https://sports.yahoo.com/college-basketball/article/kansas-states-coleman-hawkins-tearfully-admits-nil-backlash-affected-his-play-after-season-ending-loss-032739606.html

Article and interview with Coleman Hawkins of kstate. Tearfully, Hawkins describes how awful it feels to let a program down even if he is paid well.

Basically says he wished he could have blocked out noise.

Ahole fans need to realize these guys are humans. Nothing wrong with critique, but doing it less and doing it in a human way would be nice.

I think the days of civility are gone though, with the way people anonymously talk on the internet, it has become normal.

Love our team and guys and wish they knew how many of us truly care about them regardless of how they play.


Example: after Jace hit that 3 yesterday and even after Wilcher came in and hit his three earlier, I wanted to win for those two guys more than myself or my desire to "get one from the sips". Wish they knew that.

I felt the same way - especially after Jace hit that 3-point shot late. (And I've been begging that he doesn't even get the ball to shoot as of late). I was happy for him and wish it could've led to a win.

meh, no toughen up butter cup

get your ass out there and practice FT...

"Death wishes, death threats." - Indiana Hoosier center Oumar Ballo on interactions over social media this season. "Nobody wants to live like that."

"I'm not talking about the true fans because I know they have our back. If you're not cheering for us, leave us alone." #IUBB pic.twitter.com/t5rN9b0jOo

— Brett Bensley (@brettbensley) March 13, 2025

Matt Painter talking about Indiana fans

This is good stuff from Matt Painter on the situation at Indiana.

(Via @Jared_Kelly7)pic.twitter.com/yzZrgiwJjU

— Gary Parrish (@GaryParrishCBS) February 23, 2025

OKC~Ag said:

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meh, no toughen up butter cup

get your ass out there and practice FT...

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Sounds good. Tell you what, let me follow you around at work for a few days and air all of your mistakes on social media and talk about how you're not dedicated to your craft, etc.

Empathy is a lesson very few learn anymore. Someone can still "have it good" and be trashed inside. You see it in Hollywood all of the time.

I think this guy is "toughining up". What he's going to do is become a reclusive weirdo or completely fail at basketball and probably amount to nothing. All because people love to pop off at the mouth to make themselves feel better. Who is weaker....this guy for not being able to handle it or internet tough guys who throw tantrums like 3 year olds? (BTW, I'm guilty of the tantrums myself. Just doing some introspection outloud)

Great perspective. Buzz calls it "team bus 1", but i think he alienates the players too much. There is a large group of Aggies that loudly and quietly support the team and don't trash them collectively or individually. I don't think he points that out as well as Painter did.

No, the days of getting a participation trophy were 10 years ago...

This is a winner take all and loser go home whether in NCAA tournament or business.

so is our active duty soldier who trains constantly because there is no role for coming in 2nd...or INTC engineer trying to overcome TSMC current advantage in foundry, List goes on. the cliche is the same. Only paranoid survive

Yet I know fallen Marines from my unit. I guess they didn't train hard enough or weren't committed to their craft?

Wins and losses happen. In life and sports.

Only one team wins it all. I'm here to enjoy the ride and try to build up anyone and everyone I can.

jeremy said:

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Yet I know fallen Marines from my unit. I guess they didn't train hard enough or weren't committed to their craft?

Wins and losses happen. In life and sports.

Only one team wins it all. I'm here to enjoy the ride and try to build up anyone and everyone I can.

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Thanks for your service both in the Marines and here.

it is quite the dichotomy one one hand you have college aged kids who are learning about the real world. on the other hand they are now being paid so they are no longer amateurs/ so they are being treated like professionals. it's kind of a tough place to be because your not really equipped to handle the noise. and yet you are now paid to.

personally i think it is weak sauce to torment athletes at all. i mean what does that say about you as an individual and your life in general but in the other hand it's hard to say that these athletes can be insulated from it now that they are paid.

And not to mention what pitcher Shane Sdao said about our own fans. Seems like the vitriol is harsher than usual these days. It didn't used to be that way.

His words

Criticism is one thing but when it starts getting personal, that's going too far.

No one in an Aggie uniform deserves to be treated with disrespect.

This is the price of professionalization. Its easier to empathize with someone who is a student at your college just like you once were. Harder to put yourself in the shoes of someone getting paid to play a game, especially when its a lot of money.

Fans shouldn't be jerks, but these guys are pros now. Like guys in the NBA, they need to learn how to tune out the critics. Maybe the OP would have had more of an 'argument' before NIL.

I get that they are pros now, but this stuff was going on long before NIL.

It's an interesting conversation, for sure. Especially with the mercenary, "I'll go anywhere that pays me"mentality of so many athletes. Seems the opposite of this year's basketball team, though. Which is what makes the conversation more interesting.

