Myron blogs about Tubby's expectations and Rodney Williams

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that flies in the face of everything I've said since he committed about there being 0 chance he redshirts, lol
 

Redshirt

Interesting that the redshirt possibility has more to do with academics than basketball. Clearly, Tubby does not want to be messing with eligibility issues and borderline students. He is expecting some maturity from Rodney. Good for him.
 

From the article:

"Is this a sign that the Gophers have some inside information about Mbakwe’s fate? Gophers spokesman Matt Slieter said that people shouldn’t read anything into the decision to post the Mbakwe Q&A. Slieter said he just picked one of the Q&A’s that have been completed for all of the basketball recruits and put it on the website, as scheduled."
 



From the article: "In July, (Myron) had an opportunity to speak with Tubby Smith"

And, he is just NOW publishing it??

I mean there was nothing earth shattering in there, but why "brag" about getting to talk to Tubby in a "rare" summer time interview and then admit that you have been holding it for two weeks. If it is so rare, heck why not even put it in the newspaper, god forbid.

What the heck has he been sitting on that interview for? That seems odd, but I guess nothing surprises me with how Myron goes about his job.
 

tjgopher said:
From the article: "In July, (Myron) had an opportunity to speak with Tubby Smith"

And, he is just NOW publishing it??

I mean there was nothing earth shattering in there, but why "brag" about getting to talk to Tubby in a "rare" summer time interview and then admit that you have been holding it for two weeks. If it is so rare, heck why not even put it in the newspaper, god forbid.

What the heck has he been sitting on that interview for? That seems odd, but I guess nothing surprises me with how Myron goes about his job.
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Myron is about as useless as a box of dandruff.
 

"His AAU coach, Ro Russell, told me that Cory’s mom is the one that the Gophers have to impress. She’s a very important part of the process."

Um, last time I checked - Cory Joseph's brother, Devoe, plays for the Gophers. Was she not impressed during Devoe's recruitment? Maybe the parents take turns giving a damn about their kids' recruiting process. Maybe Mr. Joseph was the one that needed to be impressed during Devoe's recruitment and not Mrs. Joseph. Or does Mrs. Joseph just love Cory more? Seemed like a very strange statement to post in the article. Yet with Myron's lack of skills, nothing surprises me anymore.
 

burton34 said:
Myron is about as useless as a box of dandruff.
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Why do you say that? I would like see you to try and do his job. I think it's easy for people to take jabs at writers from behind a computer screen. Just because you don't think it was the most insightful article in the world doesn't mean that he's worthless. He's a family man who works hard for a living and does everything he can to bring the news to people like us! Why take shots at him?
 




A redshirt year certainly would make some sense for Rodney, especially if he needs to get acclimated to college life (read: academics). Wing/SF is one position where the Gophers are pretty well stocked (Bostick, Carter, Hoffarber, Johnson, White).
 

Plinnius said:
Because he's horrible at what he does?
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He's horrible? So the Trib should just fire him and put him on the streets because some people don't agree with him. That's the thing, people just don't understand how difficult it is to be a sports writer. Readers just sit back and pick these people apart and just don't understand that they are people, NOT MACHINES. I would like to see you, or anyone on this blog, try and do his job for one week and then come back and see what it's really like.
What would YOU do differently? How would you handle this situation? What else has Myron done so horribly in the past? Just try and think; was he writing something that you didn't agree with, or was he being lazy like Sid Hartman...there is a difference.
 

Weisbrod said:
was he writing something that you didn't agree with, or was he being lazy like Sid Hartman...there is a difference.
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He's lazier than Sid Hartman, as hard as that is to believe. How can you not find anything to write about?
 



