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mamasa

Major announcement?

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6 minutes ago, Hoosierfan2017 said:

If by ‘at times’ you mean almost every time he’s on camera, sure. He’s not the only good marketing guy out there. But he’s the only one I’ve ever seen corner a recruit and tell him to ‘blink twice’ if he thinks X school he just visited sucks. 

I have no idea what he’s like when the cameras are off. The only image I have of him is the one he’s gone to great lengths to put forwarding on camera. The image he’s put forward is that of a clown who, at any given moment, is capable of embarrassing himself and everyone he’s affiliated with. 

He ‘rolls the dice’ in ways that really aren’t appropriate. I don’t know who in the IU administration watched this video and thought ‘yup, this is the guy I want marketing for us.’ 

 

You guys keep bringing up the two bright fail moments of Eric.Garcia and Fears.

About a week after that terrible Fears interview Kenya spent 45 minutes on the podcast. IU is apparently willing to take the very few cringe worthy moments to get to the really good stuff

How about the hundred + times he was funny and relatable? Did you hear his Kenya interview the other day when Freddie McSwain calls in from Luxembourg? His Bruiser Flint stuff? Pizza with Xavier Johnson?

The guys that get a chance to interact for the most part lovvvvvve it.

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19 minutes ago, Stuhoo said:

Hey guys?

So, so true he goes overboard sometimes!

People that are really good at marketing roll the dice and are over the top at times. That’s reality. And that’s okay.

I would argue that if a single kid he comes in contact with second guesses if they should come to IU because of an interaction with him - something I can’t confirm has happened, but doesn’t seem too far fetched - then it is very much not okay. 

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3 minutes ago, Hovadipo said:

I would argue that if a single kid he comes in contact with second guesses if they should come to IU because of an interaction with him - something I can’t confirm has happened, but doesn’t seem too far fetched - then it is very much not okay. 

Agreed! That’s not good.

And I would argue that if the entire current roster and coaching staff identifies him as the resource that can market the players NIL the best, that outweighs one cringe worthy Dawson Garcia moment.

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9 minutes ago, Stuhoo said:

You guys keep bringing up the two bright fail moments of Eric.

How about the hundred + times he was funny and relatable? Did you hear his Kenya interview the other day when Freddie McSwain calls in from Luxembourg? His Bruiser Flint stuff? Pizza with Xavier Johnson?

The guys that get a chance to interact for the most part lovvvvvve it.

Because I find him neither funny nor relatable. He puts out videos all the time where he’s just weird. It was weird when he tweeted out a video where he said his kids names were now Jalen, Hood, and Schifino for the next week until he makes his college decision. It was extremely weird when he tweeted all kinds of strange things at Dawson Garcia. It was weird when he cornered Jeremy Fears and trashed Illinois in front of him.

The Jeremy Fears embarrassment is especially significant to me because it just happened three weeks ago. It happened a month after the NIL collective was announced. The JHS videos happened after it was announced too. Any stunts of theirs like that should’ve ended when the NIL collective was announced, but they’re keeping them coming. 

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2 minutes ago, Stuhoo said:

Agreed!

And I would argue that if the entire current roster and coaching staff identifies him as the resource that can market the players NIL the best, that outweighs one cringe worthy Dawson Garcia moment.

Sure. Guys that are already here aren’t going to turn down money from a guy that’s no doubt good at generating a lot of it. It’s about the very likely issue of not getting one of those guys here in the first place because of him, for me. 
 

If he were to knock off the recruit stuff, I’d probably only call him a dork and not the dork. 

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15 minutes ago, Stuhoo said:

Agreed! That’s not good.

And I would argue that if the entire current roster and coaching staff identifies him as the resource that can market the players NIL the best, that outweighs one cringe worthy Dawson Garcia moment.

Dawson Garcia wasn’t just one moment, though. It was a string of tweets over the course of multiple weeks. Some of the tweets included the following: 

It would be one thing if they realized that their behavior was weird and changed. But, they haven’t. They’ve doubled down. The best way to get NIL opportunities for our players is to win. Become a top 5 program and businesses will come calling. Major business. Duke or UK won’t have to hire a carnival barker to get their players deals. If we win enough we won’t either. 

