Ken Medlin
Ken Medlin is a Bailey native whose WRAL reports range from the ACC to the Hurricanes to high school sports.
By Ken Medlin
Jan 27, 2012
Social media is a great thing. Really... It helps people connect, reconnect and stay informed.
I first learned of the tsunami approaching Japan through twitter. Ditto that for the rumors that Bin Laden had been killed, that also was a twitter revelation. And chapter and verse have been written about the role social media played in the “Arab Spring” movement. It's an amazing tool for keeping us informed in real time.
But there’s a catch: You can’t treat everything you read on social media websites as The Gospel Truth.
Over the past week, we’ve seen a number of these kinds of issues: Rob Lowe found himself compelled to announce Peyton Manning’s retirement. Various media outlets had Oregon’s Chip Kelly on his way to coach the Buccaneers. And the most painful and disappointing of them all came when a Penn State online student newspaper – and then CBSsports.com – rushed to errantly report the death of Joe Paterno.
The Internet has changed the way news is reported. The immediacy of a 24-hour news cycle leads many to report stories piecemeal as the information arrives. The competition is fast and furious, and nobody – I mean nobody – wants to be last when it comes to breaking stories.
The Rob Lowe story was just bizarre. This wasn’t Peter King saying Manning’s career was over, it was the guy from “About Last Night...” That should have been more than enough to raise a few eyebrows.
As for the Chip Kelly story, I have
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By Ken Medlin
Jan 17, 2012
You have to give it to Roy Williams, he’s not boring.
Like many of you, I stared in disbelief when I saw most of the Carolina bench walking off the court 14.2 seconds early in Saturday’s loss at Florida State.
It was a sight even stranger than the Seminoles’ blowout win had been.
Williams says he meant to take his entire team off the court, ending the game a few seconds early to avoid a human wave onslaught at the buzzer.
OK, I’ll buy that. Really... Getting his team out of there without any freak injuries is a reasonable enough excuse for me.
But what I don’t get is this: How can a head coach concerned about the well-being of his players fail to make sure they were all off the court?
In truth, I suspect the PR damage from this “event” has been greater than anything else. Williams apologized to the five players he left on the court, and I imagine the UNC locker room will move on from this.
However, Williams is taking his share of abuse for the decision, and let’s face it... that comes with the territory for a high-profile coach. When you coach at a place like UNC, even the most minor of your decisions gets the microscope treatment when it comes to scrutiny.
And judging by the reaction both locally and nationally this week, this decision was not minor.
By Ken Medlin
Oct 31, 2011
Before Thursday, I'd never heard of the art of "Tebowing" - posing in a manner not unlike Tim Tebow does when he takes a knee in prayer on the sidelines.
Now, it's everywhere.
Much like the recent "planking" craze, people are taking pictures of themselves "Tebowing" all over the world, and posting them on the Internet.
It's creating such a stir even the Wall Street Journal has chimed in, interviewing the founder of Tebowing.com.
Still, it didn't dawn on me this craze was so widespread until I saw highlights of the Broncos-Lions game.
CBS sends its affiliates brief highlight packages from all the major games, and we generally take our plays from them. I'd heard Tulloch did something funny, and since he went to NC State I took a look.
Here's what I found: Tulloch "Tebows" after sacking Tebow.
Talk about life imitating art.
Tulloch told reporters after the game he meant no disrespect, and Tebow reportedly sought Tulloch out to "wish him luck."
This really speaks to the massive power of the Internet. In a matter of days - sometimes even hours - an idea can spread globally. As recently as a decade ago, it would have taken weeks or more for the same kind of viral growth
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By Ken Medlin
Oct 31, 2011
The world is a smaller place these days.
Before Thursday, I'd never heard of Tebowing, the art of posing in a matter not unlike Tim Tebow does when he takes a knee on the sidelines.
Much like the recent "planking" craze, people are taking pictures of themselves "Tebowing" all over the world, and posting them on the Internet.
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Cavemen probably thought something along those lines after the wheel came into play.
By Ken Medlin
Oct 10, 2011
I admit it. I was wrong.
Really, really, really wrong.
I thought Cam Newton was a reach as the No. 1 pick in the NFL draft. I thought the Panthers were more concerned about selling tickets than winning football games, and I thought the selection reeked of desperation.
And then the season started.
Newton has been better than I could have imagined. He has already accounted for 12 touchdowns this season - seven through the air, and five more on the ground. But more importantly, the Panthers are relevant again. They're only 1-4 this season, but all of their losses have come by a touchdown or less and the Panthers have been "in" every game until the very end.
Compare that to 2010, when the Panthers lost 12 games by double-digit margins, and The Newton Effect can be quantified.
Consider this statement from Saints coach Sean Payton:
"More than anything else, he (Newton) gives them hope, and confidence, and a chance to win each time they play," Payton said. "That's the biggest difference in them right now."
Yep, hope and confidence are two things that were sorely missing last season.
When the Panthers made this pick, I was convinced Newton would be a "project," a guy the Panthers would have to bring along slowly. Here was a guy known more for his rushing skills than his passing, and the Panthers made him the No. 1? All I could envision was a lengthy - and painful - learning curve during which the Panthers consistently got their
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By Ken Medlin
Sep 17, 2011
As Bob Dylan once said, “The times, they are a-changing.”
