought it to the attention of the SEC?
What does that change?
Actually the only story today in the Tennessean revealed by a search for "Pat Summitt" includes this:
Recruit rehash: Connecticut Coach Geno Auriemma's latest Final Four squad will have to wade through the distractions that come with being on the sports biggest stage — the hype, the media and, of course, the feud. The other semifinal features defending champion UT and LSU.
Summitt did not renew the yearly regular-season series with UConn this season and UT had alleged that UConn violated a minor NCAA rule when courting Moore, who also was sought by UT.
"It's unfortunate its got to this point," Auriemma said. "We've had to answer a lot of questions about how we recruit and I'm quite frankly sick of it. Our university had to spend a lot of time defending itself and nothing came of it. I'm worried about Stanford and Connecticut. And that's it."
Some of us are not so naive as to believe that much is known that might be better left unsaid. The aim here on Pat's part is to make certain that he changes his ways with some hope that he may do that in his own self interest without bring to light specifics that may well be harmful to players she would prefer to see unharmed.Walking the fine line between getting him to play by the rules without exposing the kids who are not at fault seems like Pat to me. So she is leaving it up to him if he wants talk about it. He knows what he did and Pat knows. Now we wait to see if he will do as he has said and talk about it if he gets to the final four. Meanwhile she is doing exactly what she said she would do.
Knowing the situation and knowing what the NCAA will or will not do the best strategy to keep a cheater form cheating may well be the threat of exposure to bad publicity instead of relying on an ineffective NCAA to properly investigate and punish offenders for cheating.
For instance we know that a coach from UConn arranged a private tour of ESPN
But here is what we do not know
Did Maya tell her friends that her decision to sign with UConn was greatly influenced by that visit?
Who took Maya and her mother to ESPN?
Who did they meet on that tour?
What was said to Maya on that tour about her future and ESPN?
Was Rebecca Lobo involved?
Was Doris Burke involved?
Did they stay the night in Birstol?
At whos expense?
Did ESPN offer to help Mrs Moore with the sale of her products?
How many UConn fans work at ESPN in Bristol?
How many UConn supporters work at ESPN in Bristol?
Was Maya promised an internship or any part time employment?
How many on screen personalities did she meet?
How many of them encouraged her to sign with UConn?
Was she told that they would try her out as a color commentator after graduating from UConn while playing in the WNBA?
Once we know that the illegal arrangement for the private special tour was made and that the NCAA considered that a secondary violation we know that the NCAA waited on a report from UConn and that nothing else was done.
UConn issued a statement that the investigation has ended.
But none of the questions above were either asked or answered
So you can believe whatever you wish about the situation
I believe that the questions above are very relevant and important because Pat would never violate the spirit and letter of NCAA regulations and put herself in a position where these questions could be asked.
The NCAA is either unwilling or incapable of investigating to the point of getting the answers to my questions. As far as I am concerned if you or anyone else does not think that undue influence by the major force in WCBB broadcasting on an impressionable HS junior is possible you aren't thinking.
Like Caroline Doty telling the press that she made up her mind while eating Wendy's in Geno's office Maya may well have told someone that she made up her mind because of something to do with someone at ESPN.
If you think that is fair and within the rules then you and I have very different views of the situation.
3.15.2008
MAYAGATE links deleted by ESPN moderators
Today I posted a simple link to this NYT Story on the WCBB board
A very nice story AurabassPost #1: 1:54 pm Quote | Report ViolationTotal Posts: 2140
from the New York Times
the original link
These are links to an article and they in no way violate any rule of this board.
These posts were deleted by the moderators FIVE TIMES while threads containing links to the Jim Rome Pat Summitt story by cferraro
and links to the Geno article in CT newspapers were allowed to remain
ESPN moderators are deleting perfectly acceptable posts on the WCBB forum at the request of UCONN fans and it has to stop.
A very nice story AurabassPost #1: 1:54 pm Quote | Report ViolationTotal Posts: 2140
from the New York Times
the original link
These are links to an article and they in no way violate any rule of this board.
These posts were deleted by the moderators FIVE TIMES while threads containing links to the Jim Rome Pat Summitt story by cferraro
and links to the Geno article in CT newspapers were allowed to remain
ESPN moderators are deleting perfectly acceptable posts on the WCBB forum at the request of UCONN fans and it has to stop.
MAYAGATE from the NYT
RECRUITS NOT WELCOME BUT COACHES ARE
"You can't just call ESPN willy-nilly and ask for a tour, so you have to be a somebody or a friend or relative of someone at ESPN. I called the ESPN switchboard Thursday and asked for group tours.
Those tours ended, for security reasons, after the 9/11 attacks.
ESPN has changed its policy to end all visits like Moore's, which makes you wonder how many other hot recruits coveted by local universities like UConn have taken the tour."
So there you have it from the venerable NYT.
These open tours have not been available since Sept 2001 long before the arranged visit and the question is raised was this tour gambit used before or since?