My point is, money doesn't mean you can treat people like crap. It's not okay to kick and abuse hobos because they are poor. That doesn't mean it's okay to abuse people who are rich.

I'm mostly here for the discussion because it's interesting. My personal philosophy is follow the Golden rule and don't assume these players are fair game to trash them. It doesn't help and most of my trashing is just my own childishness and temper tantrum behavior.

Both of these things can be true:

1) All fanbases have people that post really derogatory things about their team for whatever reason. They are jerks and should stop.

2) Players have to figure out a way to tune out 1) because it is an unfortunate reality. If they find this hard, it's understandable because it is a tough situation.

OKC~Ag said:

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No, the days of getting a participation trophy were 10 years ago...

This is a winner take all and loser go home whether in NCAA tournament or business.

so is our active duty soldier who trains constantly because there is no role for coming in 2nd...or INTC engineer trying to overcome TSMC current advantage in foundry, List goes on. the cliche is the same. Only paranoid survive

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You're going to need to devote a little more time to mastering the English language before I take anything you say seriously.

Disagree that this is the price of professionalizing college sports. Things have been trending this direction for many years… this is a product of anonymous folks who have zero accountability for their words. It's that simple. Many of us, myself included, need to look in the mirror.

jeremy said:

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OKC~Ag said:

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meh, no toughen up butter cup

get your ass out there and practice FT...

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Sounds good. Tell you what, let me follow you around at work for a few days and air all of your mistakes on social media and talk about how you're not dedicated to your craft, etc.

Empathy is a lesson very few learn anymore. Someone can still "have it good" and be trashed inside. You see it in Hollywood all of the time.

I think this guy is "toughining up". What he's going to do is become a reclusive weirdo or completely fail at basketball and probably amount to nothing. All because people love to pop off at the mouth to make themselves feel better. Who is weaker....this guy for not being able to handle it or internet tough guys who throw tantrums like 3 year olds? (BTW, I'm guilty of the tantrums myself. Just doing some introspection outloud)

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You gonna pay me millions of dollars while you do it?
Obviously people take it too far, and I dont think you should ever direct anything directly at someone. Talking on forums is one thing, but DMs directly to people is wrong.

However, when you want to get paid an obscene amount of money to play/coach a child's game... maybe you also have to take the good with the bad.

What's funny is the people saying "They are paid athletes and now need to be treated like professionals" are mostly the same people that aren't pitching in.

The Collective said:

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Disagree that this is the price of professionalizing college sports. Things have been trending this direction for many years… this is a product of anonymous folks who have zero accountability for their words. It's that simple. Many of us, myself included, need to look in the mirror.

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I don't necessarily disagree, but words are just words -- sticks and stones can break your bones but words can never hurt you. Our society as a whole has become too sensitive; heck, there are people who want name-calling to be illegal which is ridiculous.

These players are public figures and now are well-paid public figures. Just like every actor, singer, and NBA player they are on stages for everyone to see and people are going to talk, so they need to learn how to ignore the chatter, stop reading Twitter, and focus on what's important.

The NCAA really needs to create a mandatory course that covers both managing money and dealing with public opinion issues. Both are issues that can cause lots of harm and these kids get no prep for them whatsoever.

AgEfan said:

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What's funny is the people saying "They are paid athletes and now need to be treated like professionals" are mostly the same people that aren't pitching in.

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The only 'pitching in' I do for the local professional teams is to buy occasional tickets. Why would I do anything different for A&M's professional teams?

jeremy said:

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https://sports.yahoo.com/college-basketball/article/kansas-states-coleman-hawkins-tearfully-admits-nil-backlash-affected-his-play-after-season-ending-loss-032739606.html

Article and interview with Coleman Hawkins of kstate. Tearfully, Hawkins describes how awful it feels to let a program down even if he is paid well.

Basically says he wished he could have blocked out noise.

Ahole fans need to realize these guys are humans. Nothing wrong with critique, but doing it less and doing it in a human way would be nice.

I think the days of civility are gone though, with the way people anonymously talk on the internet, it has become normal.

Love our team and guys and wish they knew how many of us truly care about them regardless of how they play.


Example: after Jace hit that 3 yesterday and even after Wilcher came in and hit his three earlier, I wanted to win for those two guys more than myself or my desire to "get one from the sips". Wish they knew that.

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A&M has several things preventing them from winning a national championship. One of those things is oir overly nice fan base that's quick to hand out participation trophies after each loss.

You want pressure. Pressure forces the best performances out of elite athletes. Coddling them is counterproductive

Our fan base needs to get a clue. Are NY Yankee fans nice? Have you seen their championship banners? Do you think Bama, Boston Celtic fans... any of the power house franchises or college programs have "nice fans??"

