Duke offers its own story

By the end of the 2007 season, the negative media attention had finally become too much for Mike Krzyzewski. His Blue Devils were just removed from a loss in the first round of the NCAA Tournament when he gathered his staff to talk about strategies to move forward, and basketball wasn't the sole focus of Krzyzewski's attention.

Duke's loss to Virginia Commonwealth had been more than a mere March Madness upset. Because it involved Duke-and because it was a Duke loss to an unknown mid-major on the country's biggest stage-the mainstream media and blogosphere pounced. Message board posters and bloggers celebrated Duke's demise with vitriol, and there were even rumors of reporters cheering in the press room, the industry's ultimate taboo.

So Krzyzewski and his team decided to use the Internet, the force that furthered Duke hatred, to control its own message better.

The program already had a magazine, Blue Planet, that served as a promotional product for recruits. Krzyzewski advocated turning to the Web-a suggestion that eventually resulted in the creation of DukeBluePlanet.com, the program's standalone Web site that features compilations of top plays, video blog posts from players and behind-the-scenes access afforded only to members of the program.

"It's not so much controlling your voice. It's having a voice," Krzyzewski told The Chronicle. "I'm 61 years old. I don't even understand all the voices out there.... But the fact is, they're all out there. We needed something to tell our story correctly, because there was so much misinformation."

Ever since, Duke has done all it can to put out its own message rather than rely on the press to write its stories.

The mainstream media hasn't suffered a dip in its access to Krzyzewski and the Blue Devils, because one of the primary goals of the site-besides appealing to recruits-is to offer personal sides of the program that can't be covered by outside media outlets.

"As much great coverage as we get, there's a lot of negativity. That impacts recruiting, and I think it impacts our guys a little bit," said Dave Bradley, the team's recruiting coordinator and creator of the Web site. "There were so many other people telling our story. A lot of times it was good, sometimes it was bad, and most of the time, it wasn't something we had control over. A Web site was one of the ways where we could insert our voice, to some extent, and put stuff out there that we wanted to put out."

The blog posts and video clips are not exactly journalism, but that's not the point-Duke hopes it can offer something to supplement the already-expansive coverage of the team and, in the process, stem some of the personal criticism of the Blue Devils.

"People need to start seeing our young men as people and not as entities," said Jon Jackson, Duke's associate athletic director for communications. "If you're able to see what a young man goes through here at Duke... it gets a little bit harder to dislike them, because it's a good group of men. That was part of the strategy: Like, 'Hey, why not put our guys out there?' If [we] put them out there, you may not want them to win, but there's a big difference between not wanting them to win and not liking them as people."

Bradley, Trinity '04, is the staffer directly in charge of putting out a different type of message.

He edits the majority of the full-color magazine-which appears in a more rudimentary format to recruits, per NCAA guidelines-and produces most of the content for Blue Planet. An assistant to the director of basketball operations when he was a student, Bradley stayed on after graduation in a similar role, and now has unparalleled access to the Blue Devils. He sits in on team meetings, interacts closely with the players and even has Krzyzewski's ear at times.

The players discern a difference between dealing with the media and shooting spots for Blue Planet, Bradley said.

"You have to watch what you say [with the media]," said sophomore Nolan Smith, whose teammates have dubbed him the most camera-friendly of the players. "But [on Blue Planet], we're definitely being us more. It's just hanging out, being real. We're as real as we can be with the media, but some things have to stay private. On Blue Planet, we're as real as we can be and we stay loose."

The relationship between Krzyzewski and the media has been more strained than loose at times. Krzyzewski is more reclusive than some ACC coaches, and the press always prefers transparency. For his part, the head coach believes the local media is biased against Duke and more willing to give favorable coverage to other schools in the area, he said.