"So the call went to ESPN's programming department, which schedules a billion hours of college hoops for the 7,321 ESPN platforms. If any part of ESPN should have known, or at least guessed, that such a tour might give Moore a benefit, however minor, that could help UConn woo her, you would think it would be programming. Yes, you would think."
1.28.2008
ESPN WCBB BOARD NEWS
A quick thank you to Community EDs from ESPN
and the moderator from the Prospero messageboards group who have communicated with me about the situation concerning the ESPN WCBB Messageboard.
A quick recap.
Over the past few weeks several posters as fans of both UConn and UT have seen posts deleted and have been banned for 24 hours for no apparent reason.
The situation began when Slewbopper joined by Glenn MacGrady posted requests for ESPN WCBB message board participants to use the REPORT VIOLATION utility on any post made by the poster known as "Ladyvolsrbest08", "parker08", "ladyvolsrchamps08", and a hundred variations on those names and any post that I made.
Glenn MacGrady tried his best to convince ESPN WCBB Message board participants that I was the same poster as the one using these hundred screen names. From Mid-December through January many of my posts were deleted using this method. It seemed that the moderators did not bother to read the posts but simply deleted everything that was reported.
After pointing out this problem to Community EDs I was contacted by a moderator for Prospero who has exchanged several e-mails with me.
Here are a couple of things all participants on the ESPN WCBB boards need to know.
1) Posters who report excessive violations will be "flagged"
2) Attacks on public figures like announcers are not considered fair game and they can be reported and deleted. This was a surprise to me.
3) There are live moderators despite the assumption by some that there were none.
4) Now at least one of these moderators has been made aware of the situation.
A post of mine called CRYSTAL BALL was deleted in the past few days and it can be read just as it was posted below this post on this weblog. It obviously did not violate any rule. The moderator deleted the entire thread and asked that I repost it as I did.
Thank you Community EDs and Mr. Moderator for taking the time to look into the situation.
Hopefully the ESPN WCBB messageboard participants will now refrain from using the 'Report Violation' utility to try to eliminate posts that are within the rules just to discourage posters who might disagee with their point of view.
Good participants like cferraro, VolAddict, Chaffon, and others have found themselves banned for 24 hours or with deleted posts that were not in violation and it's time these campaigns by certain posters to eliminate opponents by reporting good posts as violations were stopped.
I hope Slewbopper and MacGrady got the message.
and I suggest that ESPN and the messageboard moderators see fit to clarify the rules publicly
by stating that misuse of the 'REPORT VIOLATION' utility will not be tolearated
and making it known that public personalities are not considered fair game on the message board.
Recent post to the ESPN WCBB Board
What I have learned
First I made a post on The LadyVols Weblog to cover this in case it disappears
That post is particularly complimentary to the Moderator and Community EDS for their communication with me on this subject.
This forum is run by PROSPERO - a well known forum operator and the moderation is done by them not ESPN.
so they are paid by ESPN
or
they get the advertising $$$ by using the ESPN name in an agreement
at any rate it is profitable for Prospero.
Of some nearly 2000 posts over 6 years I have been banned some 6 or 8 times
some of those were deserved when I replied in kind or in anger
I have had maybe 20 posts deleted
This has increased dramatically since mid-December when some people decided to target me as responsible for "ladyvolsrbest08" and all of his incarnations.
Community EDS is a responsible ESPN agent who was kind enough to communicate about this issue
Community EDS had a moderator contact me by email
and that EMAIL was from PROSPERO
The moderator sent a post I made about Nancy Liberman which was indeed a catty personal comment about her announcing - that post was deleted and I was banned for 24 hours for making the comment.
I responded that I did not think personal comments about public figures were bannable offenses.
I was told I was wrong about that
I suggested that the RULES clearly show that 'personal attacks' are not allowed no matter who they are directed toward.
I sent an email making the moderator aware of the plan issued by some to use the REPORT VIOLATION button to eliminate unwanted posters.
I was told that indiscriminate use of the REPORT VIOLATION button would result in an account being flagged.
Here is what I think everyone who wants a fair and open forum should do
Keep a record of posts and threads that disappear.
I now keep a copy of my posts for a week and certain time consuming posts like the CRYSTAL BALL post or HOME COURT ADVANTAGE are also posted to my blog on the ESPN PROFILE.
When a thread or post disappears without cause it should be reported.
I cannot post how to report it here but I will let cferraro and VolAddict know who and how if they want to take the time to pass these reports on to the proper person.
Maybe VandyWhit should do it.
Maybe we can get this to stop
I am obviously not the person to do the reporting
but cferraro for UConn and VolAddict for UT should be respected enough to do the right thing. If anyone thinks there should be someone else say so now.
I don't think ESPN realizes that PROSPERO uses a BOT to decide these issues
PROSPERO should upgrade the BOT if they are going to use it.
I'm relatively certain that there are only a few paid moderators at PROSPERO to handle 100's of message boards.
