Most fans around here already have known that Duke players and potential Duke players have gravitated to Twitter. In 140 characters or less, they let us know about their lives, what their thinking, and even reveal plans about their future. While this seems harmless enough, players have found a new way to let fans into their world.
Last night Duke fans flocked to hear Kyrie Irving, who was live on Ustream, talk about his visit and take other questions. The chat room quickly filled with mostly Duke and Kentucky fans eagerly trying to crack the code of where he was going to school. Of course the chat rooms turned into a shouting match (as much as typing words could yield) between the two schools, and Kyrie was left to sift threw thousand of comments and questions. At one point a call came from Nolan Smith which Kyrie took and had Blue Devil fans gleaming. After the call Nolan announced he would be ustreaming himself. Thus led Duke fans to Nolan’s world.
Nolan took the usual questions and was his usual outgoing self. His biggest error? Flashing his cell phone number along with fellow Dukie Seth Curry’s. When he found out, Nolan had a priceless look on his face. Curry quickly tweeted to please not call him. He also mentioned that he would be on Ustream tonight.
From Kyrie Irving (the godfather of recruits Ustreaming if you will), to Nolan, and on to Seth. However, today word is that Quin Cook another high profile recruit would be fielding questions live also.
And so the new way to follow recruits has begun. The insiders of the basketball recruiting world our most likely going to be losing a little bit of pull as far as information goes, as players are taking control. The main problem? There is more slippery slopes than the most dangerous peaks in the country when dealing with this. The NCAA, coaches, and even families will be watching closely. New rules will try to be formed to prevent such things, but to what effectiveness? Can you really tell someone not to share their life, like the social networking age is telling them to do?
Knowing more about the players you cheer for, or hope to cheer for is great. But how long before this becomes a problem. I love to listen to Nolan answer questions, but if you follow his Twitter feed you know that he can sometimes walk a fine line with the words he uses. Video form and a sometimes violent chat room might polarize this.
Time will tell what coaches, college and high school, will think about this. I can’t imagine Coach K not feeling a little bit uneasy about his players opening up to not only Duke fans but to fans of other teams. These are still kids after all.
