Spanning the Twitterverse to bring you the constant variety of tweets….the thrill of the retweet….and the agony of the unfollow.…the human drama of the twitter timeline….This is CadChica’s Wide World of Tworts
Normally I don’t blog on Sundays but I had to post my thoughts on the Sean Miller to Maryland story on Twitter.
ARIZONA
Drama with a capital D. That would best describe the last few days of the Arizona and Maryland “dance” over Coach Sean Miller. Being a self-proclaimed Twitterholic, I was one of the “many” that got caught up in the rumor-mill. It was easy to do. There are so many athletes and sports media journalists/outlets on Twitter now that accessing information from around the country, let alone the world, is easier to do than ever before. Trying to sift through what was rumor and what wasn’t over the last few days was just, nerve-wracking!!!!
http://twitter.com/#!/ESPNRadio980/status/66893419288604672
One would think that a station with the ESPN moniker would have its facts right. Based on what they were told, Miller would be the next coach. Andy Katz from ESPN national (the mothership), may give some credence to the reporting done by ESPN 980 (Washington D.C.)
This is our Miller story on espn.com that had a few updated MD searching graphs earlier Sunday: http://es.pn/jbvalz
— Andy Katz (@TheAndyKatz) May 8, 2011
But, from the Arizona perspective, The Wildcat Sports Report tweeted this regarding the last 36 hours:
http://twitter.com/#!/WSRArizona/status/67289498605715456
Reading the article linked in WSRArizona’s tweet, it doesn’t so much discount what Terrapin media or fans were tweeting about Miller being their next coach. Rather, it provides information from Arizona “sources”. In either case, take them for what they are worth. Both are unconfirmed sources until the key parties confirm or deny. Who can say who was right or who was wrong? But, it was a Twitter hurricane of Category 3 proportions.
Yet, the beauty of Twitter is the sharing of information instantly. The drawback of Twitter is trying to identify what is information is legit and what isn’t. As Arizona Republic sports columnist Paola Boivin put it:
http://twitter.com/#!/PaolaBoivin/status/66631958918209537
It’s not the fault of Twitter (I’m speaking like it’s a person — sheesh). It’s up to each tweeter to figure out for themselves what to believe or rather what to re-tweet. The problem, therefore, at least for me is when the subject becomes personal. As stated in my “About” section of the blog, I am an Arizona Wildcats basketball fan. No, I’m not an alumnus, nor did I even try to attend the school. I grew up watching them in the Phoenix/Mesa area. I was hooked. Even after I moved up here to the Pacific Northwest, I have continued to follow them as much as I could; which has gotten better as technology has improved. So this story, challenged me immensely.
My sheer panic over the last few days only proves my passion. Or maybe it’s my overzealousness when it comes to Wildcat basketball. I, quite literally, was looking for any small nugget I could find, including below:
http://twitter.com/#!/CadChica/status/67070291192446976
How pathetic! I immediately thought the wrong thing when I discovered that nugget. Little did I know that about an hour or so later, this would crop up:
http://twitter.com/#!/Greg_Byrne/status/67081445650350080
Arizona Athletic Director not allowing any media outlet to scoop him on this news story, tweeted Sean Miller’s status himself. Major props to him for not only tweeting the news, but working to keep Miller at UofA.
In the aftermath however, I am admonishing myself for getting caught up in the Twitter-hype. Nobody knows what really happened other than the man himself, Sean Miller, and his family. Maybe Greg Byrne knew but he’s not Sean Miller. He doesn’t know everything that Coach Miller is thinking 24 hours a day. The sad part of all of this is related to my tweet above regarding Coach Miller’s wife, Amy. It’s from an Arizona “fanatic”:
http://twitter.com/#!/Oran21/status/67006321442041856
And yes, she has deleted her account. A sad end to a whirlwind of a weekend for both Arizona and Maryland fans. And although they got a new contract, I’m not sure I blame The Millers if they are shaking their heads and wondering if it’s all worth it sometimes. It’s part of the business, but does it have to be?
CadChica Sports