Burners, bettors and NIL: How Evansville, USI basketball players navigate social media

EVANSVILLE — Kenny Strawbridge Jr. has seen the good and the bad of social media. The University of Evansville men’s basketball guard is entering his final season of college athletics with a full understanding of the effects of Twitter, Instagram and TikTok within the sports world.

As do the rest of the Purple Aces and, on the other side of town, the University of Southern Indiana Screaming Eagles, who collectively have utilized social media for several purposes, from finding name, image and likeness deals to building their personal brand.

“I feel like social media is what you make it to be,” Strawbridge said.

More: 'Up in the air': How USI and UE are using 'name, image, likeness' rules to their advantage

Yet, there are negative aspects, too. Strawbridge and Screaming Eagles guard Jeremiah Hernandez each talked about seeing teammates get messages from burner accounts blaming them for missed bets and poor performances.

“They’ll send me a DM after the game talking about, ‘I needed you to get more than 15 (points), you messed up my FanDuel parlay’ and all that,” Strawbridge said. “It’s crazy. There’s also negatives when it comes to social media.”

“I remember at my old school, there were some people you could tell put some money on the games,” Hernandez said of his time at Kent State. “Some dudes would get DMs but you just can’t let that affect you.”

Strawbridge and Hernandez, as well as UE guard Gage Bobe and USI guard Sam Mervis, said the support from the Purple Aces’ and Eagles’ fans has been louder than any negativity they’ve seen and expressed appreciation for that.

“There’s some guys on there who love UE basketball, who love supporting me and I’m very appreciative of that,” Bobe said. “There’s obviously a couple people on there that tweet mean stuff but there’s an equal amount of people that are very supportive. … That means a lot to me and the rest of the team.”

How Stan Gouard and David Ragland approach social media with their teams

USI coach Stan Gouard said his primary use for social media is connecting with former players and looking through recruits' accounts. He’s active there because of the appeal to potential future athletes.

Gouard and UE coach David Ragland have similar approaches to the internet with their programs. Gouard said he and his staff go through posts and show the Eagles “the dos and don’ts” of what they can display on social media.

“We always tell our guys how important it is because we are public figures,” Gouard said. “What you put out there has to be positive. It can’t be negative.

“If it’s going to embarass your mother, it shouldn’t go out there.”

Ragland and his staff also take on an educational role for their players. The second-year head coach pointed out that the Aces and people their age are constantly on social media, so there's an importance of having a responsible online presence.

“Social media, especially for our youth, is a necessity,” Ragland said. “What you put out there is always going to be out there, so you have to be careful. … We told our guys from the moment they got here how impactful their position is at the university and in the community.”

Both local men’s basketball coaches follow a trend Hernandez said he first started hearing about during his time in AAU. The USI junior referenced what he called “the Red Solo Cup Rule,” to never post anything that could infer drinking.

He also mentioned the importance of not having an overcrowded account.

“You can obviously have your other interests and stuff,” Hernandez said, “but just want to make sure, especially if you’re being actively recruited, that your page is easy to navigate and they can find your highlights.”

Twitter and other social media can impact recruiting

Hernandez likened Twitter to LinkedIn for basketball prospects.

“Everything has to be easy to navigate and business oriented if you’re being actively recruited,” he said.

He and Mervis talked about the importance of social media in the recruiting process. Some people may view prospects posting various offers as showboating or attention seeking, but really it signals coaches to the kind of programs that are taking interest in a recruit.

More schools often reach out when a player posts an offer — “It starts a domino effect,” Hernandez said. In his own experience in high school and the transfer portal, Hernandez remembers the effects after posting about his first Division I offer.

“Really all it took was that one to get you onto that level,” he said.

“You can tweet out an offer and a school might not know you but a school in that conference will just offer you right away,” Mervis said. “That’s definitely a huge thing because, ‘Oh he has this offer. If he has an offer in the Missouri Valley, he must be Missouri Valley talent.’ So he’s gonna get two or three more and that’s just gonna continue to build on.”

Social media has changed the recruiting landscape. Ragland and Goaurd recall sending and receiving letters. Ragland recalled getting VHS game tapes from recruits. Both said recruits are actively looking at a program’s social presence in determining where they want to go.

Both coaches and their assistants are regularly tagged in highlight videos on social media.

“I would say maybe five years ago I’d pay more attention to it because it was unique,” Ragland said. “Now I get it so much where it’s not as effective. … We have to be on social media as coaches because we’re promoting our program, our university, our community. We have to be.”

“I don’t get caught up into too much social media,” Gouard said. “I really only pay attention to my team and the players and a few other things. I think the downside is when you’re recruiting a player, everybody knows because of social media.”

Gouard expanded on that and said recruits posting their offers allows them to see where USI could stand with that player — “If he has all high-majors offered him on his social media, then we probably can’t jump in on that dance floor, he said.” Gouard credited his assistants with being savvy in that regard while he largely focuses on calling coaches and other connections to the recruit.

“I think you get the chance to learn something different to do because if you don’t adjust it’s gonna keep trending forward. It’s not gonna stop and pause and wait for you to catch up,” Gouard said. “I wasn’t a big social media guy, I always thought that was not for me. But the way we keep up with guys, even our own guys, is social media.”

This article originally appeared on Evansville Courier & Press: NCAA basketball: How Evansville, USI men's teams handle social media