In the second of a three-part segment here at RTC ACC (see part I here), we take a further look into the incredible social media phenomenon that is Twitter and its all-encompassing foray into athletic culture. This second part will delve deeper into Twitter accounts to follow based on specific ACC teams, whether newspaper columnists, bloggers, alumni or current coaches or players. For any teams not included in this second piece, look for them to be revealed in a later third and final article on the subject. The following is a breakdown of five ‘must-follow’ accounts for each respective team, followed by some official accounts consisting of players and/or coaches and special bonus category at the end of each school’s section.

Maryland

Terrapins ‘Starting Five’

• @nickfaustLIVE With over 9,000 tweets, Nick Faust gives prolific insight to the day-to-day life of a Terp student-athlete.
• @_es1 Evan Smotrycz is a fun follow and has a good Big Ten and ACC knowledge base.
• @TerpsInsider Follows Maryland football and basketball with the help of two Washington Post beat writers.
• @alex_prewitt A Washington Post sportswriter focusing on Maryland athletics with over 15,000 tweets.
• @insidemdsports Publisher of InsideMDSports, a 247sports.com site, has helpful recruiting knowledge.

Other official accounts that are worth a follow

• @CoachTurgeon Head coach Mark Turgeon.
• @umterps Official Twitter of Maryland athletics.
• @Dez32Wells Dez Wells, Maryland’s best player and former Xavier transfer.
• @StuckLikeChuck1 Charles Mitchell, you’ve won us over with that username.

Random Alumni Spotlight

• @DrewNicholas12 Was a member of the 2002 national championship team, played in Europe, and is good for some savvy insight on Maryland and the ACC from time-to-time.

Clemson

Tigers Starting Five

• @ClemsonMBB The official account for Clemson basketball, ran by head coach Brad Brownell.
• @KJMcDaniels The Tigers’ best player and a Clemson fan favorite.
• @maniebeingmanie Manie Robinson is a Clemson football and basketball beat writer for the Greenville News.
• @orangeandwhite An account exclusively dedicated to Clemson sports.
• @brink_aim Writes about Clemson for @orangeandwhite above, a clear Clemson superfan.

Other official accounts

• @landry_nnoko Landry Nnoko.
• @DevColeman15 Devin Coleman.
• @RopeFiasco Jordan Roper.

Random Alumni Spotlight

• @bnice21 Bryan Narcisse played for Clemson for two years and then the South Carolina native was drafted by the world famous Harlem Globetrotters. Diehard ACC fans will remember Narcisse as the forward roaming the hardwood in the fashionable Rec Specs.

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Kevin Trahan (@k_trahan) submitted this article after attending the Big Ten Media Day in Chicago on October 31.

After Nebraska fell behind to Illinois 35-23 at halftime last season, Huskers coach Tim Miles didn’t like what he saw. So, he tweeted about it: “We played with zero pride.” The tweet didn’t help play on the court — Nebraska went on to lose the game, 71-51 — but the halftime tweet has become a staple for Miles, dating back to his days at Colorado State. The Twitter legend began in Fort Collins, too, at the urging of marketing director Ben Chulick. “He came to me and he said, ‘Listen, we want you to Facebook or Twitter or whatever it is,’ and I’m like, wait, what’s Twitter, what’s Facebook? I had no idea,” Miles said. “So when he said what it was, I’m like, we’re not doing Facebook. I graduated with 13 kids in my high school class. I already know where they all are, I don’t need to reconnect. So what’s Twitter again? 140 characters. I’m like, I can do it. I can do 140 characters.” As it turns out, he can do it quite well. Technically, it’s not Miles tweeting out his thoughts from the locker room. “I just say it to [the sports information director], ‘We better flippin’ rebound,’ and then he edits it appropriately and we go from there.” But technicalities aside, the halftime tweet and Miles’ overall Twitter presence — he has nearly 50,000 followers — are among the best in college basketball, even if the Huskers can’t yet match that on the court.