Weisbrod said:
He's horrible? So the Trib should just fire him and put him on the streets because some people don't agree with him. That's the thing, people just don't understand how difficult it is to be a sports writer. Readers just sit back and pick these people apart and just don't understand that they are people, NOT MACHINES. I would like to see you, or anyone on this blog, try and do his job for one week and then come back and see what it's really like.
What would YOU do differently? How would you handle this situation? What else has Myron done so horribly in the past? Just try and think; was he writing something that you didn't agree with, or was he being lazy like Sid Hartman...there is a difference.
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No one said they could or would even want to do his job, or that he wasn't working hard. But it doesn't take a Columbia J School grad to realize the difference between good and bad reporting and good and bad writing. So far, Myron has not impressed. And, in the real world, people do get fired if they are not very good at their job. I'm not advocating for Myron's dismissal, but he's got some work to do if he'd like to continue as a beat writer for a major daily. On the other hand, the way the news business is floundering, he'll probably be just fine as rags like the Strib fail to respond and adjust to their markets. That's assuming the Strib survives.
 

Well at my company we keep stupid, lazy, unreliable,

incompetent, or otherwise worthless employees around forever.

Well, not so much any more.

Maybe that is what they do in the Govt. sector.

Well, those retire at age 56,with a massive pension have no worries, so who give a Stt.

Who in the real world has a pension, and these govt. employees are retiring at age 55 or so at close to 100kk year in payments? Please send me that 3000 plus check every two weeks until I croak.

Who is paying for that??????? Let me guess.

Public employees are killing us. If i could do it all over again, I'd be a school district administrator slug.
 

Come on now.......youre going to give slugs a bad name.
 

Weisbrod said:
He's horrible? So the Trib should just fire him and put him on the streets because some people don't agree with him. That's the thing, people just don't understand how difficult it is to be a sports writer. Readers just sit back and pick these people apart and just don't understand that they are people, NOT MACHINES. I would like to see you, or anyone on this blog, try and do his job for one week and then come back and see what it's really like.
What would YOU do differently? How would you handle this situation? What else has Myron done so horribly in the past? Just try and think; was he writing something that you didn't agree with, or was he being lazy like Sid Hartman...there is a difference.
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Wow, you'd think I called his wife a slut! Perhaps... Weisbrod = Myron
 

Wow, OakStreet...way to stay on topic. Been to any town halls lately?
 

Oak St.

"Well at my company we keep stupid, lazy, unreliable, incompetent, or otherwise worthless employees around forever."


Oak St. is that why your company still employs you?

The shot at school admin. was about the dumbest thing I have ever heard.
 

Weisbrod said:
He's horrible? So the Trib should just fire him and put him on the streets because some people don't agree with him. That's the thing, people just don't understand how difficult it is to be a sports writer. Readers just sit back and pick these people apart and just don't understand that they are people, NOT MACHINES. I would like to see you, or anyone on this blog, try and do his job for one week and then come back and see what it's really like.
What would YOU do differently? How would you handle this situation? What else has Myron done so horribly in the past? Just try and think; was he writing something that you didn't agree with, or was he being lazy like Sid Hartman...there is a difference.
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I'm certainly not saying I could do his job and I don't think most people here are. But he's not good. Jeff Shelman was 10x better then him and so is Marcus Fuller at the Pioneer Press. Gopher Lady (and others) have written pieces on this site that were much better then anything I've seen Myron put out there. I don't need a journalism degree to see that. Even Youngblood is a much better journalist even if he disappears for months at a time. And the Strib's beat writers for the Twins and Vikings are all average to good. The fact that they've left one of the top 4 sports in this market to be covered by a very green journalist is pathetic. I know they've had no choice but to lay-off some people and Shelman got up in that, but they've managed to maintain competant beat writers for all of the other key teams except Gopher basketball and that is sad.

I have nothing against Myron personally, and I'm not questioning his work ethic. But nothing in his backround suggests he was ready to cover major college basketball for the largest newspaper in the 13th biggest media market in the country and he should never have been asked to.
 

oak_street1981 said:
incompetent, or otherwise worthless employees around forever.

Well, not so much any more.

Maybe that is what they do in the Govt. sector.

Well, those retire at age 56,with a massive pension have no worries, so who give a Stt.

Who in the real world has a pension, and these govt. employees are retiring at age 55 or so at close to 100kk year in payments? Please send me that 3000 plus check every two weeks until I croak.

Who is paying for that??????? Let me guess.

