CJS sends unprofessional Twitter message to fan

[Golddore68]

A fan on Twitter sent Stackhouse a Twitter message after the Grambling loss critical of him.

Stackhouse sent back an unprofessional response saying he had a “memory like an owl” (whatever that means) and called the fan a “fake a$$ fan.”

CJS should have left it alone and ignored it. You don’t want to engage in Twitter message wars with fans.

Here is a screenshot from the fan’s Twitter post:

[alathIN]

That is just not adult behavior and it's not the behavior of a responsible leader.

People in leadership positions need to realize that when they are on social media they are on the job, and flying off the handle in public is a leadership failure.
Imagine, as a purely hypothetical example, if we had a president who had a fragile ego and no self-control on social media. It would have real world consequences.

If Stack is using social media he is either helping the program or hurting the program. And in this instance he is certainly not helping.

I can tolerate a bad game or even a bad season because it's a hard job and a lot of really smart talented people are trying to beat you. But when your own character level joins the opposition, that is not easy to look past.

[VUaskew]

So, why are fans to be held to a lesser standard when things aren't going well? Takes a big person to insult or heckle someone from the safe distance of Twitter.

I think restraint is a two-way street. Why is it always on one person to "act better"?.

Grown men getting all over a coach of college of 18-22 year old young men because their self-esteem cannot handle losing.

Nobody won that exchange.

[Doreknox]

Nobody won that exchange.

No one may have won that exchange, but Vanderbilt certainly lost it. Is the pressure getting to Stackhouse?

[vu2003rpl]

What is stack going to do if we actually start winning and UT/UK fans come out of the woodwork and talk real nasty trash to him?

This dude wasnt even being that ugly.

[AuricGoldfinger]

This is not the first occurrence of CJS exchanging messages with a fan on Twitter. Which raises the question...

Why is he following any fans in the first place and allowing them to send DMs to him?

[Nashmann]

Funny, when I was blocked by Stackhouse not long after he was hired, no one believed he would respond to me the way he did. I was so shocked....I didn't save the response he made. Didn't think to do it.

I sent him a private message saying please don't have grey uniform combinations as our colors were Black and Gold. His response was .....when I need fashion help from you I will ask....now I hope you enjoy while I block your ass! then boom I was blocked.

Everyone was demanding a screen shot etc....not believing he would say such a thing. Since then I have heard many fans most longtime have been blocked!

[Golddore68]

I wonder if AD CSL knows that her basketball coach is sending unprofessional messages on Twitter to fans.

[Jason94]

So, why are fans to be held to a lesser standard when things aren't going well? Takes a big person to insult or heckle someone from the safe distance of Twitter.

I think restraint is a two-way street. Why is it always on one person to "act better"?.

Grown men getting all over a coach of college of 18-22 year old young men because their self-esteem cannot handle losing.

Nobody won that exchange.

I don't agree with essentially heckling someone over twitter, but in this instance CJS is being paid very handsomely to represent the university. I'd say seven figures is more than enough reason to "act better". The university sure as heck is paying him to act better, and not some nominal amount of money. Part of the job is understanding that the world if filled with people who lack control, intelligence, etc, and that you will have to deal with some amount of that. On top of this, the message he is responding to is about as mild a criticism as you will find on social media. Plus, the advice in this instance was solid.

[alathIN]

So, why are fans to be held to a lesser standard when things aren't going well? Takes a big person to insult or heckle someone from the safe distance of Twitter.

I think restraint is a two-way street. Why is it always on one person to "act better"?.

Grown men getting all over a coach of college of 18-22 year old young men because their self-esteem cannot handle losing.

Nobody won that exchange.

I wasn't able to see the original message, so I don't know how vicious it was. Stack used words that we can't use on Vandymania. Did the critical fan do the same?

As a professional in the sports world, Stack should have some awareness that fans get frustrated with losing.
Well, that's the first reaction anyway.
If it goes on, eventually a lot of them will stop caring whether the team wins or loses.
When you run a program playing in a half empty gym, you should be grateful for every fan who still cares enough to be frustrated.