Tim Miles appears to be very comfortable at the podium with the reporters, despite Nebraska’s position in the Big Ten landscape. (AP)

Nebraska is known for its athletics. The football team is built on great tradition and the women’s volleyball and women’s basketball programs are both consistently good. Heck, even the bowling team is a winner. “We won the bowling deal,” Miles said. “I watched that on ESPN. I was going nuts. It was good. We were good at bowling.” The one thing Nebraska can’t seem to win at? Men’s basketball. The Huskers have not been to the NCAA Tournament since 1998, and in Miles’ second year in Lincoln, he made sure to point out at Big Ten Media Days that his team was supposed to finish near the cellar.“I see we’re picked 12th out of 12 again,” Miles opened with. “And it’s not just by you guys. I see it’s by everybody.” That’s not sarcasm; the fact is, Nebraska probably won’t be very good at basketball this year. But luckily, Miles doesn’t care for facts. “I understand why we are — facts in life are really interesting,” he said. “I’ve always tried to ignore them.”

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In today’s increasingly technological world, so much of the daily breaking news and interaction happens over social media sites. Fans can interact with players, analysts and writers to voice their opinions and visa versa. ACC basketball is no different and has a large presence on Twitter. In the first of a three-segment series on some of the most insightful and entertaining ACC basketball accounts on Twitter, we take a deeper look at the conference-wide accounts that provide a wide breadth of knowledge across the ACC. The subsequent two parts will break down team-specific Twitter handles that are also worth a follow. These are some accounts worth checking out:

Conference-Wide Twitter Follows

• @ACCSports covers both ACC basketball and football; also located on accsports.com.
• @ShaneRyanHere a staff writer at ESPN.com’s Grantland; also the editor of Tobacco Road Blues.
• @lebrownlow Lauren Brownlow is a freelance writer for Fox Sports Carolina covering the Triangle and ACC sports.
• @thedevilwolf Ben Swain is a co-host of the Walk-Ons podcast and is good for frequent sarcasm and a chuckle.
• @bretstrelow ACC basketball reporter for the Fayetteville Observer is also a voter for the AP Top 25 Poll.
• @accmbb The official Twitter account for ACC Men’s Basketball.
• @DavidTeelatDP an ACC reporter for the Daily Press.
• @rtcACC Independent voice of college basketball. Pretty much the best site ever.
• @CBSSportsACC CBS’ ACC coverage, as told by Sean Bielawski and Shawn Krest.
• @stephenschramm Schramm also writes for the Fayetteville Observer (like Strelow) and covers ACC basketball.
• @joeovies Ovies is a Triangle radio talk show host for ESPN’s The Fan in Raleigh, with a good track record and insight on ACC sports.
• @AGoldFan the other half of the Raleigh’s The Fan talk show, Adam Gold is another valid contributor to the ACC sports scene.
• @CaultonTudor Tudor covers the ACC for Raleigh’s WRAL news.

Feel free to follow these members of the Rush the Court ACC family as well: @rise_and_fire, @kellenlc, @bradjenk, @prohibitivefav.

Bennet Hayes is an RTC columnist. He can be reached @HoopsTraveler.

Twitter may be just seven years old, but the social media tool has already found ubiquity in the world of college athletics. Rare is the college athlete (particularly in the revenue sports of football and basketball) without a Twitter handle, and rarer still is the day that passes without a major college basketball or football headline breaking from the Twitter-verse. College hoops recruits and transfers often use their 140-character snippets to announce their first, or next, college destination, while current players are keen to keeping their followers aware of breaking news from their program, summer plans, and even personal injury statuses. Quite simply, Twitter fuels the college basketball rumor mill. But for as much relevance as the platform has found within the game, one group that has failed to universally embrace it has been the head coaches. Coaches have no accepted industry standard to follow on how much to tweet, what to tweet about, or even whether to tweet in the first place. Their wide variety of approaches to the tool prompted The Sporting News to take a deeper look at how the head men in the Power Seven (AAC included) conferences use Twitter. Their findings make for a fun read – and should prompt a follow or two, but also provide an entrée into an emerging topic – how exactly are coaches using Twitter as a tool for growing their program?