And it appears the ACC has admitted that the waters around it have grown, choosing to start swimming before it sinks like a stone. (OK, enough Bob D...)
Today’s reports that Syracuse and Pittsburgh have applied for membership in the Atlantic Coast Conference mark a major shift in the landscape of collegiate athletics.
A few initial thoughts on what seems to be the likely move of the Orange and Panthers to the ACC:
One: Basketball is served. Unlike the ACC’s last round of expansion, this would actually upgrade the conference in hoops. Imagine that...
Don’t get me wrong, I know the ACC’s not expanding for basketball purposes, but it’s a nice bonus to see two strong basketball schools on the way. Let’s face it, the ACC has long taken pride on being the preeminent basketball conference, but that reputation – outside of Duke and Carolina – has slipped in recent years. Adding Pitt and the ‘Cuse will help.
Two: This buys the ACC more time to “mess with Texas,” and possibly Notre Dame. The Longhorns and Irish are the trophy fish in the conference expansion ocean, and the ACC can now drop a few hooks.
The ideal scenario would bring both the Irish and ‘Horns in as full conference members with equal revenue sharing among all schools. But that’s not likely to happen.
Having said that, here’s a scenario: Invite Notre
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By Ken Medlin
Sep 4, 2011
The NCAA dodged a bullet in 2010, but history’s not likely to repeat itself this time.
Rumors abound concerning conference realignment scenarios. Just click on a sports-related website, and you’re likely to see a headline speculating on the next big move.
Texas A&M to the SEC... Oklahoma to the Pac-12... Texas to their own planet...
It does appear a major change in the collegiate athletics landscape is on the way, with the charge being led by the SEC and the Pac-12.
The conventional wisdom outside of this area is that any ACC school offered to join the SEC will jump. One story after another is hitting the web speculating one school after another breathlessly awaiting an SEC call.
In the past two weeks, I’ve seen Miami, FSU, Georgia Tech, Clemson, NC State, Carolina, Duke, Virginia, Virginia Tech and Maryland bantered about as potential SEC targets.
That’s everyone but Wake and BC... If that really the case, just merge the conferences to form a “Conference of the South,” and secede from the NCAA. The South really would rise again... in football.
But before anyone rushes to judgement and screams bloody murder because the ACC is not leading the expansion charge, consider the past.
The ACC’s move from nine to twelve teams has yielded mixed results, but at the time many of the same pundits currently drooling over 16-team superconferences were heralding the ACC as the new top conference in football.
In the words
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By Ken Medlin
Jul 25, 2011
John Swofford finally took a stand on NCAA investigations, and he put the hammer squarely on the nail.
In his annual address at the ACC Kickoff in Pinehurst, the ACC’s commissioner called for reforms in the NCAA’s investigative process.
“Let’s consider a graduated system with categories of offenses,” Swofford said, adding the need for “sentencing parameters and guidelines that everybody knows about ahead of time.”
Exactly.
The NCAA’s enforcement process is flawed at best. A perceived lack of consistency in the NCAA’s rulings has led to a widespread lack of trust in the process itself.
There has to be a better-defined system of punishments – with future rulings relying on precedents.
But currently, the NCAA’s rulings seem to come out of thin air.
Georgia wide receiver AJ Green was suspended four games last season after selling a jersey for a thousand bucks. Later in the same year, five Ohio State players were suspended five games each for selling similarly-priced memorabilia, BUT they were allowed to play in the Buckeyes’ Sugar Bowl game.
Look, if you’re suspended... you’re suspended.
That’s the kind of case-by-case ruling that has many scratching their heads.
It should be as simple as this: If you’re guilty of “X,” then you can expect “Y.” But currently, that’s not the case. In fact, the perception seems to be that the degree of cooperation from a school carries more weight
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By Ken Medlin
Jun 8, 2011
The NCAA marches to its own beat. That's been obvious for a long time.
But in the first sentence of the NCAA's Notice of Inquiry to the University of North Carolina's athletics department, the NCAA took doing things its own way to an entirely new level.
Here's that sentence, delivered on June 7, 2011: "The purpose of this letter is to advise you that the NCAA has begun an investigation into the institution's athletics program in accordance with the provisions of NCAA bylaw 32.5 of the NCAA enforcement procedures."
Huh?
Let me get this straight... they're notifying Carolina of an investigation -- that started nearly a year earlier, in June 2010.
It's silly, but it underscores the fact that the NCAA can do just about anything it wants to do. Common sense dictates this letter should come at the beginning of an investigation - but if the NCAA wants to send it just before it wraps things up, that's OK as well. They've even said so themselves, confirming that the notice of allegations (the next key letter, the one with the findings of an investigation) can arrive only days after the notice of inquiry.
The NCAA waited until it doggone well pleased to send the letter, and that's that. Let's not let a little thing like procedure get in the way, here.
Don't get me wrong, it's obvious UNC knew it was being investigated. We ALL knew that.
But for an organization that's such a stickler for detail as the NCAA to send this specifically-worded
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