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Bill Koch offers the latest on the Cincinnati Bearcats


Bill Koch is a sportswriter covering the University of Cincinnati's athletics.

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Friday, January 04, 2008

Brave New World

I've been doing this blog for only a few days but already I've had people make fun of the way I dress, vilify me for being negative and praise me for getting a scoop, as if they were shocked that I could pull something like that off. I've found it all very amusing. I think my favorite comment so far was from a reader (or is it a poster? or a blogger?) who pointed out that I've been covering UC sports since about when Oscar was playing there. That's not quite true, but it's close and some days it feels as I've been covering them before Oscar ever arrived on the scene. The fact is that I started during the Tony Yates coaching era, but I followed UC basketball long before that. I remember as a kid watching the 1963 national championship game against Loyola with my dad and two brothers. I remember how upset my dad was when UC blew that lead. Later, I got to know Ed Jucker fairly well and covered Yates as a coach and I've become friends with George Wilson. I don't remember seeing Oscar play at UC, but I saw him play plenty of times with the Royals and still marvel at what he was able to do.

I'm still figuring this out as I go along. I'm not a member of the computer generation and don't adjust to the changing technologies as seamlessly as my 20-year-old daughter does. But I'm trying. The other day one of our tech people told me he was going to send me a traffic report. I assumed that meant that I-75 was all tied up and I'd better find another way home. Just kidding. I'm not quite that clueless. Anyway, I just wanted to inject a personal note or two to the proceedings. Thanks for those who have embraced me. To those who haven't, perhaps I'll change your mind as time goes on.


30 Comments:

at 2:45 PM Blogger Kevin said...

Keep up the good work Bill.

 
at 3:01 PM Anonymous Anonymous said...

Bill,
This is a tough crowd to please and that does not include the XU, OSU, and Mountaineer trolls. I remember the "stall" that cost the national championship to Loyola in 1963 (before the advent of time clocks). We have waited to avenge that game and nothing short of national championship will do. We watched Huggins for 15 years and he gave us hope. Now, in Mick we trust. Keep up the good work.

 
at 3:05 PM Anonymous Anonymous said...

Thanks Bill.

I'm a bit disappointed that the comments are moderated, preventing conversations from happening in real time, but you've done a fine job thus far.

 
at 3:06 PM Anonymous Anonymous said...

You're doing just fine and most of us are thoroughly pleased that you have taken up the mantel of blogging for UC.
For the troglodytes who still hate and blame NZ and MT for everything that's ever gone wrong at UC in athletics, still believe Huggins is the second coming, well, let's just say that if God Himself were doing this, they'd find fault it didn't fit their world.
Time will tell on all things. We're appreciative of the time you take to do this. And, to your traffic engineer!

 
at 3:21 PM Anonymous Anonymous said...

If it makes you feel better, few people liked Josh when he took over for Trent a while back...

 
at 3:30 PM Blogger dan said...

I'm enjoying things so far.

The only thing I don't like about the change is that the RSS feed for this blog does not contain the whole post. Rather, you have to click through to read the whole post.

In the "old" UC blog the whole post was in the RSS feed, making following along much easier.

I understand that as a "non-techie" you probably don't know what that means (and that's not an insult), but maybe you could pass that on to your tech staff?

If you are using Blogger as it appears that you are, you can change that setting under

Dashboard->Settings->Site Feed->Allow Blog Feeds - change from Short to Full

 
at 3:55 PM Anonymous Anonymous said...

I think this is working out just fine so far. Don't be too worry about the negative comments, as someone has pointed out already, many did not welcome Josh with open arms either.

I'm hoping that when the majority of the comments are civilized enough, you'll allow for instant posting.

Also, since you've been following the Bearcats for so long, it'd be interesting to hear more of your own perspective in addition to the straight reporting of news.

 
at 4:01 PM Anonymous Anonymous said...

Anon 3:06

What do you love most about NZ? Her red lipstick or her yellow teeth?

 
at 4:05 PM Anonymous Anonymous said...

I agree with Dan 3:30, please restore the RSS feed.

Great job thus far with the bog, Bill.

 
at 4:12 PM Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hey Bill, I was the one that made the Oscar reference. It was to the "reader" who seemed to find it almost shocking that you had "inside" news for us. I found it to be rather amusing.

When I was a student/News Record writer at UC between 1989-1994, I actually used to sit with you and other writers at those weekly basketball media luncheons at The Shoe. It provided me with three things: 1) the chance to skip class, 2) the chance to eat for free and 3) the chance to learn from the beat writers who were professionals like yourself. It was a great experience.

These blogs give mostly anonymous people the chance to be anywhere from critics to experts. I would just ignore the idiotic comments and continue to provide us with what you know. I see this blog as a way to extend your Enquirer stories while being able to provide us with breaking news at "any" time.

Did you ever think you'd have to worry about how you looked in your blog? Isn't technology great!

 
at 4:35 PM Anonymous Anonymous said...

Anon 3:01

What do you love most about NZ? Her red lipstick or her yellow teeth?

 
at 4:53 PM Anonymous Anonymous said...