Nebraska’s Tim Miles May Not Be A Household Name Yet, But He Is Getting Closer With Every Tweet

Back in 2009, Twitter was considered so toxic that Mike Leach banned his entire football team (Texas Tech at the time) from using it. Four years later, that very same Mike Leach has over 40,000 followers and uses his feed to inform Washington State fans of happenings both relevant (“practice went great in Lewiston”) and irrelevant (“one of my favorite TV shows was Magic City on Starz. Wish they hadn’t cancelled it.”). Leach’s college hoops coaching brethren have made a similar discovery. Leading the way in the Twitter world, as he does in many other categories, is Kentucky’s John Calipari. Coach Cal’s 1.2 million followers are more than nine times as many as the second most-followed college coach (Indiana’s Tom Crean), and he uses his Twitter notoriety in exactly the way a solid front-runner should. Befitting his on and off-court personality, Calipari tweets often and honestly, mostly making sure that UK fans are privy to all the happenings around his program. When you are speaking to a fan base as populous and interested as his Wildcat supporters, there is no need to reinvent the wheel. Goal number one should be making program information easy and accessible, and Coach Cal does that as well as any college coach in the Twitter business.

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We are going to do everything we can this season to keep you up to date on the latest news and information regarding the Atlantic Coast Conference here at the ACC Microsite. However, with 12 teams of 13 scholarship players, over 360 total games and 228 conference games, some things are bound to fall through the cracks. To help you stay on top of things, we have collected a comprehensive list of twitter accounts for all 12 ACC teams, their coaches, players, beat writers and bloggers. Please let us know if we missed anyone, as I’m certain there are some worthy follows out there. Hit us up at @rtcAcc.

Special thanks to Patrick Stevens (@d1scourse), Matt (@hokieguru), Steven (@akulawolf), Greg Wallace (@aimclemson), Brian Favat (@BCInterruption), Michael Rogner (@RunTheFloor) and Brian (@StreakingTheLawn) for all their help cultivating this list.

ACC

• TheACC.com This is the official site for the Atlantic Coast Conference. They produce valuable video content and provide an easy interface to look up stats, conference standings and historic categories of everything you could want to know about the ACC. Follow on twitter @TheACC
• ACC Men’s Basketball Direct link to the Official ACC Men’s Basketball site. If you don’t want to sift through all that pesky football, lacrosse and soccer information, this is where to go. Follow on twitter @ACCMBB, mainly for links and breaking news.
• ACCSports.com Jim Young and a litany of veteran ACC writers keep you up to date on just about everything happening in the league. He’s a valuable twitter follower @ACCSports and has a links only twitter account @ACCSportsLinks
• SCACCHoops.com Jon Pence created this site from scratch where you can play ACC Fantasy Basketball and look at advanced stats for all the teams and players around the league. He also pulls stories from bloggers around the conference to keep you up to date on your favorite teams. Follow @SCACCHoops for links, commentary and occasional updates on his Game Sim application, which he claims knows all.
• Fox Sports South Andrew Jones covers the ACC, the Carolina Hurricanes and the Carolina Panthers for Fox Sports South and Fox Sports Carolinas. Follow him on twitter @AJonesFoxSports for links and commentary.
• ACC Insider Brett Friedlander covers all ACC Sports for the Wilmington Star News. He’s always up for a good conversation on twitter @StarNewsACC
• David Teel ‏ @DavidTeelatDP Covers the ACC for the Daily Press
• CBSSportsACC ‏ @CBSSportsACC CBS’ ACC-focused Rapid Reports blog
• Michael Kelly ‏ @MKellyACC ACC Senior Associate Commissioner
• Bret Strelow ‏ @bretstrelow Covers ACC Basketball for FayettevilleObserver.com
• Stephen Schramm ‏ @stephenschramm Covers ACC Basketball for Fayetteville Observer
• Joe Ovies ‏ @joeovies Half of the Adam and Joe show on 99.9 The Fan ESPN. Mainly covering Tobacco Road athletics.
• Adam Gold ‏ @AGoldFan The other half of the Adam and Joe show.
• @Jeffrey Fann ‏@TalkinACCSports Proprietor of AllSportsDiscussion.com, where he and @HokieGuru blog about everything ACC.