I think we all want a place where we can argue on equal footing
Where no one group can decide the fate of any single poster
no matter how much they disagree with what that poster has to say
we should all respect the right to say it.
and the moderator from the Prospero messageboards group who have communicated with me about the situation concerning the ESPN WCBB Messageboard.
A quick recap.
Over the past few weeks several posters as fans of both UConn and UT have seen posts deleted and have been banned for 24 hours for no apparent reason.
The situation began when Slewbopper joined by Glenn MacGrady posted requests for ESPN WCBB message board participants to use the REPORT VIOLATION utility on any post made by the poster known as "Ladyvolsrbest08", "parker08", "ladyvolsrchamps08", and a hundred variations on those names and any post that I made.
Glenn MacGrady tried his best to convince ESPN WCBB Message board participants that I was the same poster as the one using these hundred screen names. From Mid-December through January many of my posts were deleted using this method. It seemed that the moderators did not bother to read the posts but simply deleted everything that was reported.
After pointing out this problem to Community EDs I was contacted by a moderator for Prospero who has exchanged several e-mails with me.
Here are a couple of things all participants on the ESPN WCBB boards need to know.
1) Posters who report excessive violations will be "flagged"
2) Attacks on public figures like announcers are not considered fair game and they can be reported and deleted. This was a surprise to me.
3) There are live moderators despite the assumption by some that there were none.
4) Now at least one of these moderators has been made aware of the situation.
A post of mine called CRYSTAL BALL was deleted in the past few days and it can be read just as it was posted below this post on this weblog. It obviously did not violate any rule. The moderator deleted the entire thread and asked that I repost it as I did.
Thank you Community EDs and Mr. Moderator for taking the time to look into the situation.
Hopefully the ESPN WCBB messageboard participants will now refrain from using the 'Report Violation' utility to try to eliminate posts that are within the rules just to discourage posters who might disagee with their point of view.
Good participants like cferraro, VolAddict, Chaffon, and others have found themselves banned for 24 hours or with deleted posts that were not in violation and it's time these campaigns by certain posters to eliminate opponents by reporting good posts as violations were stopped.
I hope Slewbopper and MacGrady got the message.
and I suggest that ESPN and the messageboard moderators see fit to clarify the rules publicly
by stating that misuse of the 'REPORT VIOLATION' utility will not be tolearated
and making it known that public personalities are not considered fair game on the message board.
Recent post to the ESPN WCBB Board
What I have learned
First I made a post on The LadyVols Weblog to cover this in case it disappears
That post is particularly complimentary to the Moderator and Community EDS for their communication with me on this subject.
This forum is run by PROSPERO - a well known forum operator and the moderation is done by them not ESPN.
so they are paid by ESPN
or
they get the advertising $$$ by using the ESPN name in an agreement
at any rate it is profitable for Prospero.
Of some nearly 2000 posts over 6 years I have been banned some 6 or 8 times
some of those were deserved when I replied in kind or in anger
I have had maybe 20 posts deleted
This has increased dramatically since mid-December when some people decided to target me as responsible for "ladyvolsrbest08" and all of his incarnations.
Community EDS is a responsible ESPN agent who was kind enough to communicate about this issue
Community EDS had a moderator contact me by email
and that EMAIL was from PROSPERO
The moderator sent a post I made about Nancy Liberman which was indeed a catty personal comment about her announcing - that post was deleted and I was banned for 24 hours for making the comment.
I responded that I did not think personal comments about public figures were bannable offenses.
I was told I was wrong about that
I suggested that the RULES clearly show that 'personal attacks' are not allowed no matter who they are directed toward.
I sent an email making the moderator aware of the plan issued by some to use the REPORT VIOLATION button to eliminate unwanted posters.
I was told that indiscriminate use of the REPORT VIOLATION button would result in an account being flagged.
Here is what I think everyone who wants a fair and open forum should do
Keep a record of posts and threads that disappear.
I now keep a copy of my posts for a week and certain time consuming posts like the CRYSTAL BALL post or HOME COURT ADVANTAGE are also posted to my blog on the ESPN PROFILE.
When a thread or post disappears without cause it should be reported.
I cannot post how to report it here but I will let cferraro and VolAddict know who and how if they want to take the time to pass these reports on to the proper person.
Maybe VandyWhit should do it.
Maybe we can get this to stop
I am obviously not the person to do the reporting
but cferraro for UConn and VolAddict for UT should be respected enough to do the right thing. If anyone thinks there should be someone else say so now.
I don't think ESPN realizes that PROSPERO uses a BOT to decide these issues
PROSPERO should upgrade the BOT if they are going to use it.
I'm relatively certain that there are only a few paid moderators at PROSPERO to handle 100's of message boards.
I think we all want a place where we can argue on equal footing
Where no one group can decide the fate of any single poster
no matter how much they disagree with what that poster has to say
we should all respect the right to say it.
1.26.2008
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