I think you're doing fine and have been for the last 6 months. People, myself included, were previously critical because the tone of your articles made it seem as if you were an enemy of UC - an O$U fan or something horrific like that. Of late, it seems that you are a UC fan and support Football and Basketball. As long as you do that - you've got many friends in Cincnnati.

 
at 5:07 PM Blogger Lonnie said...

Uh, I think Bill might have understated the bit about not being part of the computer generation. Not too long ago one of his friends texted him a little joke of some sort. A few minutes later, the reply appeared. Something like, "This is Heather, Bill's daughter. My dad's too lame to be able to text, so he wanted me to tell you it was a good gag."

 
at 5:51 PM Blogger Greg C. said...

Bill, one option you might want to consider if you still want to kind of control the comments but allow real time posting (please) is to only allow registered users to post comments (similar to how CTR did it on the Reds blog). just a thought.

 
at 6:39 PM Anonymous Anonymous said...

You should recieve a copy of my lawsuit against you soon.

Just kidding. I have one suggestion, though. In order for blogs to be successful the author has to be accessible to his reader. Obviously, to what extent, is up to you, but I think most people would love if you responded to people in the comments, or could answer some questiions for people.

 
at 6:51 PM Anonymous Anonymous said...

Dude just keep doing what your doing. I love it and you cant beat your price! Keep it coming!

 
at 6:56 PM Blogger RickNMd said...

Glad you are blogging about the Bearcats. But having read this blog through the Rosecrans and Katzowitz days, you will never--not ever--have a remotely credible space as long as you allow anonymous postings.

 
at 7:25 PM Anonymous Anonymous said...

Bill have you found the secret UC sex video? If OJ doesn't find the killer of Nicole and Goldman soon maybe you can hire him to uncover the truth.

 
at 8:00 PM Anonymous Anonymous said...

I remember that 1963 game as well. I was almost 9 years old and had $1.oo bet on that game with my aunt. That was major league bucks back then for me and half way through the second half I was counting my winnings. But.....

 
at 8:41 PM Anonymous Anonymous said...

I think I'm for controlling the content, as long as Bill does this good of a job of checking his blog frequently. Some of the posts on Josh's blog bordered on libel or slander.

 
at 8:49 PM Anonymous Anonymous said...

I think it would also help if you joined in the conversation with the posters and replied to some of the comments and engaged in the conversations.

 
at 10:12 PM Anonymous Anonymous said...

Bill,

From a fellow old timer west-sider- thanks for the effort! We really appreciate it!

 
at 3:51 AM Blogger OrangeD00d said...

Having watched Thursday night's Syracuse-St. Johns game, I can tell you this kid Burrell, he's a beast in the low post. UC doesn't have anybody can check him, he's gonna put up about 25 and 12.

They start freshmen at the forwards, but they have good experience in the backcourt in Mason and Lawrence. They will come out and guard the perimeter. Burrell and DJ Kennedy (the other freshman) do a good job with help defense and rebounding.

The Bearcats are about to get drilled, unfortunately.

 
at 10:56 AM Anonymous Anonymous said...

Bill -- don't sweat it. Some people just don't have any tact when they bash you for an error or how you dress. It happens on every message board. It makes their pathetic lives seem cool for a few minutes.

You've done well since coming onto the electronic side of things.

Trust me their are just as many "trolls" on Dustin's blog as well.

 
at 11:39 AM Anonymous Anonymous said...

Bill - It's easy to make fun of someone elses photo when you don't have to show your own, eh?

Don't sweat the immature boobs. Seems like most appreciate your efforts. Count me as one of them...

 
at 12:46 PM Anonymous Anonymous said...

So let's hear about the game today!

Josh used to talk about the betting lines sometimes, I thought that was always interesting.

Are you a betting man, Bill?

 
at 1:32 PM Anonymous Anonymous said...

Adolfus Huxley, who are you, Aldous Huxley's brother? Would you be suing on behalf of the author or do you have some claim to Brave New World?

 
at 1:46 PM Anonymous Anonymous said...

Lets just try and love everyone.

 
at 3:09 PM Anonymous Anonymous said...

Bill,

Welcome to the Brave New World.

Please do moderate it. It's pretty easy to figure out which comments add no value, and to delete them. It's not censorship to do that.

I post that as an X fan. The X (really, NCAA) blog gets much worse troll traffic than this one does, and it's completely unmoderated. It becomes almost impossible to wade through all of the crap sometimes. If the UC blog stays in relatively good shape, maybe that will bleed over into the NCAA blog, or at least eliminate some tit-for-tat BS that I'm sure happens.

This is your house. You can throw people out of your house. And please do!

 
at 3:47 PM Anonymous Anonymous said...

Why don't all you guys with advice about how Bill should do the blog, just let Bill be Bill.

He doesn't have to be a carbon copy of Josh or anyone else. Give the guy credit for keeping a bearcat blog going.

It gives all the us with an interest a venue to communicate on.

 
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