does something like this and is more open with the student body and Johnny Jungle than previous coaches at St. John's have been. How cool is this?
Coach K Calls Team Meeting
Curious, is Blue Planet an official school sponsored web site..?
Why would Lavin do anything with a web site that is not officially tied to the school..? Is he even allowed to do anything with a non affiliated website..?
1) Yes, it's produced by Dave Bradley. It was set up as a means of getting the program's message out there to their fans directly and attempting to counter what they felt was growing negative coverage locally. Ditto the Coach K Show on XM/Sirius, formerly with Dave Sims and now Gary Williams.
2) It tends to depend upon the head coach and their relationship or comfort level with their respective fan sites. In certain cases, some feel that it helps build fan support/loyalty and additional patience during down times.
There are several other high-profile programs that have either tacit or openly helped their "unofficial" sites. A large "unofficial" Kentucky blog, for example, has received much better access under John Calipari than they received under Billy Clyde G. A very large Indiana affiliate site has had an on-and-off relationship with Crean.
3) Yes, just as he is theoretically allowed to conduct a sit-down interview with New Amsterdam News or News 12 Connecticut. Many of these unofficial sites conduct postgame reax or interviews, for example. I don't know if Dave has spoken with St. John's latest SID about getting media credentials so that he or one of his members can do that for this upcoming season.