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Sidelines
Kalani Simpson
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UH has national media right where it wants it
THE thing about Hawaii getting so much national media attention is that it's always interesting to see what the national media comes up with when it comes to stories and people that the rest of us think we already know.
It's bound to be different because these are people at the top of the profession. It's bound to be different because they have an outside perspective. It's bound to be different because people naturally are more open to and give more access to (and actually look forward to talking to) the "big boys."
You cry for Roy Firestone, not for the guy you have to chase away from your locker every day.
So I always look forward to seeing how this stuff turns out, what they come up with, what they see, what they get. It's interesting.
Well, we've seen it. And I have to think that the people in charge at UH have to be loving all this recent national media attention.
No, not for the "exposure" aspect of it, although that is great, too. But for the message of it. Because, well, for all of us in our own lives, there are things that, as George Costanza once put it, are "really just something you say."
With some of our local sports figures, you know what these things are. (As it went in "Animal House": "Germans? Forget it, he's rolling.")
To me, that's been the surprising thing about the national media attention. You would think these guys would be more questioning than we hometown folks. But apparently not.
Whatever UH is rolling out, the national media is rolling right along.
And if I'm UH, I'm loving it.
All of this stuff is suddenly gospel, to this new, eager, unjaded audience.
And so it is that the national media has completely bought the party line about Hawaii's 2007 schedule. Completely bought it. Everything I've seen and read has gone along with Herman Frazier's explanation for the strength of this year's schedule and why it's short a game (everybody's too scared to play Hawaii, oooooh!), rather than another possible explanation (because he, um, "miscalculated").
And 1420-AM has on a loop a sound bite from an ESPN guy telling us again and again that June Jones is not a "cheerleader" and would never, ever overhype his players. Ever.
No, no, of course not.
And the Sporting News wrote matter-of-factly that Hawaii does all of its recruiting by phone.
(Maybe they were thinking of UH-Hilo. Joey Estrella's team.)
I imagine all of these big-time, hardened, been-around-the-block guys writing all of this down and saying, "Really?!"
But hey, it is an outside perspective.
And now it really is gospel, because it's on ESPN. That supersedes everything. Even I have to believe it now.
(Yes. The schools that were contacted at the last minute, and would have had to disrupt the flow of their seasons or pull off double switches, were too scared to play Hawaii.)
I have enjoyed all of this national coverage. But it does speak to having the familiarity, the context, to spot a "just something you say."
(That last point would sound a lot more impressive to someone who doesn't know who wrote down the Fresno screwdriver thing.)