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5 minutes ago, Hovadipo said:

Sure. Guys that are already here aren’t going to turn down money from a guy that’s no doubt good at generating a lot of it. It’s about the very likely issue of not getting one of those guys here in the first place because of him, for me. 
 

If he were to knock off the recruit stuff, I’d probably only call him a dork and not the dork. 

“A dork and not THE dork.”

That’s a pretty strong line lol.

Im also a fan of your line “guys aren’t going to turn down money from a guy that’s no doubt good at generating a lot of it.”

“Hey recruits? Let’s compare IU’s NIL deals with XX school!”

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4 minutes ago, Hoosierfan2017 said:

Dawson Garcia wasn’t just one moment, though. It was a string of tweets over the course of multiple weeks. Some of the tweets included the following: 

It would be one thing if they realized that their behavior was weird and changed. But, they haven’t. They’ve doubled down.

That was two years ago. Their behavior HAS changed, with the occasional backslide :)

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I’m going to root like hell for their success and IU’s. NIL is an odd thing to navigate. Brings the cheating to the surface which I absolutely love, because we never stood a chance in the old construct. TBD, if we stand a chance in the new construct. Time will tell. I imagine we will be still be behind UNC, Duke, UK, Kansas, UCLA, Oregon, Memphis a big part of the $EC, maybe Michigan, Ohio State.


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7 minutes ago, Stuhoo said:

That was two years ago. Their behavior HAS changed, with the occasional backslide :)

Defending these guys is weird. Neither of them are the “massive success” some posters are trying to claim. By LA standards, Eric is the equivalent of upper level corporate management…not some generational wealth earning booster with deep connections. Being able to name drop James Cordon and show off his primetime Emmy isn’t cool enough to potential recruits to outweigh the creepy/weird behavior he displays. Also, as someone who enjoys cigars I find his incessant parading of his lit stoogies bizarre. We get it, you smoke cigars…you don’t have to act like a 16 year old who just swiped one out of your dad’s humidor undetected to film your lame tik tok

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16 minutes ago, Stuhoo said:

That was two years ago. Their behavior HAS changed, with the occasional backslide :)

I don’t really agree, but for the sake of conversation I’ll drop that argument. The backslides are what get people’s attention, and it’s the backslides that affect us with recruits. They aren’t the NIL guys to Jeremy Fears. They’re the corner you and make you feel uncomfortable guys. 

Back when we were looking for our next coach there were multiple coaches who are very good, but coaches many people didn’t want to hire because they didn’t like the way they operated. That’s how I feel about the Hoosier Hysterics guys. I don’t like their style at all. 

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3 minutes ago, Hoosierfan2017 said:

I don’t really agree, but for the sake of conversation I’ll drop that argument. The backslides are what get people’s attention, and it’s the backslides that affect us with recruits. They aren’t the NIL guys to Jeremy Fears. They’re the corner you and make you feel uncomfortable guys. 

Back when we were looking for our next coach there were multiple coaches who are very good, but coaches many people didn’t want to hire because they didn’t like the way they operated. That’s how I feel about the Hoosier Hysterics guys. I don’t like their style at all. 

But there’s a difference with what I’m willing to tolerate with a head coach (Brice Pearl or Will Wade? Hell no) and what I’m willing to tolerate with our “hype guy.”

Now if he doesn’t bring the money and hype? Then he sucks.

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19 minutes ago, Stuhoo said:

But there’s a difference with what I’m willing to tolerate with a head coach (Brice Pearl or Will Wade? Hell no) and what I’m willing to tolerate with our “hype guy.”

Now if he doesn’t bring the money and hype? Then he sucks.

But just as the argument there was that their tactics aren’t necessary to succeed in college basketball, the Hoosier Hysterics aren’t necessary for IU to succeed in NIL. Bloomington is a basketball crazed town in a basketball crazed state. If IU gets back to a constant top 25 team, there will be no shortage of willing sponsors. Why risk it with these guys and their baggage? 

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5 minutes ago, Hoosierfan2017 said:

But just as the argument there was that their tactics aren’t necessary to succeed in college basketball, the Hoosier Hysterics aren’t necessary for IU to succeed in NIL. Bloomington is a basketball crazed town in a basketball crazed state. If IU gets back to a constant top 25 team, there will be no shortage of willing sponsors. Why risk it with these guys and their baggage? 