Public employees are killing us. If i could do it all over again, I'd be a school district administrator slug.
Click to expand...


Oak,

how many public sector employees in MN do you think have a pension close to 100k, regardless of how old they were when they retired? And what percent of public sector employees retire before 60, regardless of benefit amount?

And with regard to the latter, if your house is on fire and your family is overcome by smoke fumes, do you want a 65 year old coming in to carry them out or a 35 year old?
 

Myron is a terrible writer, but I'll give him a break on that. The problem that I have with him is how often his facts are wrong from terrible research. He doesn't know what he's talking about with recruits half of the time. Example 1 of about 100: "Kansas prep point guard Trevor Relerford, a two-star player on rivals.com". Hmm, you claim to love the way he plays, implying you've seen him play, but yet it didn't seem odd to you when you did your little google search and saw he was only a 2 star? It's actually much harder to even find his football profile. I don't know how he wouldn't notice that he was actually looking at that.

Then he says, "I’m hearing that White might end up battling Damian Johnson for the small forward spot because of what he can offer defensively." Last time I checked, Damian Johnson was All Big Ten Defensive Team, a senior, and our captain, and Royce is only a freshman. Yes, White is a very good player, but I would guess the main reason he would be challenging DJ for minutes is because of his offensive abilities, not defensive, even though he is a good defender as well. Then his stupid comments like "They never contacted Smith about their opening. Interesting."

Yeah, I know it's easy to sit back and bash him with an anonymous name, but I don't think he has an excuse for getting his facts wrong so often, to add to the fact that he's just not a very good writer. I really think he just doesn't do his research. About Barnes... "If his goal is to get the most exposure, then a school like Minnesota will have trouble competing against North Carolina, Duke and Kansas for his services." Everyone knows that's not his priority. He's also going to get exposure wherever he goes. He's the number one player in the country, and as Myron puts it, he has "legit NBA potential". The one thing that he'll give him credit for is writing about some stuff we wouldn't know without him, but you'd hope that any sports writer would be able to do that.

So because he has a family, that means he can just do a poor job? And just because we are critiquing his work doesn't mean that we think we could do a better job.
 

1. Did Lawrence Westbrook transfer before last season?
2. Was the non-conference schedule released this past Monday.

Myron said both would happen.
 

I've always hated the line "let's see you go try his job."

Well, I'm not trained to do it. But, he is supposed to be trained to be a reporter. Nor, am I trained to be a chef. But, a chef is supposed to be trained to cook.

But, see, I can go into a restaurant and figure out if the chef is any good by eating his food. Exactly like I can read an article to determine if a reporter is any good. I fully admit I am not qualified to be a chef at a restaurant nor am I qualified to be a writer in a Top 20 market newspaper.

But, I can surely recognize if the work of the chef or the writer is any good.

And, in Myron's case, it typically isn't all that great. Not for a market the size of MSP and not for a reporter assigned to cover a Big Ten university. There are guys in Champaign, Cedar Rapids, and West Lafayette that report circles around a guy who is covering the team in the 2nd largest market in the Big Ten. The Strib would have been wise to find a guy from one of those papers who has paid his dues and who knows how to develop contacts and sources and determine storylines and gain trust to fill that role at the paper, as opposed to handing over the beat of a Big Ten team in a major metro to a guy who was literally an intern a year or two before he got the job and had hardly even reported on a high school game.
 


Does anyone ever come on here to complement a writer? Probably not. That's the problem. People just don't appreciate excellent writing (I'm not saying Myron is, or isn't a good writer). It seems to me its a lot easier to bash someone than to bring up a topic concerning a superb journalism piece.
Sad.
I think there is a better way to disagree with someone's writing than verbally assaulting them behind a computer screen.
I'm in no way "backing up" Myron. I just think people need to chill out a little bit and understand that there are better ways of communicating other than making fun of someone or insulting them. Just wait, when the Gophers take off this season, we'll all be reading Myron's stuff and won't be thinking about much we "hate" him.
 

