Jump to content

Thanks for visiting BtownBanners.com!  We noticed you have AdBlock enabled.  While ads can be annoying, we utilize them to provide these forums free of charge to you!  Please consider removing your AdBlock for BtownBanners or consider signing up to donate and help BtownBanners stay alive!  Thank you!

Stuhoo

Questions For Hutch

Recommended Posts

Basketball recruiting is a niche of college basketball gaining steam due to ESPN and Kentucky's reliance on one and done. Hutch covers neither. His articles are focused on IU in the moment, not the future. It's always been that way. As much uncertainty as there is in recruiting there is no way to intelligently cover it with integrity unless you were a full time analyst which Albers was. Sources for something like this is the AAU scene which is typically a revolving door of followers Hutch did not involve in his articles. This isn't meant to be rude so please don't take it that way, but there is a huge difference between your perception and the reality of what he does.

 

I used to read the Scout site pretty regularly and Albers didn't actually cover recruiting on a full-time basis, did he? It seems to me he had lots of stories about IU other than recruiting stories - game stories, previews, analysis of how the team was playing, press conference coverage, etc. I think very few, if any, of the guys who cover recruiting for a particular team report exclusively on recruiting. 

And I don't mean this disrespectfully, but I'm not sure what you mean about none of Hutch's articles being focused on the future. On the front page of this site right now, he has a story with his take on what non-conference basketball opponents IU should play in future years, a story about Kevin Wilson's future at IU given what might happen this season and a story with predictions for the IU football season -- "It’s really early but I love making prognostications. And I think IU could technically go 3-1 in non-conference play and still find three Big Ten wins. The three that come to mind are Rutgers, Iowa and Purdue . . ." 

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I will do that. Good to know we've got someone here with a finger on the recruiting pulse and picking up the slack. Honestly, I'm kind of looking forward to seeing how this all plays out. I love the idea of freeing Hutch up to do some more video analysis, maybe some podcasts - the possibilities are endless. Bring it on, Hutch!

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I used to read the Scout site pretty regularly and Albers didn't actually cover recruiting on a full-time basis, did he? It seems to me he had lots of stories about IU other than recruiting stories - game stories, previews, analysis of how the team was playing, press conference coverage, etc. I think very few, if any, of the guys who cover recruiting for a particular team report exclusively on recruiting.

And I don't mean this disrespectfully, but I'm not sure what you mean about none of Hutch's articles being focused on the future. On the front page of this site right now, he has a story with his take on what non-conference basketball opponents IU should play in future years, a story about Kevin Wilson's future at IU given what might happen this season and a story with predictions for the IU football season -- "It’s really early but I love making prognostications. And I think IU could technically go 3-1 in non-conference play and still find three Big Ten wins. The three that come to mind are Rutgers, Iowa and Purdue . . ."


Trust me Albers'No.1 love is recruiting. Was it the only thing he did? Of course not. He had a big content number to fill just like I did. But recruiting was his baby. He coached an Indiana Elite team this spring and summer.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Trust me Albers'No.1 love is recruiting. Was it the only thing he did? Of course not. He had a big content number to fill just like I did. But recruiting was his baby. He coached an Indiana Elite team this spring and summer.

 

It's only a conflict of interest if your boss calls it a conflict of interest, right... :wink:

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

The only thing I'd say is that seems to be a pretty outdated model. As far as I can tell beat reporters either cover or are pretty well versed in recruiting. Peegs might cover recruiting, but Rabjohns knows what is going on (he's going to the events, too, I think). Mike Miller, Dustin Diporak, DePrimeo, Osterman, they all cover it extensively or at least to an extent. Hopefully Hutch can follow their lead and at least dabble in it. Or, he can at least serve up a nice pile of b-s for us to read and make us think he's covering it :). Maybe others disagree, but I think the bread and butter of boards like ours are recruiting. You gotta embrace that.


But see this is where it's different. All the guys you just rattled off (except Dopirak who left the HT 13 months ago and now covers Tennessee for the Knoxville paper) are considered beat writers. I'm striving to be more of a columnist with this gig. You didn't name drop any columnists there. That's why I'm trying to recruit a lot of solid contributors to do more of the day to day beat work. Until they're all up and running I'll do the stuff like I have today, the Q&A with Kevin Johns.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Who said anything about a conflict of interest?

Well....maybe you disagree, but I'd kind of thinking reporting on players who play for a program where you serve as a coach might kinda be the textbook definition?

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Can people not just let a good thing happen? We have the opportunity to have an established IU writer give their insight and some of you want to get your pound of flesh. How about we let him settle in and concentrate on IU football... Recruiting these days is so fluid and if you watch twitter you have a decent idea of what's coming or not...

Maybe this journalist does not want to throw darts at a board for a living ....?

 

Yeah if we wanted that we would have gotten somebody from ESPN

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now

×