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Mr. Jezierny:
Recently I stumbled across your voting records for the college basketball polls. As a student at Indiana University-Bloomington, I couldn’t help but notice my Hoosiers mysteriously absent from your polls. While I’m sure you are entitled to your opinion, I’ve thrown together a few quick facts to make the case for voting for the Hoosiers in your top 25.
•8-1 Record
•Ranked 13 according to Ken Pomery of basketballprospectus.com
•Ranked 15 according to Jeff Sagarin
•National Player of the Week in DJ White (rivals.com)
•Number 1 Shooting Guard, Eric Gordan (rivals.com)
•Top 25 coach in Kelvin Sampson (rivals.com)
While I could list a litany of more pre-season accolades, I instead chose to focus on what IU has accomplished so far this season. The list could go on and on, but I’m curious as to why IU did not even receive a vote over a team such as Stanford (lost to Siena) or Mississippi (you were one of two voters to vote them into the top 25).
I don’t need to lecture you on the importance of polls when it comes to seeding, but I’m curious as to why you won’t vote for the Hoosiers. If it’s regarding the self-reported violations, I’d like to thank you in advance for stepping outside of your journalistic and voting boundaries and not voting for IU. Thanks, and I look forward to an explanation.
Out of his 25 ranked teams, there were 11 rankings where 2 people at best agreed with him, with 7 team rankings where nobody agreed with him. So, I'm not that upset with the guy as he obviously isn't the brightest of the bunch.
And more importantly, who gives a damn what some yahoo in Idaho thinks about Indiana?
A similar situation happened a few weeks ago when a sports journalist was giving his predictions on the Big Ten. He said that EJ would have about the same impact on this team as Rod Wilmont. I'm sure I wasn't the only one to email the guy and enlighten him on EJ's Durant-like potential.
As for this guy, he might just be trying to be different from the sake of being different, who knows? It doesn't really matter.
Is it a stretch to think this will affect our seeding? Yes, but we should still hold him accountable. Imagine if all voters decided not to vote for us based on Sampson's violations...
And polls don't matter for seeding in the NCAA tournament. I believe it's based more or less on a team's body of work over the season - certainly more so than what goes on in NCAA football.
Hello - I will refer you to this link - http://pollspeak.com/pollstalker/pollstalker.ph...
I wanted to see how the voters ranked my favorite team, the Indiana Hoosiers. Why do you not have them listed in the top 25? I think that is completely biased and insane. Our only loss is at Xavier, who is a legit top 20 team. We beat Kentucky (they are not good, but we had Gordon and Bassett out) and we won convincingly AT Southern Illinois, who is ranked in the top 25 and had won some insane number in a row at home, 35 games I think and were 80-3 in their last 83. Those are good quality wins. I would like some sort of explanation. You can explain why you have Vanderbilt ranked so high also. Wow, just wow.
Thank you for your consideration,
James from San Diego
Forget Nick Jez...How bout Pat Ridgell and Paul Klee for ranking IU at # 8 & 9. I believer with everyone healthy, good behavior and the return of AJ this is definitely at top 10 team. As for ranking I'll have to concur with the others polls are just for bragging rights.
bc
Dave:
I did vote for the Hoosiers until they lost a game. They are on my radar and likely will re-enter my vote as some other teams I had ranked ahead of them have lost since our last vote.
Thanks,
Nick
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Dave Nuerge [mailto:Dave@IntegroGroup.net]
Sent: Thu 12/13/2007 10:01 AM
To: Jezierny, Nick - Boise
Subject: AP Voting
Why did you exclude the Indiana Hoosiers from the top 25 Men's Basketball AP vote?
You are the ONLY voter who has not included them at all and no other voter placed them below 19. All but 7 voters placed them at 15 or above.
I'd LOVE to hear your explanation.
Dave
I love Hoosier hoops too, but there are more important things in the world than Hoosier basketball.
And there is something worse than having somebody underrate the Hoosiers in a poll. One of those things would be if anyone got in trouble for harassing this guy, Mr. Jezierny.
I would suggest that, if you do an article like this again, you anticipate the potential for problems and put in some sort of disclaimer along these lines:
"In the modern world, people can contact other people easily. We do not encourage you to contact Mr. Jesierny or his employer and, in fact suggest that you do not do so, but, if you choose to do so, please be polite and succinct."
"Remember, it would be unfair and inappropriate to flood his e-mail box with comments."
"Beyond that it could be a violation of federal and state law to make any statements that could be conceived of as either threatening him or offering a bribe or other consideration for his vote."
"Remember, although we may disagree with him, he is entitled to his opinion."
"And we who write this blog don't want any liability or responsibility for inciting anyone to do anything they shouldn't do."
======================
I hesitate to mention some of the scenarios that one could imagine, but you have only to look at the headlines on any given day (e.g. Omaha, Nebraska or Boulder, Colorado) and to remember that not everyone is completely sane and some people who are normally sane imbibe various substances that may cause them to be less than sane at some times.
And I suspect that you don't want anyone pointing any fingers at you for incitement. You're just running a blog, right?
West Coast Hoosier
That is quite possibly the dumbest post that I have ever read!
(1) Why is it "unfair and inappropriate to flood his e-mail box with comments." This guy has taken on this responsiblity and should take it seriously. If he isnt, then people should let him know.
