Post coverage question....

[gister]

I noticed the article on the Dayton game was by Tom Timmerman. Is Stu gone, had his assignments changed, of just on vacation? I had not noticed who had been covering previous games.

[thetorch]

Timmerman covers other SLU stuff like soccer. My guess would be Stu is on vacation. He did write a blurb on the Lady Bills on the second page.

[Nate Latsch]

Stu Durando is covering the Oklahoma-USC bowl game.

Jeremy Rutherford, the Illinois beat writer, covered Missouri's game against Belmont last week, because Bill Coats was covering the football team's bowl game.

- Nate

[slufanskip]

There is no OU - USC bowl game ... USC played in the Rose yesterday. OU plays in the Sugar on Sunday. Did he get to cover both? Any opennings?

Official Billikens.com sponsor of H. Waldman

[billiken_roy]

nate, who do we need to contact at the post to get you to be our "backup" beat writer? timmerman has never liked covering the billikens imo and his writeup on the dayton game still mirrored "going through the motions". you should take it on.

[bonwich]

I think a bigger issue from a fan's standpoint is why the beat reporter for the Billikens was pulled from the Billikens right in the middle of the season (at a game against a top-25, more or less, opponent, and one into whose conference the Bills are going) to write backup copy about an event that has no St. Louis teams participating in it. It ain't earthshaking for SLU not to have Stu for a game (although I, as a fan, would prefer him there), but it also is just one more in a long list. I would think the the SID or athletic director at most schools would register their displeasure at such a decision.

[kwyjibo]

I read the article, noticed a weird condescending tone, and because I never looked at the byline assumed that Stu was a little cranky about going to Dayton.

Generally, Stu knows good defense and would at least see the game in that light (I did not see the game but were the first half turnovers really "unforced sloppiness" as the article implies? Was it "bad shooting" or good D or some combo of the two?). The article was written under the impression that Dayton was not a 10-1 sometimes ranked team.

There is probably plenty of truth in the article but it failed to capture any of the drama of beating a team that had played well most of the season and had garnered some national attention. It also failed to capture any of the drama of the Bills run and Dayton's attempts to come back. I got that from reading posts here (thanks).

[Nate Latsch]

I meant LSU. Sorry. I must have still been thinking about how good USC looked last night.

Roy, drop me an e-mail when you get a chance.

- Nate

[cheeseman]

The PD is like all businesses today - they stretched thin. How many of you are doing your work and parts of others because of downsizing and cost savings efforts. Sending Stu to do the football report was also a chance to give him an opportunity to expand his exposure and prove his versatility - good opportunity for Stu. You are correct, Timmerman has never down a great job of covering SLU when he was the beat writer. If I was him I would be wondering why he was sent to Dayton and Stu was given bigger chance - seems to me that Stu has passed him up. One thing the PD needs to understand is that having writers who want to cover a team will create better copy than just having a warm body - everybody wins and the paper gains the most.