Of scheduling goofs and goofs on (and off) Twitter

Jim Larranaga found out the hard way this was not about one's posts on Twitter.

First things first: I goofed big-time in Friday’s post about the men’s basketball schedule, when I wrote the Flying Dutchmen visit Georgia State in their second conference game following the new year. That’s incorrect, they actually travel to your favorite team and mine, George Mason, on Jan. 4, two days after hosting William & Mary. I blame a lack of sleep, though I’d swear on a stack of Hofstra Bulletins from 1993-94 that I read Georgia State.

Anyway, my humble apologies for the error, and check out part one of Litos’ annual “four-in-seven” series for his take on the challenge awaiting the Dutchmen in the first full week of the CAA season.

Speaking of George Mason, Litos also reports, via Washington Post blogger Dan Steinberg, that Jim Larranaga has stopped Tweeting. Oh darn it. And here I was hoping he’d follow me and we’d exchange stupid, goofy inside jokes and trade movie quotes all season long.

@DefiantlyDutch: Just watched Simpsons where Man Getting Hit In Groin By Football wins award @ Springfield Film Fest. LOL.

@MasonCoachL: Awesome. Always makes me laugh. Watching Pulp Fiction now, dude about to get shot in junk.

@DefiantlyDutch: “And when you’re gone, you stay gone, or you be gone. You lost all your LA privileges. Deal?”

@MasonCoachL: Best. Movie. Ever.

@Defiantly Dutch: Def agree. OK off to watch our Final Four video.

@MasonCoachL: Off to read Newsday stories about HU’s NIT win over St. Joes, then to cry and kick stray puppy.

(Parenthetical tangent: I actually entered these in the Twitter window to make sure they were 140 characters or less. Imagine if I hit send by accident and Larranaga got a message about the dude in Pulp Fiction getting shot in the junk. LOL.)

Check out Steinberg’s story and in particular Larranaga’s quotes about his decision to stop Twittering. It sure seems to me as if Larranaga is just aching to blame the media for publicizing his Twittered thoughts, but he’s just self-aware enough to realize how foolish that would make him look and sound.

Larranaga’s decision is interesting, though, because for all the talk about how Twitter is going to cut out the middle man and allow celebrities (snort) to speak directly to the masses, said middle man is still going to report those Tweets and therefore increase the possibility that said Tweets are going to create some controversy and leave the celebrity (snort) backpedaling and spinning in circles about how great the NCAA is and how it has a tough job and never gets perverse pleasure out of tying itself up in red tape. And in the end, the celebrity (snort) decides he/she can no longer control the message via this new toy and goes back to just issuing boring-ass quotes to the assembled masses.

Don’t believe me? Remember something called Athletes Direct? Exactly.

Larranaga’s exit from Twitter will probably disappoint Diehard Dogs, the website and magazine which covers Northeastern sports. Diehard Dogs posted last month about how his “…favorite part of Twitter so far is reading Mason’s basketball coach rant about the movie Funny People.” (Dear Dieharddogs: Don’t get mad at me for quoting your Tweets)

Fortunately, if other CAA bloggers/reporters determine there is a giant gaping need for a head coach doubling as a movie reviewer, Tom Pecora can step in as the league’s resident Jeffrey Lyons. I mentioned to him last year how watching the webcast of the Hofstra at Towson game was like watching torture porn.

“Oh yeah,” he said. “Like Untraceable.”

I mean, really, that’s just awesome.

The most amusing thing about Larranaga’s Twitter retirement was it took him five Tweets to say goodbye, and even then he left the door open for a return. For crying out loud, Jim, even Brett Favre thinks that’s wishy-washy. To paraphrase a memorable quote from the best movie ever: “And when you’re gone, you stay gone. You lost all your Twitter privileges. Deal?”

Email Jerry at defiantlydutch@yahoo.com or follow Defiantly Dutch at http://twitter.com/defiantlydutch.