I don't know why any player, or their family, would ever look at social media.

Nothing good is going to come out of it.

Players cars have been vandalized, coaches get "for sale signs" put in their yards, that stuff was going on for decades, long before social media was around.

I guess they want the ego boost when things are going good. But nobody's making you read the DMs and comments you get on the instagram or Twitter you use for promotional reasons that get hit when it goes bad.

Just create an anonymous burner account if you want to peruse social media without having to read things.

And before someone starts in.

I would never condone in death threats or anything close to that

It's pretty simple..

"Player A should be benched because he offers nothing of value" is harsh, but acceptable. It's discussing him as a player. Online communities will never be all fairies and rainbows.

"Player A sucks and Im going to send him a death threat" is not acceptable. Ever.

If you can't keep your comments related to play on the field/court, then keep them to yourself.

That said, I wonder how many "let me follow you around and critique you all day" rationalizers refrain from making social media comments about the President, public figures in general, celebrities, etc.

You want to play high level sports? You want to get paid for it? The price is that you become a public face and everything you do in a game is going to be critiqued by fans and ridiculed by opposing fans. If you can't take it, you could always try just going to college like the rest of us and trying to get a job. Better aim no higher than middle level analyst though. Beyond that and you become public facing at least a small amount and open to criticism beyond your fellow employees.

I wish I could be more sympathetic, but I simply can't when 18-22 year olds are cashing 6 or 7 figure checks each year. It didn't have to be this way but now it is. It's an adjustment period for athletes and fans alike.

Can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen.

I don't see why there has to be an adjustment period to be a decent human being.

You're just trying to justify saying whatever you want to an athlete because he makes more money than you.

Well said. Justification of bad behavior in the guise of toughness.

It doesn't make you tough to talk trash and dog pile someone representing your school. I submit it makes you weak. Being tough is constraining your anger. I'll admit, its my biggest weakness and area i can grow in.

Also, whoever said our fans are too nice, I disagree.

We've gotten progressively more arsehole-ish and we still underperform in at least 2 of the three main sports. So, I'm not sure the "nice fan" metric is what holds us back.

GrayMatter said:

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I don't see why there has to be an adjustment period to be a decent human being.

You're just trying to justify saying whatever you want to an athlete because he makes more money than you.

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I'm not trying to justify anything. Happy they're all able to make as much money as they can. The adjustment period is mindsets switching. For the athletes and fans alike.

When every single aspect of a kid choosing a school to play at becomes dominated by money and immediate playing opportunity, don't be surprised when fans who spend their hard earned money on tickets, donations and NIL for those players talk about said athletes like fans do with pro teams. It comes with the territory.

Also in regards to social media, there are many trolls. I think players are probably more keyed in on this than parents & coaches.

"I've never been one that said I don't believe student-athletes shouldn't be paid. But the way it is now is ridiculous. It's utterly ridiculous"

Steve Alford was asked if there's anything he & his staff need to do to help navigate this new landscape of college basketball & here… pic.twitter.com/SPvZl0EPts

— Shannon Kelly (@shannonkelly_tv) March 14, 2025

Don't be surprised when fans act just like the players do. It's purely transactional now. And it's wrong.

I'm happy that baseball has started so that the frustrated football fans have a new spot on this site to take their negativity to. Aggie fans love to eat their own players and coaches. I'm sorry baseball is off to such a rough start after so much preseason hype but it's refreshing to have some new meat for these constantly *****ing people to feast on and leave our basketball team alone.

Alvord said it well. Thanks for posting that!

Agree about Baseball. The frustration from football season has poured over into everything on this board and about basketball in general and it sucks.

That's why I said that our fans would be pissed with the Gillespie years if they were happening now. The level of frustration, anger, and vitriol is crazy.

jeremy said:

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Alvord said it well. Thanks for posting that!

Agree about Baseball. The frustration from football season has poured over into everything on this board and about basketball in general and it sucks.

That's why I said that our fans would be pissed with the Gillespie years if they were happening now. The level of frustration, anger, and vitriol is crazy.

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his years came after decades of irrelevance though.

no one is saying "go out and harass the players directly" or saying its a good thing.


But the reason coaches and players are getting paid millions is because of the really passionate fans.
Some of those really passionate fans are also going to insanely negative and DM you crazy *****
They opted into the good and the bad for the obscene amounts of money, so they have to deal with it.

Same thing for actors, and now streamers/youtube creators. They profit off of these parasocial relationships with their fans to the tune of millions, thats also going to come with some negative experiences.

Can always just live a normal life, where random people aren't sending you death threats.