Link/Announcement Roundup, Big 10, USA Hockey Edition

By Paul M. Banks

-As you might have guessed, there was a ton of interest in and questions about Patrick Kane’s “Buffalo Incident” on August 9th at the first day of Team USA Hockey Orientation Camp. The first day was certainly a circus, but the second day might have been a lot more fun as the swarm of excess media disappeared, and the media throng that remained got a much better chance to actually talk hockey.

-At the Team USA Camp, I also saw a couple of young, very slaggish looking women dressed in slutty t-shirts that read “Support Patrick Kane.” Sorry no pictures available.

-Check out this excerpt from an exclusive with former Ohio State Buckeye and current Vancouver Canuck Ryan Kesler, courtesy of the “Puck Daddy” blog.

On to the Olympics and potentially playing for Team USA. What do you think our chances are next year in Vancouver?

Ah, we’re the darkhorse. I think we’ve got some good young talent, we’ve got some veteran guys, and I think it’s going to be a good mixture. It’s a group that’ll work extremely hard.

Will you now do the Mark Messier thing and guarantee to our readers that the United States will medal?

[Laughs] Yeah, OK: I think the United States will medal. I’ll guarantee that.

Awesome. And beyond that, will you also guarantee that we’ll beat the Canadians?

I guarantee that we’ll beat the Canadians.

We appreciate your moxie, Mr. Kesler.

-So if you look on page 24 of the Northwestern Football Media Guide, you’ll see a picture of me next to Tyrell Sutton. You might notice that every Big Ten media guide has a picture of Erin Andrews in it. I wonder why that is? Oh, that’s why, obviously.

-Northwestern head Coach Pat Fitzgerald discussing Twitter and Facebook at NU Media Day:

“From a Twitter standpoint, I think it’s a great way to get your message out to your fans. I haven’t seen it be a very rewarding communication aspect to recruits. From marketing and maybe letting fans have a little bit of an inside look, it’s a neat opportunity to help use technology to help market out program.

From a Facebook standpoint, that is a great medium to be able to recruit. It’s where 17,18, 19 year old men are communicating. Email is already a dinosaur, that’s turned into I guess the snail of technology…But out coaches are very computer savvy, and we’ve been able to build some great relationships through that medium.”

-Is it me or does almost every press conference these days include the words “Twitter,” “Facebook” or “social media”?

-I know when the teams choose which players represent the team at Big Ten Media Day, it’s all about seniors, and leadership and blah blah blah, but c’mon does it have to be all seniors and a couple juniors?

Ohio State is brimming with talent, rated as the conference favorite yet they brought who? Jake Ballard? Why? He had a WHOPPING 18 catches and 221 yards combined during his sophomore and junior seasons. Couldn’t they have brought someone that the media has actually heard of…like I don’t know the conference’s preseason Offensive player of the year, Terrelle Pryor? I know he’s a sophomore, but what was Tressel and OSU thinking? I’m calling Shenanigans out on them.

-And if there’s a supposed conference inferiority complex towards the SEC, why did so many of the top teams bring players that nobody has heard of, or that anyone will remember five years from now? Like Iowa, a conference championship darkhorse has three or four offensive linemen that will likely be NFL Draft picks, but they instead bring us…Tony Moeaki, seriously? The tight end has never even had 200 yards receiving in a season! Bring someone that people will care about!

-According to Alexa.com, TSB has seen a 200% traffic growth during the past three months. They gave us some details about the places where TSB receives most of its traffic. I want to give a shout to all our readers in Bombay, New Dehli, Bangalore, San Jose (the Costa Rican capital, not the Silicon Valley city…but you people in the South Bay, you’re pretty cool too) and Tel Aviv! Worldwide baby! Worldwide.
Thesportsbank.net users come from these countries:

•    40.8% India
•    33.4% United States
•    15.1% Costa Rica
•    4.5% Israel
•    5.8% OTHER

Thesportsbank.net traffic rank in other countries:

•    6,031 Costa Rica
•    141,283 India
•    73,153 Israel

-MLBTradeRumors.com linked here saying, “On this date two years ago, the Yankees and Padres …”
-An excellent Frank Deford SI.com column calling out ESPN for what it truly is in its current incarnation- much more a sports marketing and promotions company, much less a news-gathering agency.

Just suppose that CNN regularly had cutesy commercials for CNN starring Nancy Pelosi, John McCain and Rahm Emanuel. Well, that’s the equivalent of what ESPN regularly does with top sports personalities. The practice is, simply, a journalistic disgrace, and, because ESPN is so powerful, by association it diminishes the integrity of all sports journalism.

Imagine if The Wall Street Journal was not just the nation’s only powerful business outlet but it also owned the rights to the listings on the New York Stock Exchange.

Well, essentially so it is with ESPN and sports. ESPN rules the land, the sea and the firmament of sport, and ESPN sees that it is good. What it covers is so often what it owns the rights to — in almost every major sport. ESPN has multiple channels, a magazine, a radio network and now it’s starting local Web sites in many cities to compete on that level.

To be sure, other networks share some rights to the various leagues, but only ESPN is a critical mass. ESPN can make you. For example, it signed a 15-year contract with the Southeastern Conference for more than $2 billion, thereby sending every other conference into a panic mode, fearful that ESPN will make the SEC preeminent, America’s conference. It can do that.