Arizona Wildcats Media: Please stay humble, stay classy, stay human at least

Arizona Wildcats media wars are heating up in Tucson between outlets as news breaks and national media folks poke the bear.

During the Arizona Basketball game Saturday night against Washington State, Arizona Daily Star Sports Columnist, Greg Hansen, posted a Tweet that had us sitting up in our chairs with our eyes wide open. After our shoulders slumped in disappointment, all we could do was shake our heads and respond.

Have Arizona Wildcats media gone off the rails? Maybe they need to take a break at being negative and try to be a bit more positive.

Arizona Wildcats

Not only was the Tweet inappropriate, the timing of it was downright cruel. Hansen has been criticized for his jumping to conclusions on Sean Miller’s presumed guilt after the ESPN Schlabach report and constant reminders that Miller is responsible for Emmanuel Booker’s actions (plead guilty recently), and prediction the NCAA will sanction Arizona at some point.

One of the most vocal fellow media folks combating Hansen is 247Sports Senior Editor for their Arizona Wildcats site Jason Scheer. Starting with Hansen’s Schlabach response, Scheer has been extremely critical of Hansen. Scheer, and hopefully ZZ because we were quite vocal as well, was right on the money with ESPN and Hansen jumping the gun on a report with errors in dates, names, etc.

Note: The Schlabach report was probably based on hearsay from the lawyer of the defendant who is trying to get his client off for turning the four coaches, Adidas folks and others into the FBI.

During the game on Saturday against the Washington State Cougars, Hansen Tweeted this, what we feel is a classless Tweet:

Alex Barcello had been playing his heart out, doing everything he could to help the Cats win, and the fans and the announcers responded with cheers and support. So it was sad to see a dig like this when folks were feeling great about his effort.

Scheer stepped it up after this tweet from Hansen and rebutted with “Kid leaves after taking a major shot, so let’s also give him a major shot from the Twitter machine.” He, along with 100-plus other hot replies, mostly admonishing Hansen, upset with the longtime reporter who sits court side during games… unbelievable.

Arizona Super Fan, Debbie Valerio, had this reply, “Have you ever considered that maybe @ghansen711 [Greg Hansen] is a distant relative of @DickieV [Dick Vitale] since they both share the same warped mentality? #HaveSomeClass.” Vitale has also been on the “Fire Sean Miller” bandwagon.

Vitale has not let up on his attacks of Arizona calling on fans and Arizona brass to fire Sean Miller. Mixed reactions from the media, and speculation on Twitter isn’t helping take the focus off the program, it is keeping the discussion alive. Is that the intent? Wildcat Radio stated that they feel NCAA sanctions are likely, then changed it to possible. That’s more like it.

How can anyone, especially a “journalist,” put down a young man who brought prominence to his Arizona high school and made a name for himself while he is killing himself to help his team beat a conference opponent in his sophomore year?

Why is he allowed to kick a student athlete when he is down? You would never in a million years catch Bruce Pascoe, of the same outlet, put down a player like that or ZZ.

Scheer also commented and retweeted another Hansen Tweet comparing a game five years ago with this past game, but Hansen’s son Jake couldn’t stand by and not defend his dad. He replied and it got ugly, the thread starts here and gets worse:

What is so ironic is that Scheer tends to tweet negatively slanted things during games. He has made fun of Dylan Smith’s dribble, mentioned when the Wildcats made only half of their free throws, and pointed out when Chase Jeter hadn’t scored in a game yet as examples. You can be positive and still be taken seriously, I would like to see him strike a better balance.

247Sports site is a paid subscription site for the most part, being controversial is probably important to help keep fans engaged. He and Hansen have credentials, so he has access that others don’t.

One fan felt Scheer riled up the fan base about the Phelps firing and Heeke’s level of support for Miller. Heeke finally held a mini press conference at half time after coming out in McKale with Boosters to show Miller support.

Scheer had questioned Phelps firing when an investigation wasn’t complete. Here is that conversation:

Most media have challenged our site, telling us we are too positive, and homers, as well as not being journalists because we aren’t critical of players, coaches and Arizona Athletic programs. It is not our charter to be a news paper, or a TMZ site to keep people paying to read our posts.

We are merely an opinion site, we have to have a valid source or we cannot report it. Especially rumors, that’s a no-no. What’s wrong with being positive and supporting the athletes, yet giving constructive criticism and suggestions for improvement?

Nothing, so let’s stay classy Tucson Media. Let’s not try to benefit at the student athletes cost. Let’s not rile up the fan base for fun and views with unfounded rumors and speculation that upsets people. Let’s not hurt people for the sake of trying to look objective while ending up looking negative and void of feelings or empathy. Athletes and coaches and AD’S are human’s too. They are fathers, sons, brothers and friends of others. Let’s all stay classy, shall we?