We came across the following today and most of it made a lot of sense to us.
However, our opinion is that any legal problems of former Wolf Pack athletes incurred after leaving Reno need not be included when presenting the present day news. We don't see the correlation.
We also read elsewhere that some objected to the photos of the two guns involved in Ahyaro Phillips' case being displayed. But both are key elements in the situation and, if available, should have been included in any story as descriptions of the weapon as seen by witnesses was a key element.
It's still our opinion that Nevada AD Carey Groth needs to learn from some of the things she said during this whole matter.
Plus as Moody notes, regardless of any objections to the presentation of the situation, opposing coaches (both in and out of the WAC) now have a 'golden' opportunity to engage in negative recruiting when going up against the Wolf Pack for prospects. Basketball-wise, that's the most serious element if one happens to be a Nevada fan.
Let's hope Coach Carter now has the opportunity to enjoy a period of relative calm and can put his personal imprint on the program he now heads. He's a good guy who will do a good job.
Carter needs to get Pack under control
Darrell Moody
Nevada Appeal
April 26, 2009
To say that David Carter’s first three weeks as head coach of the Nevada Wolf Pack has been tough is an understatement.
He lost a player to injury; he lost a player to gun possession; he lost a player, Mark McLaughlin, because Mark Fox left and he lost a player, Malik Cooke, who wants a transfer.
Nevada officials scolded the media for its way of handling the situation involving Phillips and bringing up past issues with both Kirk Snyder and Kevinn Pinkney... Go here for the remainder.
Sunday, April 26, 2009
Darrell Moody offers some sanity
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6 comments:
Kevin,
You seem to be taking the media's side in this, which isn't wholly unexpected. Do you think that the Reno Gazette Journal's failure to address the main point of the press conference, media accountability, in print was a sign that the newspaper acknowledged their role in the escalation of hostilities between the paper and the athletic department?
Maybe this is simply semantics but I don't see my comments as taking a side. Let me ponder this some more and re-visit.
The role of the press is to inform the public of news, both good and bad. Like it or not. I find it silly that the university would hold a press conference to address "media accountability." What about university accountability and the issue at hand? The university is as guilty of putting a spin on this as the media could ever be in a case like this. UNR would have been better served to take the high road instead of involving themselves in this type of finger-pointing. Did the media have a role in this escalation? Sure, that's the nature of the business when informing the public. Was there malicious intent against the university and the individuals involved? I seriously doubt it.
What it comes down to is this: UNR officials would obviously prefer that their dirty laundry be kept in-house. Unfortunately for them, police reports are, indeed, public record and newsworthy. The news got out, and what a surprise! The school is upset that the cat is out of the bag. Sadly, UNR is going through a tough time within their athletic department. It will eventually pass like it always does, so why bring so much attention to it? Perhaps the university should take the time to understand what "accountability" really means. As long as they continue to point fingers at the media, the longer it will take for this overblown situation to blow over.
I was particularly referring to your opinion that "Cary Groth needs to learn from some of the things she said" when saying that you were taking the media's side. Perhaps I should let you elaborate a bit more on that before saying that you are taking a side, but I see her actions as an athletic director defending her program and athletes from over the top rhetoric and intentionally inflammatory headlines from the local newspaper, and there is absolutely nothing wrong with that in my opinion.
Let me add this for now. Per Chris Murray's blog entry on 4/22 titled "More Information on Cooke, Johnson, Giles and Carp" this appears: "Next, after speaking with Groth mid-afternoon today, she made it clear to me that Malik Cooke was leaving the program to be closer to his family in North Carolina. She even said, "I think our program will miss him.” Later in the evening, she called and said that Cooke's leaving the program is not final and nothing will be determined until after Cooke meets with Nevada coach David Carter on Friday. She did not mention that meeting the first time we spoke..."
We are all human but in this case (meeting in person with the press), Groth needs to speak without ambiguity. It could be a simple case of mis-speaking (understandable considering what has taken place on campus of late) but at the Nevada CEO it's imperative her language be clear, concise and accurate, the first time. She does deserve praise for correcting herself later.
There was also an earlier statement Groth made about the gun Phillips was carrying but unfortunately I can't find it now. Doing this from memory, it wasn't that she misstated anything but more along the lines of her not knowing something about the gun. Maybe she hadn't had the time to get updated on everything but it just seemed incongruent that she wasn't able to answer that question.
In Chris Murray's article titled "Nevada refuses to grant Cooke a release in good standing, Groth is quoted thusly: "If we are to grant releases, then we would make it easy for athletes to transfer instead of keeping their commitment,” Groth said. “Much time and money is invested in the recruiting process and while the athletes are at Nevada.”
Didn't recruit Mark McLaughlin just receive one such release? And in his case, an ailing stepfather who had encountered a serious business setback wasn't offered as grounds for being relieved of his commitment.
Let's see as more information is provided.
To the anonymous commenter:
I don't have a problem with reporting bad news. I do have a problem when that bad news is intentionally blown out of proportion. A few examples from the Phillips dismissal.
1. Armon was legally in possession of the gun and Ahyaro took it from his house without his knowledge, yet that information was nowhere to be found in the articles Murray wrote. The headline "Phillips got gun from teammate's house" is certainly inflammatory and implies that the teammate was involved when, from the police report, that was clearly not the case.
2. Murray implied that Giles, Carp, and the trainer were each questioned more than once and were called back in to amend their original statements. If you read the police report, they were questioned once, and were forthcoming with the information immediately upon being asked if that was actually the statement they wanted to make during their initial interrogations.
3. There was one headline that I can't dig up, but it was something along the lines of "Nevada basketball: More trouble ahead", yet the article didn't do anything but talk about Phillips being dismissed and left the story exactly the same as it was the week before when Ahyaro was kicked off.
The reporting was blatantly misleading and the headlines were sensationalized and that is where the problem was.
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