I would say IU is in position to do very well with NIL, but Bloomington and the State of Indiana are not hotbeds of media attention.

Our brand has been sliding for about twenty years. Top 25 won’t do it—a Final Four with all the attention it would bring Woody would be a national story.

A good hype guy that brings money to players can only help. Now I truly do agree with you—the guy has screwed up a few times and there’s risk involved. But increasing chances of success often includes risk.

 

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Hot take: Some of the Nancy's on this board complaining about how "creepy" EP is are a bigger detriment to the bball program than the Hysterics shtick. Sure, they produce the occasional cringe-worthy, borderline interactions. But, at least they're creating content that clearly the current players enjoy and now apparently may be providing opportunities for $$ on top of it. That's more than any of the critics on this board have done. Whether you like it or not is pointless. This is the new NIL world we all are living in so might as well get on board.

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17 minutes ago, FightFor6 said:

Hot take: Some of the Nancy's on this board complaining about how "creepy" EP is are a bigger detriment to the bball program than the Hysterics shtick. Sure, they produce the occasional cringe-worthy, borderline interactions. But, at least they're creating content that clearly the current players enjoy and now apparently may be providing opportunities for $$ on top of it. That's more than any of the critics on this board have done. Whether you like it or not is pointless. This is the new NIL world we all are living in so might as well get on board.

Ok Eric.

You can’t create NIL opportunities for players who don’t come to your school. Harassing recruits for Twitter likes is a good way to keep them away. You can say that the ‘critics’ haven’t done anything that Eric has, but that goes both ways. The ‘critics’ haven’t done the bad things either. We haven’t tweeted at high schoolers about how we’re going to get their names tattooed on our bodies. We haven’t posted videos talking about how we’re going to name our kids after high school recruits. 

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Hot take: Some of the Nancy's on this board complaining about how "creepy" EP is are a bigger detriment to the bball program than the Hysterics shtick. Sure, they produce the occasional cringe-worthy, borderline interactions. But, at least they're creating content that clearly the current players enjoy and now apparently may be providing opportunities for $$ on top of it. That's more than any of the critics on this board have done. Whether you like it or not is pointless. This is the new NIL world we all are living in so might as well get on board.

Yeah, I tend to agree. The “eat our own” mantra needs to end at some point. Just hoping for success, and a program we are all proud of.


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1 minute ago, Hoosierfan2017 said:

Ok Eric.

You can’t create NIL opportunities for players who don’t come to your school. Harassing recruits for Twitter likes is a good way to keep them away. You can say that the ‘critics’ haven’t done anything that Eric has, but that goes both ways. The ‘critics’ haven’t done the bad things either. We haven’t tweeted at high schoolers about how we’re going to get their names tattooed on our bodies. We haven’t posted videos talking about how we’re going to name our kids after high school recruits. 

Uh, have you been on Twitter in the past ~10 years? That is obviously false. Look, end of the day, whether a middle-aged man's interactions with recruits makes you uncomfortable or not is irrelevant. The guy is about to make current IU players more money and that's all that matters. Recruits will overlook the awkward mentions if it results in more cash in their pocket. 

Some of you guys look for any reason possible to twist yourself into a pretzel of outrage.

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19 minutes ago, FightFor6 said:

Uh, have you been on Twitter in the past ~10 years? That is obviously false. Look, end of the day, whether a middle-aged man's interactions with recruits makes you uncomfortable or not is irrelevant. The guy is about to make current IU players more money and that's all that matters. Recruits will overlook the awkward mentions if it results in more cash in their pocket. 

Some of you guys look for any reason possible to twist yourself into a pretzel of outrage.

Sure, whether it makes me uncomfortable is irrelevant. But if it makes me uncomfortable, chances are it makes some recruits uncomfortable too. He almost certainly made Jeremy Fears feel uncomfortable. And it’s completely unnecessary. Why was a middle-aged man interacting with recruits like that in the first place? Why is a middle-aged man tweeting the videos at recruits that he tweets?

Every school will be able to do NIL for their players. IU won’t be the only school with it. IU will, however, be the only school with Eric Pankowski. You think that’s a good thing. I don’t. 

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