I don't think anyone is suggesting they "hate" Myron. If they are, then I agree with you that that is stupid.

And, I'd go so far as to not even "blame" him for his work. Who can blame Myron? A Top 20 newspaper came calling a kid just a few years out of college to cover a Big Ten team. No one would turn that down, no matter how qualified or unqualified they are for the position.

The fault really lies with the sorry saps who run what was once a really good newspaper - The Strib. Those people are horrible. Instead of searching for someone who had experience covering a major college team and who has all of those essential reporting skills and going ahead and offering a guy from Columbia, Missouri; or Lawrence, Kansas; or Madison, Wisconsin or some other smaller market with a major school the job, they hired a kid who just wasn't ready. It looks particularly bad when the guy he replaced was a very well-respected and well-connected writer in Jeff Shelman (of course outside of the whiff on Monson's firing).

Myron someday may become a fine reporter. But, it is not just about "writing." It is about developing sources, contacts, storylines, breaking stories, etc., and most of that has very little to do with actual "writing." The basics of being a great beat reporter go way beyond writing. That is where Myron lacks and again, someday he may find himself being a great reporter. He certainly is getting on the job training. But, right now, he is not all that great as a reporter and not all that great as a writer.

And, frankly, that is sad for a major newspaper to have someone with so little experience on the beat of a Big Ten team which is coached by an icon and on the rise in a major market.
 

tjgopher said:
The fault really lies with the sorry saps who run what was once a really good newspaper - The Strib.
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TJ,

While I agree with most of what you wrote, I quibble with the above. There's a cost/benefit analysis at play here--how many more subscriptions and how much more advertising do you think they could sell if they hired a more experienced (i.e. more expensive) reporter? I don't think it's much. The newspaper is trying to financially survive in the face of huge changes in how people, including those on this board, get their news. The internet has decimated the old business model, and while we love the advantages--like this board, we have to accept the fallout. But if someone must be blamed, I, like you, would leave Myron out of it, but I'd also leave StarTrib mgmt out of it. I suggest we blame Al Gore for inventing the internet. :rolleyes::)
 

Jim V2 said:
TJ,

While I agree with most of what you wrote, I quibble with the above. There's a cost/benefit analysis at play here--how many more subscriptions and how much more advertising do you think they could sell if they hired a more experienced (i.e. more expensive) reporter?
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That's assuming Myron comes cheaper than somebody from Des Moines or Champaign or Stillwater or Lincoln. I doubt it. Remember, the Strib is still unionized. It isn't like Myron is making $6.35 an hour. He is guaranteed a certain wage because of the union. That wage is still likely higher than many guys make in smaller towns. I'm still convinced they could have gone into some of those smaller markets with major universities and found someone with much more experience and skill. They simply took the easy, convenient, and cheap way out.
 

tjgopher said:
That's assuming Myron comes cheaper than somebody from Des Moines or Champaign or Stillwater or Lincoln. I doubt it. Remember, the Strib is still unionized. It isn't like Myron is making $6.35 an hour. He is guaranteed a certain wage because of the union. That wage is still likely higher than many guys make in smaller towns. I'm still convinced they could have gone into some of those smaller markets with major universities and found someone with much more experience and skill. They simply took the easy, convenient, and cheap way out.
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This is a fair point. I've read far better writers in Sioux Falls and here in Charlottesville, VA then Myron. They could have done better.

The other issue to me is what it says about where the Strib places Gopher Basketball in its sports coverage. The Vikings get Zulgad AND Scoggins who are both good and they pulled Scoggins off of Gopher football to cover the Vikes. The Twins get Neal AND Christensen who are both good, though LaVelle is a bit sloppy at times. I don't read the T-wolves coverage as much, but Zgoda is a veteran guy, and Russo seems adequte for the Wild. So despite thier financial difficulty, they manage to have competent beat writers covering all of the pro teams, but stick Gopher basketball with Myron and Gopher football with Youngblood (who is good when he bothers to write anything at all.) I would sumbit that more readers care about Gopher basketball then the Wolves or the Wild. They should not be the ones getting the short end of the stick.
 

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