Three items to go over:
• First, it’s fascinating what a difference a year makes, particularly when that year involves beating Tom Izzo in the Sweet 16.
People went ape over the fact that Jerome Tang gave out his cellphone number to kids at a kickoff event for K-State students this past weekend. Then he filled up some kid’s gas tank, presumably after the kid told him he was in a jam. This stuff gets around awfully quickly in a social-media world. The reason it’s so powerful is because it appears completely authentic from Coach Tang.
Thing is, he did the same thing a year ago. Not nearly as many people cared at that point, since he had not yet coached a game, much less given the secret signal for Nowell to throw the no-look alley oop to Johnson. He’s been doing that stuff ever since he got here, and (I would presume) for quite some time before that. It’s just getting a lot more attention now.
The flipside is also true: Nobody would have cared if Stan Parrish filled some random kid’s pickup with unleaded, and nobody will care much about anything Tang does if he loses 20 games a year for the next couple. Sad but true.
• Tip of the cap to Corey Reeves, who announced this week that he’s leaving his job as the general manager at Manhattan Broadcasting. He’s mostly a behind-the-scenes guy, although he has gone back on the air as a morning-show host in recent years simply to help out. But in whatever capacity over the past quarter-century, he’s been a major contributor to that local company’s success. As you might know, that broadcasting group – which includes KMAN 1350 AM and FM stations 101.5 K-Rock, B-104.7, Z-96.3 and Sunny 102.5 – has been a pillar of the community for 70 years. It’s owned by many of the same people who own The Mercury, including, to a small extent, me. We at The Mercury actually compete with the stations for news and advertising, but we also share management tips and the like. Corey, like his predecessor Rich Wartell, has been a great colleague and a source of inspiration. We all wish him well as he enters a new phase in his life.
• I hope you’re as excited as I am about the local elections coming up in about 10 weeks. I’ve already gotten attacked, personally and professionally, by conservatives and liberals alike, saying that I — or we — are in cahoots with the other side, either because we did or didn’t do a story, or exactly how we worded the story we did. There’ll be more of this, which is why I’m so giddy with anticipation. Hopefully at least the cops won’t raid us.
Meanwhile, we’ll focus on our job of arming you with the information you need to make choices in the races for school boards and city commissions. I’m getting out of the business of endorsing candidates, and neither I nor our news staffers have any interest in anything other than that job. That’s not to say I won’t call BS if I see it. But you get to make your own choices. As usual, there are plenty of good candidates to choose from, whatever your viewpoint.
