3. The announcement roll out was…. interesting
Dickinson, former Iowa guard Jordan Bohannon, and Barstool Sports’ Marty Mush are the hosts of a college basketball podcast called “RoundBall.” The three hosts went live on YouTube Tuesday evening after promoting that a “big announcement” from Dickinson was on the way. It felt pretty clickbait-y, but there definitely was a chance that the 22-year-old announced his decision on the stream.
New roundball is coming REAL SOON 👀 pic.twitter.com/mGrW7f4rK2
— RoundBall Podcast (@roundballpod) May 2, 2023
Also of note: the RoundBall twitter account posted one of the worst graphics I’ve ever seen in my entire life, and I do not say that lightly. The graphic wasn’t even exported; it’s just a picture of a computer screen (note the cursor under Dickinson’s nose). What are we doing here??? Considering how big of a star Dickinson is in the sport of college basketball, and with the backing of the media machine that is Barstool, it’s pretty surprising how unprofessional the podcast is.
On the live stream, Dickinson’s “big announcement” was that…. he hadn’t made up his mind yet. Then, Mush awkwardly coerced Dickinson into saying that he would announce his decision on the Barstool Instagram page at a later date. But instead, Dickinson made the announcement himself by posting a video on his own channels two days later.
Freshman year Hunter Dickinson: Go-to guy on a No. 1 seed that was inches away from a Final Four appearance
— Christian Odjakjian (@OdjHoops) March 13, 2023
Junior year Hunter Dickinson: Live reacting on Barstool to the NIT Selection Show https://t.co/NJvILF2pXo
The whole ordeal of the announcement was so loosey-goosey, and the college hoops Twitter community was not happy about the deception and letdown. It is pretty funny to me that the one announcement, from the non-announcement, wasn’t even accurate.
I will say this though – the rollout and the buildup of suspense surrounding Dickinson’s decision was entertaining. I’ve heard before that NBA free agency is more exciting than the regular season. I definitely won’t extend that hyperbole to college hoops, but I do think that portal buzz and offseason drama are great for the sport.
I think in the future, guys with platforms like Dickinson will and should take advantage of the public interest around their decisions. But maybe the PR plan should be a little bit more put together.