maly, too: A Flawed Project

Monday, March 31, 2014

A Flawed Project

By RON MALY

I don't spend much time reading the paper these days, but I did happen to scan the comments from readers on page 2 of Sunday's sports section regarding what went wrong with Iowa's 2013-2014 basketball team.

I have some thoughts about those comments and the entire project.

First of all, I don't think it was a good idea for the editors to ask readers for their opinions on what went haywire with the Big Ten Conference team.

But the editors did ask readers for their thoughts, and they got basically the same type of stuff that appears on the many fan websites that are on the Internet.

At least the paper is trying to make us believe that the people quoted in Sunday's project used their correct names, not the phony names that appear on the fan sites.

A much better idea at the paper would have been to assign a writer to a project in which he or she would have interviewed people who know basketball--guys like the retired Tom Davis and other former coaches and players who have gone into broadcasting, such as Seth Greenberg, Bobby Knight, Doug Gottlieb, Dan Dakich and Dick Vitale.

It was the outspoken Dakich who, on telecasts of Hawkeye games, was particularly critical of the team during its late-season swoon.

Dakich consistently raved about all the talent on Iowa's roster, but said a lack of communication was one of the reasons the Hawkeyes were having problems in the final weeks.

I'd like to know what "lack of communication" means when it comes to a major-college basketball team. I guess I'll have to call Dakich myself to find out.

People who have coached and played the game would have given the paper's readers a much better handle on what the Hawkeyes' problems were, instead of what fans thought.

Who knows, maybe some of those "fans" who were quoted are fans of teams other than Iowa.

As for the people who contributed to the paper's story, I certainly hope somebody in the department checked their identities.

I mean, there were some far-away hometowns listed for a number of those who did the commenting. Like Kfar Saba, Israel, Tucson and Sun City West in Arizona, Beverly Hills, Fla., Fort Wayne, Ind., Lansing, Mich., and San Antonio, TX.

I assume those people read the paper on their computers and emailed their comments to the editors. I doubt they subscribe to the print edition.

All of those types of comments are supposed to be checked and re-checked by editors to see if the letter-writers and email-writers are actually who they say they are, and I hope that was done because people who still work in the sports department are well aware of cases when readers have used phony names, and gotten by with it, to make a point in letters to the editor.

Those letters are not supposed to be like My 2 Cents Worth, the garbage that is published in the front [news] section of the paper. People use phony names--there's one signed "Burp" in today's paper--in that feature, and the paper promotes junk like that.

I also thought it was interesting in the paper's page 2 sports project that there was some massive editing of the responses.

Someone named Dr. Craig Nadler of Kfar Saba, Israel was quoted on page 2 this way: "Most big teams are rugged and have attitude. We have oodles of talent on our team but we seem to lack that rugged, aggressive attitude on the whole."

Oodles of talent? Man, I haven't heard the term oodles in a long, long time.

I checked the online version of what Nadler wrote, and found a much longer text. Here it is in its entirety:

"Like most Hawkeye fans, I have spent lots of thought trying to understand why things turned so sour in such a short time. Sports editor Chad Leistikow is right: There are no obvious explanations for all of us on the outside looking in.

"But nothing that happened this year changes my opinion that Fran McCaffery is a very talented and terrific coach. I have listened to him carefully and he is clearly a hard worker, passionate about his task and extremely skilled. So what went wrong?

"I did not see signs of problems with team chemistry or locker-room issues. Not having been inside, I cannot be sure but the players’ demeanor always seemed to convey a mutual liking and respect amongst the players and with their coaches. I did not sense panic on the coaches’ part and, hence, do not believe panic filtered to the players from above.

"There are two explanations that seem likely. The first has to do with team and individual psychological factors. Anyone who plays or has played sports knows how important self-belief is.

"When a few players start to lose that self belief, it can spread. My guess is that there was a combination of fatigue and self-doubt that begin to affect the team after the losses to Wisconsin and Minnesota. It just seems to have spread. In competition, when the opponent senses that self-doubt, his confidence grows, which seemed to happen to our opposition as they began shooting with amazing proficiency and confidence.

"The second factor has to do with how our team is built. Most big teams are rugged and have attitude. We have oodles of talent on our team but we seem to lack that rugged, aggressive attitude, on the whole. For example, those who are veteran fans like me will remember Jeff Moe and Bill Jones. More recently, we had Jeff Horner and Greg Brunner. Another example was Brody Boyd. These players had an attitude and knew the ball was going in if they shot it.

