Thursday, February 26, 2009

Does UCONN not have anybody working in media relations?

By now most of you have seen this video of UCONN men's basketball coach Jim Calhoun fielding a difficult question from a writer after the Huskies game last Saturday.

What we were wondering is why someone in media relations didn't either, A: redirect the question and encourage the writer to ask it at a more 'appropriate' time, or B: attempt to calm down Calhoun before he went off and brought a ton of attention to his fat salary and egotistical attitude.

My thoughts about the situation are mainly with the writer. Many have said that because he is a freelance conservative writer that semi-snuck into the game by using a photographer's media credential, the writer, Ken Krayeske, is to blame.

The fact is that writers, regardless of what their publication or motive is, do not get all the access to coaches to ask them questions like the kind that Krayeske was asking. They are often told that coaches are only available after practice or after games and neither of those situations are ideal for asking difficult questions.

I certainly do disagree with Krayeske's badgering of Calhoun with a follow-up question, but Calhoun, or a media relations person for UCONN should have been able to give him a more appropriate answer.

The topic of the question and Calhoun's financial issue has little to do with the situation. Many writers would love to use postgame interviews for questions about things not necessarily pertinent to the game that was just played.

Most of us however, think better of it and when we don't coaches or media relations people are there to somehow deflect the crap from actually hitting the fan. UCONN might want to think about that.

Of course, this is not Calhoun's first press conference blunder.... Check this out...

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