(2) “In the modern world, people can contact other people easily. We do not encourage you to contact Mr. Jesierny or his employer and, in fact suggest that you do not do so, but, if you choose to do so, please be polite and succinct.” Why? If he doesnt want to read the emails he doesnt have to. But the voters ballots are made public so that there is accountability and people noticing an irresponsible voter is that accountability in action.
(3)“Beyond that it could be a violation of federal and state law to make any statements that could be conceived of as either threatening him or offering a bribe or other consideration for his vote.” Should ITH post this same thing everytime an opposing coach says something negative about IU? Should they just not post negative opinions or comments, because west coast hoosier thinks that crazy people may "violate state and federal law" as a result? Get a clue! If someone harasses this guy, that is on that person, there is nothing her encouraging people to cross the line. No disclaimer is needed.
The only explanation is that you are sometype of first year law student or law-school drop out armed with just enough knowledge to make yourself sound silly. Becuase, if you think that this blog post amounts to incitement, you clearly dont know what incitement is...There is no basis for this blog to get in any trouble by making this post. And in fact, I think that it has been productive as it has caused a lazy AP voter to take his role more seriously.
There is little to do with people like you, except to roll ones eyes and hope that in the future you just keep this dribble to yourself.
Nick
You're entitled to your opinion and, on First Amendment grounds, I'd defend your right to have it no matter how ungraciously it is expressed.
And, for whatever it is worth, you're factually wrong on at least one thing. I'm a lawyer with a practice that deals with media affairs.
Because of that, I stand by and reiterate my comments while simultaneously hoping that they reflect concerns that never materialize.
I'm not giving legal advice here, but I would advise folks to govern their behavior on this type of thing carefully. The words "fan" and "fanatic" stem from the same root and I would hate to see anybody take criticism of a voter to an extreme and get in trouble.
So, Nick, if you or someone else sends something to this guy that is construed as threatening, or if he complains that he is getting inundated with rude and threatening e-mails arising from an article published here and says that he fears for his safety, and if the FBI shows up at your doorstep, I'll be happy to compliment you on the legal advice that you've given yourself and wish you good luck!
West Coast Hoosier
relax.
You can't possibly be an attorny with that First Amendment dribble. I would guess first-year law student. If you are an attorney, it is unfortunate that you would stand by this absurd premise! In order for you to better serve your clients, I would suggest you review certain concepts in conjunction with incitement, such as (1) intent (2) immenence of lawless action and (3) the difference between "triggers to action" and "keys of persuasion."
Once you get those down, let me know, and I can explain to you why the rest of arguments are similarly flawed.
Nick
I don't know if you should argue with nick. What if somebody (inexplicably) believes that you're right and decides to attack nick as a result. YOU WOULD BE IN A LOT OF TROUBLE!! THE FBI WOULD PROBABLY COME TO YOUR DOOR!
Actually, nothing would happen. Get a grip man.
Thanks for your comment.
Remember, the original article says, and I quote:
"For those of you who have steam coming out of your ears, you can email our buddy Nick at njezierny@idahostatesman.com. Just don’t tell him I sent you."
This is the paragraph that concerned me.
Notice several things about that paragraph.
First, it clearly suggests that people e-mail Mr. Jezierny.
Second, note that Mr. Jezierny can be located at his workplace and probably given the size of Boise, Idaho, at his residence.
Third, it includes the reference to "steam coming out of ears," a way to describe anger.
And, let me add that, in fairness, as a Hoosier fan myself, Jezierny's act in ignoring the Hoosiers made me angry too, so I'm not describing an emotion that I can't feel myself, although I'm way far removed from the fanatics and know better than to do anything I shouldn't.
Fourth, the statement (I know intended to be funny) "Just don't tell him I sent you."
Now, I hope that folks are sensible enough to read all that as humor and hyperbole, but, as I said in my original post, some people aren't so rational.
Blogger Nick (the poster on this blog, not Nick Jezierny), though he disagrees with me, strikes me as a rational enough fellow. I'm not worried about him doing anything to Jezierny or anyone else. In fact, I note that his second post is only about half as rude as his first post. Who knows? By the next one, we may get to have a little polite and friendly dialogue! He's probably a nice fellow when one gets to know him.
Re: your suggestion that I could be inciting folks to do something to blogger Nick, excuse me? Note that I have no idea who blogger Nick is, where he is, what his e-mail is, his address, or anything else about him, nor do I want to know.
Beyond that, I never suggested that anyone do anything to or towards him and I never would.
And I certainly couldn't motivate outraged Indiana fans to do anything to him, even if I wanted to and I don't. His "crime" is strong support for the Hoosiers and I agree with that.
In fact, I actually enjoy folks who think differently than me, although politeness, even on blogs is a virtue that blogger Nick might want to cultivate.
By the way, interestingly, I note that Sagarin has also had Indiana lower than the consensus all year long. I saw today that he moved IU to 19th, but before that, I believe he had them at 21st for several days, which is pretty close to being out of the top 25.
And Sagarin's computer based formulation precludes the sort of bias that Mr. Jezierny might show and is, I think, reflective of the fact that IU has had a schedule less difficult than many other teams. Kentucky, for example, is not Kentucky this year. Southern Illinois has had other losses after the loss to the Hoosiers and has suffered a decline in their RPI. Even Xavier, which beat Indiana, has lost since then, which doesn't help Indiana computer-wise.
Should we all write to Mr. Sagain's computers and complain that they're crunching the numbers wrong?
West Coast Hoosier