Team-Specific

Florida State

• FSU Basketball This is the official Men’s Basketball site for the reigning ACC Champions. Follow the official feed @FSU_MBasketball
• @FSUCoachHam Head Coach Leonard Hamilton
• @coachstanjones Assistant Coach Stan Jones

Players

• Aaron Thomas @aaronthomas513
• Boris Bojanovsky @Bo_FSU15 
• Joell Hopkins @JHop_FSU35
• Ian Bennett Miller @ian_fsu30
• Ojo Olalekan Michael @Lokoibadan 
• ‏Devon Bookert @db1_
• Robert Gilchrist @gilchristro
• Montay Brandon @Montay_FSU5
• Okaro White @owhite10
• Kiel Turpin @Big_Turp
• Terry Whisnant @Twhiz_31

Bloggers and Beat Writers

• Tomahawk Nation: Michael Rogner @RunTheFloor
• Seminoles.com: Brandon Mellor ‏ @BrandonMellor
• FSVIEW (student newspaper): Brendan Bures ‏ @BrenBures
• Orlando Sentinel: Coley Harvey ‏ @os_coleyharvey
• Tallahassee Dem: Corey Clark/TDO.com ‏ @Corey_Clark
• Miami Herald: Patrik Nohe ‏ @PatrikNohe_MH 

Christopher Johnson is an RTC columnist. He can be reached @ChrisDJohnsonn.

The advent of interactive web-based communication services like Twitter, Facebook and blogs has allowed coaches to connect with fans in a more direct and personal way than ever before. We witnessed an excellent example of this newfound coach-fan correspondence this summer when Kentucky head coach John Calipari, addressing UK fans directly as “Big Blue Nation,” explained in a long-form blog post on his personal website his new “nontraditional” scheduling philosophy as a roundabout way of rationalizing his refusal to continue the program’s decades-long home-and-home series with border rival Indiana. In “Forming a nontraditional schedule for a nontraditional program,” Calipari focuses on three main points: “Preparing our players for the postseason”, “our fans” and “the financial component.” He laid out his thoughts eloquently, a thoroughly-composed argument that shone some light on why he dared put an end to one of the nation’s deepest and most hostile hardwood conflicts.

With Purvis’ eligibility in question, Gottfried is offering comforting words to Wolfpack fans (Photo credit: Rob Carr/Getty Images)

Calipari’s philosophy (and staunch insistence on playing at neutral sites, such as Lucas Oil Arena) didn’t jibe well with Hoosiers coach Tom Crean, who feared the idea of UK staging an annual recruiting fair in his program’s backyard metropolis, Indianapolis. The talks fell through, and college hoops fans nationwide will lament the loss of one of the sport’s most riveting ongoing territorial battles. But Calipari’s direct approach in addressing UK’s legions of fans made sense in more ways than one. Rather than voice his opinion through the traditional media, Calipari proceeded to convey his thoughts via his own personal mouthpiece. It was forthright, frank and an altogether noble gesture from a man who, even to his own fans, seems to exist within his own impenetrable realm of coaching regality.

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Christopher Johnson is an RTC columnist. He can be reached @ChrisDJohnsonn

In response to an increasing number of maddeningly trivial secondary NCAA violations and a widespread rise in the use of smartphone-friendly forms of communication, the NCAA officially removed the coach-recruit digital contact barrier this June when its new cell phone-related recruiting rules went into effect. The new guidelines allow coaches to bombard players who have completed their sophomore year of high school with instantaneous messaging services such as texting, emailing and Twitter direct messaging. Coaches and assistants long rued the seemingly inane restrictions limiting today’s most efficient and instant forms of communication. Fewer contact controls will facilitate more frequent communication while eliminating the ever-present fear of committing a menial rule-break. Coaches can now rest easy knowing their digitized messages will safely reach a recruit’s inbox without having to regret pressing send. The result: A distinctly modernized recruiting world with streamlined communication and a newfound safeguard from the constant threat of an unsuspecting NCAA bylaw wreaking its retributive justice. The new rules makes life easier on the NCAA, too, as the organization no longer has to spend countless hours monitoring the flow of cell phone communication between coaches and recruits.