[MrMemorial]

And yet, we had a former coach yell at one of his own players on national TV that was going to "fvckin' kill" the 19 year old VU student athlete. For some reason, most people on here condoned that. Some complimented the coach's conduct in that display.

Why the double standard?

?

[Nashmann]

I never heard one person condone Stallings at that time. He was wrong...not to yell but the words and volume he used!!! No double standard....both are wrong!!

[Jason94]

And yet, we had a former coach yell at one of his own players on national TV that was going to "fvckin' kill" the 19 year old VU student athlete. For some reason, most people on here condoned that. Some complimented the coach's conduct in that display.

Why the double standard?

?

No, people on here did not condone it - you weren't on the board at the time, so you are just making something up for no apparent reason. There was certainly discussion whether CKS should be fired immediately, but given that he apologized and more importantly, the apology was accepted by Baldwin, it was deemed not a fireable offense, but not something that anybody said was no big deal. And in the end of the season, he was fired despite taking the team to the tournament because when added to everything else, it was time to move on.

Is it your stance that we treat this equally and wait to the end of the season to let CJS go? Or that it least be a major consideration when taking all things considered? You've made it clear that what CKS was unacceptable, so I assume this is a massive black mark on CJS' resume, correct? Or is it you who has the double standard?

[alathIN]

CKS was an old school coach who yelled at players, and this was frequently cited on this board as a negative. Threatening Baldwin with death on national TV was an egregious example and was strongly criticized here. Even after CKS publicly apologized and Baldwin publicly accepted it, many here continued to hold it against him. Perhaps the most vocal member of this board ran a thinly disguised campaign to fire CKS. Even CKS supporters or "neutrals" like me speculated his harshness might have played a role in his inability to attract and retain players.

I don't know if you have noticed, but fan disaffection is a major problem for this program. Showing fragile vanity on social media toward the comments of a fan will not help this.
Many people in high profile roles turn their public social media accounts over to professional PR people because they know their visible behavior can help or hinder their effectiveness in their job. In other words, they are able to say "long term success is more important than my short term ego needs."
Inability to do so may not be fatal to Stack's success - I certainly hope he will be successful - but it definitely won't help.

I don't tend to be "anti" any VU coach at VU. They all have their pros and cons and in the end they are evaluated on their body of work. I have found things to admire in every VU hoops or football coach since I started following in the 80s and I always root for them to be successful. But when I see a coaching tenure failing - or in some ways worse, stuck in the doldrums between success and failure - I don't pretend it's all going well. I think this year is critical for Stackhouse's tenure here. I'm not saying he's necessarily on the hot seat, but there is no way at this point to describe his tenure as a success. There is such a thing as momentum and VU men's hoops doesn't have it right now. I do not say this in the sense of he should be fired - I say it in the sense of what he needs to be successful. Last year, his most successful season, was not so resoundingly successful that he can follow it up with a bad season and still maintain a positive trajectory. To progress in recruiting and fan engagement, Stackhouse needs to demonstrate the program is improving. I'm not sure he can post a losing season this year and still make that case with recruits.
Bringing in a 4 star talent and seating him on the bench behind an average mid major transfer and a very average upperclassman while losing will not help recruiting.

I would be interested to hear your assessment of where the program is.

[charlestonalum]

Not an appropriate response, and why is he looking at this stuff? This is turning out to be a disastrous year - not just for Coach, but for the AD. Hope things turn around: I did not see this coming, but here it is.

[UltimateVUFan]

Source? Doesn’t look like anything I’ve seen on Twitter app. Granted, I don’t DM. Just saying, seems suspect and easily fake.

[Jason94]

CKS was an old school coach who yelled at players, and this was frequently cited on this board as a negative. Threatening Baldwin with death on national TV was an egregious example and was strongly criticized here. Even after CKS publicly apologized and Baldwin publicly accepted it, many here continued to hold it against him. Perhaps the most vocal member of this board ran a thinly disguised campaign to fire CKS. Even CKS supporters or "neutrals" like me speculated his harshness might have played a role in his inability to attract and retain players.