"During coach McCaffery’s time as head coach, it has seemed that he has constantly searched for the player to take that last shot. Devyn Marble was terrific and was not afraid. But he was not that player with attitude and grit who was going to score, no matter what. It is not a matter of skill. The player I remember best exemplifying those attributes was Scott Skiles of Michigan State. He was extraordinary. If the game came down to one shot he was going to be the one taking it and more likely than not, making it.

"My hope is that coach McCaffery is searching for players of Skiles’ ilk. I really feel that is what we need to complete the puzzle and get us through these tough stretches."

— Dr. Craig Nadler, Kfar Saba, Israel

If the texts submitted by the other writers were sliced and diced to that extent, I'd say it's another reason the project wasn't worth it.

Anyway, judging by the names of the ex-Hawkeyes brought up by Nadler, I guess he's been watching Iowa basketball for a long time.

Heck, I didn't know the Big Ten Network's signal was so strong that it carries into Israel.

Another thing. If I were a reporter or columnist in the sports department of the paper these days, I would be mad as hell that the editors chose to invite readers to comment on why the Hawkeyes had one of the biggest late-season collapses in Big Ten Conference basketball history.

The paper spent a ton of money sending reporters and columnists to Iowa [and Iowa State] basketball games this season, and those reporters and columnists are supposed to know what they're doing and they're expected to identify what went wrong and why things went wrong with the teams they covered.

It shouldn't be left to fans off the street and emailers to do an autopsy for the paper on the Hawkeyes after they lost seven of their last eight games.

Yet, I can't recall any newspaper reporter or columnist from this state writing during that maddening late-season slide that the coach was the problem.

However, someone identified as Frank Copple of Sun City West, AZ, wrote in yesterday's paper: "I feel the majority of the blame goes on the coach..."

Sportswriters and sports columnists who work for newspapers these days don't hold coaches accountable for what goes wrong with teams.

I know a thing or two about holding coaches [Lute Olson, Ray Nagel, Frank Lauterbur, Jim Walden, Jim Criner, Bob Ortegel and Ken Trickey among them] accountable, and I never felt I was doing my job if I didn't.

But sportswriters and sports columnists these days obviously want to stay on the positive, chummy side of the coaches they cover.

The reason is simple.

Those writers and columnists are fearful of losing their jobs when times get tough financially in the newsroom, which seems to always be the case now.

Fired sports columnists and writers at the paper such as Sean Keeler, Mark Emmert, Dan McCool and Dan Johnson can tell you all about that.

At best, asking readers to write about a team's problems was a somewhat interesting project. But, face it, we don't know any more about what caused Iowa to go 1-7 in its last eight games than we knew a week ago.

However, maybe this idea of asking fans for their opinions on why teams can't win will continue.

Perhaps next season when the Hawkeyes aren't doing well, the editors will take the next step and tell the sportswriters and columnists to stay home, with this explanation: "We're asking readers to write the story about the next game. They'll watch it on TV, then email us with their comments. We're sending you guys to a high school game."

Don't laugh.

The way the newspaper business is going, anything can happen.

JOLTIN' JOE GOT IT STARTED

When Ron Maly was a kid in Cedar Rapids, he wanted to enter an essay contest, and he did. He wrote about Joe DiMaggio of the New York Yankees being his favorite baseball player. For finishing second in the contest, Ron won a Louisville Slugger baseball bat autographed by DiMaggio. Ron later wanted to be the first person in his family to attend college, and he was. He earned a degree in political science from the University of Iowa, and did what all political science majors do. He became a sportswriter. He had, after all, covered high school football, basketball and baseball games for the Cedar Rapids Gazette while he worked parttime during his university days. Ron wanted to sit in the press box and write about an Iowa-Minnesota football game, and he did. It happened while he was the sports editor at the Albert Lea [Minn.] Tribune, and the game was at Memorial Stadium in Minneapolis. Ron wanted to cover a World Series, and he did. Also when he was working for the Albert Lea newspaper. Ron wanted to cover Rose Bowls, Sugar Bowls, Orange Bowls, Cotton Bowls, Holiday Bowls, a Freedom Bowl, a Sun Bowl, a Super Bowl and NCAA basketball tournaments, and he did those things after he moved to Des Moines. Ron was a four-time sportswriter of the Year in the state of Iowa [the years were 1977, 1978, 1994 and 1996]. In 2006, he was named a charter member of the University of Iowa's media Wall of Fame in the Kinnick Stadium press box. A photo of the plaque that's displayed in the press box is displayed above this story. Following Ron's retirement from the newspaper business, a publisher asked him if he wanted to write a book about the rich football tradition at the University of Iowa, and he did. The hardback version of "Tales from the Iowa Sidelines" was a best-seller, and so was the revised, softback version. Now he's been asked by his publisher to update the book for a second time. He's in the process of doing that at the present time. Ron considers being asked to update a best-selling book for the second time to be the supreme compliment, considering the Hawkeyes won just four games in the 2012 season. When Ron isn't working on books, he's busy traveling and spending time with his family. Indeed, he attends the athletic, theatrical and musical [both vocal and instrumental] events in which his six grandchildren participate. He also writes about anything that interests him for his many websites. Every chance he gets, Ron proudly wears his America Needs Farmers T-shirt.