The NCAA’s new regulations allow coaches to reach recruits instantly with smartphone communication (Photo courtesy Jonathan Ferrey/Getty Images).

For the players, the long-term implications of the new contact protocol aren’t quite as rosy. Coaches that for years had wielded a restricted range of communication devices — and restricted usage on those devices — can now reach their desired prospects with the simple push of a button. The means and power to reach recruits now lies in the palm of their hands. Eliminating letters and unofficial visits in favor of texts and emails seems like a pretty fair deal for both sides, provided coaches don’t abuse their expanded degrees of communicative freedom. And therein lies the problem. In a hyper-competitive recruiting market, where coaches work tirelessly to land top high school talents, recruits can be overwhelmed by a barrage of texts and emails. Building a strong bond between player and coach is an integral aspect to any successful recruiting pitch. Now that coaches can make those connections with a few clicks on their handheld device, excessive contact is inevitable.

On Friday, Indiana coach Tom Crean provided a glimpse of what goes into the Division I college hoops recruiting pitch and brought to light another potential downside to the new guidelines. Here’s the tweet that appeared on Crean’s public feed:

“I am doing great. I have been thinking about you alot since last weekend. A whole lot. How are you doing?”

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1. “My account was hacked!” goes the common cry of players and sometimes even coaches who tweet something they soon end up regretting, right? Well, you wont hear anything like that coming from any of the University of New Mexico’s players. In fact, you won’t hear anything at all in the way of tweets from them, because Steve Alford has mandated a Twitter gag order for everyone on his squad. As of this writing, Facebook is still allowed. So, what do you think? Overprotective, or sound judgment by Coach Alford?
2. And now, your daily Salinas: most of the talk in this area on Wednesday centered around the NCAA investigation into the matter. As in…does one exist? First, the revered Andy Katz stepped up with an article announcing that the NCAA had no intention of investigating the possibility of what would amount to a player-for-investment money scam (not to mention the simultaneous alleged Ponzi scheme being examined by the Feds). The only problem is that for the rest of the day people came forward with evidence that such an investigation had already begun. Was Katz lied to or did the NCAA change their mind extremely quickly on the matter? Or is this the difference between a formal vs. informal probe?
3. Louisville will not be getting lei’d in 2012. They’ve pulled out of the Maui Invitational that year and will be replaced by Marquette. But don’t put the floral shirts, sunscreen and swimming trunks away just yet, Cardinal fans. Instead of Maui that year, you’ll have to settle for the Battle 4 Atlantis in the Bahamas. Card Chronicle has a pretty persuasive list of reasons as to why this is a better move for the team, not the least of which is that the Bahamas is emerging as fertile ground for basketball talent.
4. There was a Sweet 16 ten years ago, but in the last 40 years that’s all that Penn State basketball has had to get happy about as far as NCAA Tournament achievements. We had to stop and consider that before immediately writing off the notion that, as Black Shoe Diaries asserts, the best days ever for Penn State basketball are now underway with the hiring of Pat Chambers. Obviously we’ll have to wait and see if they’re proven correct, but after reading the piece and the comments section we’ll at least give everyone involved full marks for how they’ve used Chambers’ arrival as an opportunity to renew their emotional investment.
5. Andy Staples sure knows how to get your attention. Sports Illustrated is doing a series called “The Best Team I Ever Covered” in which it asks each of its writers over several sports about…well, you get it. For his submission, Staples chose the 2005-06 Florida Gators and included the words “Miss Sweden” in the title. We didn’t consider ourselves suckered, however, since his story was a nice insight into his coverage of that squad and the odd yet enjoyable journey it must have been. For the few of you who weren’t aware, Joakim Noah’s mother was a Miss Sweden. Yes, that Joakim Noah.

