N.C. State men’s basketball coach Mark Gottfried doesn’t want to dwell on the Wolfpack’s Tuesday night loss at the University of Cincinnati but it’s a defeat the coach attributes to calls from the local officiating crew.
“You don’t even know what the score is,” Gottfried recalled saying to one of the officials.
“Yes I do — we’re up by six,” the referee said, a comment that amused the audience of some 800 techies filling a Raleigh Convention Center ballroom for the Internet Summit.
While it might seem unusual for a basketball coach to address a technology conference, it turns out that social media has become integral to how Gottfried does his job.
Gottfried came to N.C. State in 2011. But before that he spent two years as an ESPN basketball analyst before coming to N.C. State. He said that in those two years, he saw the whole social media world change. Gottfried, had served as head coach at the University of Alabama and Murray State University, and as an assistant coach at UCLA, was steeped in the old school recruiting tools of pen and paper.
“We used to hand mail letters to kids we were recruiting,” Gottfried said. “I’m not sure if anyone even opens up an envelope anymore.”
These days, Gottfried’s staff communicates with recruits via text messages or short clips of film. All of that content is consumed on the players’ smartphones.
“That’s where they live, every day,” Gottfried said.
In today’s athletic world, you’ve got to be on social media in order to be effective. So Gottfried has gotten on board. He’s on Twitter, @Mark_Gottfried, and he’s open for any social media tips you might have.
Just don’t ask him about the officiating at the Cincinnati game.