In January, John Drescher, the executive editor of The (Raleigh) News & Observer, wrote a column criticizing Krzyzewski's jabs at local media outlets, defending his newspaper against charges of bias and pointing out Krzyzewski's perceived willingness to be more available with the national media. The tone of the give-and-take was more lighthearted than assailing, but it reflected some frustration on both sides-making the need for a Duke-friendly site like Blue Planet even greater.

"We will never get publicized in this area well," said Krzyzewski, who added that he's tried to become more accommodating with the media in recent seasons. "I'm not complaining-it gives me my edge. But we shouldn't be naive. We're going to be second or third in each of the newspapers, each of the TV stations, and then nationally, we'll be first. The local press, then, can look at that and say I'm snubbing them, but I also know-no matter what I do, because we've done most of them-we're going to be second or third.

"And I'm cool with that, but then don't twist it around, that I'm complaining. And that's really what Duke is learning. It's something I knew for a long time. In this area, keep tight.... Don't let it get to you. But then we need resources like [Blue Planet] to make sure that it's showing."

Building a legacy online

Duke's approach to publicizing its own message on the Internet isn't unique. But Bob McKamey-the concept director of UnCommon Thinking, the Chicago-based design and branding firm that built Blue Planet-said Bradley helps Duke do it better than any of its competitors.

"I would say, by far, Duke's is the best football or basketball site," McKamey said. "I think I can honestly say that, even though I worked on the site.... I don't really think you're going to see another program put in that much effort in the updating and content of the site. That's what will help it stand on its own."

Other teams have Web presences like Duke's, but the fact that there is a man behind the Web site makes Duke's more efficient, McKamey said. Bradley frequently updates the site with new videos and notes from players and alumni, which makes a potentially static recruiting tool more dynamic.

Bradley's job is different from some of his counterparts at schools across the country because he is more affiliated with a specific program than the entire department. Blue Planet, devoted solely to men's basketball, is a separate venue from GoDuke, the department's official site. JumpTV owns the rights to GoDuke, while Blue Planet's content is produced in conjunction with Mind Over Media, a Web strategy firm that also develops content for Penn State's football- and basketball-specific sites. GoDuke takes some of Blue Planet's videos, but because Bradley's site is technically a third-party recruiting site, it operates outside the realm of JumpTV.

Although some of GoDuke's content is accessible only to subscribers and all of Blue Planet's is free, there is no divide between the two sites because the wealth of information serves different purposes, Bradley said. One has rosters, statistics and schedules. The other has supplementary content. But when GoDuke's contract with JumpTV expires, the department might explore the idea to merge more content with Blue Planet, Jackson said.

Still, the distinction between the department's Web site and outlets for specific teams has become a trend in recent years, said McKamey, whose firm also designed the personal Web sites of Danica Patrick, John Wooden and David Beckham. Many powerhouse football programs-including Southern California, Penn State and Texas-have used recruiting Web sites for years.

Lately, basketball teams have taken notice. The primary purpose of Blue Planet, after all, is to entice recruits. Top-notch prospects see Duke on television and read stories in national publications, but Blue Planet gives Duke's staff a chance to speak to its targets even when the NCAA forbids it from doing so directly.

"I never thought of it [as a recruiting tool]," said Henderson, who committed to Duke long before the Web site's creation. "You make visits and you're here all the time, but that's something that would definitely intrigue me to a school."

Krzyzewski admitted he isn't a regular visitor to the site. He already knows Duke's "propaganda," he said with a laugh-he doesn't need to be recruited. Krzyzewski doesn't need to see Duke through rosier glasses, either, but Blue Planet may have already helped outsiders do that.

Jackson said he has noticed a correlation between the site's launch and a decline in anti-Duke material. Trying to promote a message isn't a new strategy, but translating that proactive approach to the Internet is a recent development, and it could be more effective.

"I think there's been less Duke hate, so to speak," Jackson said. "It's still out there. For us to say it's just going to magically disappear is probably not the best strategy on our part. It's something you have to work at consistently, and one of the key ways to do that is through Blue Planet."