A message for any high school recruits out there who are considering playing basketball at New Mexico: if you cannot live without Twitter, cross the Lobos off your list. In an era where Twitter is just as likely to get a program in trouble as illegal text messages to recruits, New Mexico coach Steve Alford his banned his current players and incoming Freshmen from using Twitter.
Twitter is becoming a growing issue in the sports world for almost all teams and programs except Dana White and the UFC. Players saying ridiculous things on Twitter is no new phenomenon. We are constantly reading tweets that hurt players’ public images (see Rashard Mendenhall), so who can blame Alford for wanting to be proactive in protecting his program from an unnecessary distraction?
New Mexico recruit Hugh Greenwell, who hails from Australia and will fight for a starting position, planned to use Twitter to interact with friends in Australia but will now have to give up his account like the rest of the team.
“I just use it to follow all my mates over in the USA, and figured my mates in AUS would use it to follow me, too,” Greenwood told the Albuquerque Journal. “But it’s not a huge deal because I prefer Facebook anyway. I rarely make ‘Tweets’ unless I’m replying to someone else or thanking someone for mentioning me.”
Personally, I don’t see the point in being able to use Facebook and not Twitter since both serve the same purpose. Twitter is a bit more public since players can make their Facebook accounts private, but the point is they can still go on Facebook and share stupid thoughts with the world just as easily. That, however, is Steve Alford’s problem.