The Hawkeyes' Rich Football Tradition, Revisited

I mentioned a while back that I was in the process of updating my Tales from the Iowa Sidelines book. Updating it for the second time. The original hardback edition of Tales from the Iowa Sidelines [pictured at the right] was published in 2003, during the 10-3 season, when coach Kirk Ferentz and his Iowa football team had a 10-3 record that included a 37-17 victory over 15th-ranked Florida in the Outback Bowl and after the Hawkeyes went 11-2 in 2002. That book was a best-seller, so the publishers came to me again in 2005, a season that finished with a breathtaking 30-25 victory over No. 11 Louisiana State in the Capital One Bowl on New Year's Day, 2005. Because buyers had cleaned out the the shelves in the bookstores, the publishers wanted to know if I'd do an updated version of the book. I agreed, The revised, soft-cover edition [pictured at the left] was published in 2005. Warren Holloway, who teamed with quarterback Drew Tate on a miraculous 56-yard touchdown pass to win the Capital One Bowl, was featured on the cover. That book, too, turned into a best-seller, So I had reason to feel very good about my years as a published author. It's not every day that a the original version is a best-seller, and so is the updated version. Then, imagine my surprise when I received an e-mail from a senior editor at the publishing company last fall, wanting wanted to know if I was interested in doing a second updated version of the book. It came at a time when things weren't going well for the Hawkeyes in the 2012 season. They lost their last six games and finished with a 4-8 record. Frankly, the thought of doing a revised edition of the book during a 4-8 season seemed to be a stretch. "Maybe producing a revised edition in a year or two would be a better idea," I told the publishers. "We'd like to do it now," I was told. "Let me think about it," I said. After a few days of thought, I accepted the idea. I talked myself into the idea that this was the supreme compliment--being asked to do a second book update during a 4-8 season showed strong confidence by the publishers in me and in the Hawkeyes' football program. So I got back into the business of interviewing players and coaches again, going to postgame press conferences, weekly press conferences and a scrimmage in West Des Moines. After a press conference in Iowa City, I did a one-on-one interview with coach Kirk Ferentz, and mentioned to him that I was in the process of doing a revised edition of my two best-selling books. I congratulated him on the excellent things he had done for Iowa's football program--all of which contributed to the success of my books. "I think Coach Fry had more to do with it," he told me, bringing up the name of Hayden Fry, his one-time boss at Iowa and a man who brought Iowa's football program back from the dead in the 20th century. That's modest Kirk Ferentz for you. Even though the 2012 season wasn't something Hawkeye coaches, players and fans will recall with any special feeling, Ferentz has a 14-year record of 100-74 at Iowa that includes two 11-victory seasons [2002 smd 2009], two 10-victory seasons [2003 and 2004], plus he's been the Big Ten coach of year in 2002, 2004 and 2009, and national coach of the year in 2002. Indeed, Ferentz has done some wonderful things at Iowa City, and I fully expect his success to continue. I've concluded my writing for the second update of Tales from the Iowa Sidelines, and the senior editor has furnished me with an early look at the book. Not only are the Kirk Ferentz years included in the updated version, but so is the stuff I previously wrote about Howard Jones, Dr. Eddie Anderson, Heisman Trophy winner Nile Kinnick and the 1939 Hawkeye Ironmen, Ronald Reagan, Ozzie Simmons, Ossie Solem, Randy Duncan, Alex Karras and lots of other legends from Iowa's rich football history. I expect the book to be in stores soon. I hope you like it.