1. As a website victim to a similar infringement of trademark, RTC has a particular compassion for other sites and entities subject to cybersquatters and other bottom-feeders around the web.  But this example involving Arizona State University is a wee bit funny regardless.  It turns out that if you type in thesundevils.com into your browser, you’ll end up where you expected, at the official athletics website of the Pac-12 school located in Tempe.  But if you leave off the pronoun “the” and enter (warning: NSFW) sundevils.com, you’ll find something entirely different.  Like, as different as Brian Wilson’s leotux at the ESPYs Wednesday night, although equally titillating.  ASU has filed suit against the owner for infringement even though the owner claims that he doesn’t know why it is redirecting to his unrelated site and that he’s never heard from anyone at the university about this problem.
2. Apparently Georgia Tech was under an NCAA investigation in both football and basketball — who knew?  On Thursday the NCAA released its report finding GT guilty of several violations, resulting in the football team losing its 2009 ACC football title and the school having to pay $100,000 in penalties. The bulk of the violations involved the football program, but new head coach Brian Gregory on the basketball side will have to endure a slightly lower amount of official recruiting visits (10) for each of the next two seasons as well.  The hoops violations related to a handful of impermissible tickets given to recruits, but the bigger issue for the program is that its second major NCAA probation in the last six years.  Since Tech found itself in the NCAA’s crosshairs twice in such a short period of time, it was subject to harsher penalties than normal despite the relatively minor initial violation that got the school in trouble in the first place (a football player received some clothing).   A cautionary tale, indeed.  To read the entire NCAA report, click here.
3. ACC Sports Journal asks the question: What’s the succession plan for Duke basketball?  Everyone knows that Duke head coach Mike Krzyzewski is still probably several years, a couple hundred more wins, and perhaps even a fifth national championship away from retiring, but as he turns 65 next season, it’s a fair question.  The national pundits believe that Butler’s Brad Stevens is tailor made for the job, and we agree for the most part.  But we also think that Stevens, as a Hoosier born and bred, will settle at one or the other destination job — Duke or Indiana — at some point in the next five to seven years.  For fans of either school, it may become a bit of Faustian bargain — IU fans rooting for Tom Crean to ultimately fail (hoping the job opens prior to Duke), and Duke fans rooting for Crean’s success (hoping the IU job won’t open until after K retires).
4. Louisville head coach Rick Pitino blogged for the first time in over seven months yesterday, and he found time between complaints about playing at West Virginia for the third year in a row to lay out his idea for how to divide the 17-team Big East into an East and a West division.  The only thing is, though, is that we’re having a little trouble following the geography of Pitino, as his suggested layout has DePaul, Marquette and Notre Dame in the East, while Syracuse, Rutgers and Connecticut reside in the West.  Not sure what’s going on with that.  Anyone?  Perhaps we’ll have to wait another half-year to find out.
5. Finally, we’d be remiss if we didn’t again express our gratitude for SI.com placing us (well, our Twitter feed) on its list of the Top 100 must-reads for “news, information and entertainment from the sports world.”  Considering the talent on its staff and its ongoing reputation as the home of the best sports writers in the world, we are honored.  Let’s just hope that the extra attention doesn’t make us all self-conscious the next time we fire up the old TweetDeck apparatus…

Who’s Got Next? is a bi-weekly column by Josh Paunil, the RTC recruiting guru. We encourage you to check out his website dedicated solely to college basketball recruiting, National Recruiting Spotlight, for more detailed recruiting information. Twice a week he will bring you an overview of what’s going on in the complex world of recruiting, from who is signing where among the seniors to who the hot prospects are in the lower levels of the sport. If you have any suggestions as to areas we’re missing, please let us know at rushthecourt@yahoo.com.

Introduction

Last week it was the Nike EYBL, this week it’s the Pangos All-American Camp. Last week Class of 2012 small forward Shabazz Muhammad (#3) got his own section and this week Class of 2013 power forward Julius Randle (Watch List) gets his own section. Last week Class of 2012 point guard L.J. Rose (#20) named UCLA as a favorite and this week he elaborated on that. As you can tell, there are a lot of parallels between last week’s column and this week’s column but there are some things (or should I say people) that weren’t mentioned in the previous Who’s Got Next? column: Kobe Bryant, LeBron James, Wilt Chamberlain, Moses Malone, Kareem Abdul-Jabar, Candace Parker and ‘The Jewish Jordan”… not to mention a Twitter recruiting scandal.

What They’re Saying

Junior Brandon Ashley (#4) looks to cut his list in the next couple of weeks.