I don't know if you have noticed, but fan disaffection is a major problem for this program. Showing fragile vanity on social media toward the comments of a fan will not help this.
Many people in high profile roles turn their public social media accounts over to professional PR people because they know their visible behavior can help or hinder their effectiveness in their job. In other words, they are able to say "long term success is more important than my short term ego needs."
Inability to do so may not be fatal to Stack's success - I certainly hope he will be successful - but it definitely won't help.

I don't tend to be "anti" any VU coach at VU. They all have their pros and cons and in the end they are evaluated on their body of work. I have found things to admire in every VU hoops or football coach since I started following in the 80s and I always root for them to be successful. But when I see a coaching tenure failing - or in some ways worse, stuck in the doldrums between success and failure - I don't pretend it's all going well. I think this year is critical for Stackhouse's tenure here. I'm not saying he's necessarily on the hot seat, but there is no way at this point to describe his tenure as a success. There is such a thing as momentum and VU men's hoops doesn't have it right now. I do not say this in the sense of he should be fired - I say it in the sense of what he needs to be successful. Last year, his most successful season, was not so resoundingly successful that he can follow it up with a bad season and still maintain a positive trajectory. To progress in recruiting and fan engagement, Stackhouse needs to demonstrate the program is improving. I'm not sure he can post a losing season this year and still make that case with recruits.
Bringing in a 4 star talent and seating him on the bench behind an average mid major transfer and a very average upperclassman while losing will not help recruiting.

I would be interested to hear your assessment of where the program is.

In the end, if CJS is able to turn things around, I won't care that much that he sends a dumb DM to a fan, as winning cures a whole lot of ills. You are absolutely correct that we seem to be squandering whatever momentum was built last season with a disastrous start to this season, and the roster issues he's had throughout his entire tenure here have not been completely resolved. Assuming we don't have a CBD style crash and burn CJS will almost certainly be back next season, but barring a massive turnaround that leads to postseason play, without significant development of Shelby and Dort there isn't a ton of reason to think we would be in position to be a tournament team next season either without an actual impact transfer or two. We've gotten so used to losing that we've gone from getting rid of a coach who got us to the tournament in 7 of his last 13 seasons to being excited about beating Pitt and Temple (neither of whom look like tournament teams). Beating UK or UT feel like pipe dreams at the moment, much less beating an actual top 10 team. I don't see how anybody can look at where we are and not be extremely frustrated with where our program has fallen to.

[buffy]

So, why are fans to be held to a lesser standard when things aren't going well? Takes a big person to insult or heckle someone from the safe distance of Twitter.

I think restraint is a two-way street. Why is it always on one person to "act better"?.

Grown men getting all over a coach of college of 18-22 year old young men because their self-esteem cannot handle losing.

Nobody won that exchange.

I think Stack is a pretty good guy, but this is foolishness. Damned foolish. You ask why its always on one person to "act better". Well, because one person is getting paid a lot of money to represent his employer and its interests. That certainly applies to how he responds to fans on Twitter. Fans have been idiots for years. As an employer, this would require a "Come to Jesus" on expectations. As a public figure, there's a higher standard, as it should be. Its the same reason I voted to fire Trump. Not because I disagreed with all of his policies, but I expect leaders to show respect for people who disagree with them.

[doubledore9603]

Until that screenshot is validated, this whole discussion is hypothetical. That site is a cesspool of imposters and haters.
That stated, I’d hope that the administration gave all the coaches a stern warning after an assistant football coach embarrassed the university on Twitter a few weeks back…

[UltimateVUFan]

Until that screenshot is validated, this whole discussion is hypothetical. That site is a cesspool of imposters and haters.
That stated, I’d hope that the administration gave all the coaches a stern warning after an assistant football coach embarrassed the university on Twitter a few weeks back…

Exactly what I alluded to earlier. The whole thing looks suspect anyway. Easily fake.