Here is an example of the stupid shit Dokish writes:

The coach at Miami-Dade is Pitt alum Matt Eisele, who at 26 last year was the youngest college coach in the country. When both a school and a player want to renew their relationship in the near future, both parties often agree on a school that will see that things stay the same and no other school tries to recruit the player. In this case, the college was Miami-Dade’ and the coach was Eisele, who is a friend of Pitt assistant Orlando Antigua. Antigua, however, remains a finalist for another job at Memphis, which makes one wonder if things could change.

“He’s definitely coming back to Pitt,” said Eisele. “There’s no question. That’s a done deal.”

end quote.

Read the end of the previous paragraph and then read the quote. Why would he write that he wonders if things could change and then quote the coach saying he is definitely coming back to Pitt? What journalistic or literary device is he using? Idiot.

I think it’s pretty clear that he meant that Pitt fans would wonder if things would change. Or fans, in general. Not Dokish himself. I think it’s obvious that he already knew what the situation was. He didn’t write it wrong, you just read it wrong.

He suggested that things may change in his sentence. The guy plants these seeds in Pitt fan’s heads. He tries to play on the paranoia that surrounds the program. I can’t take him seriously. Not to mention, his skills as a writer are mediocre at best.

You are high. I have seen this article on three or four sites already which means it’s been read by thousands of people so far. And you are the only one to see such a thing. Do you know why? Because it doesn’t really exist. You are reading it wrong. He is simply addressing the fact that Antigua placed him there, Antigua may be gone, and it may make some Pitt fans to think Dodson will no longer come to Pitt. But then to show that there is nothing to be worried about, he has the coach saying Dodson is coming. How is that bad exactly? It’s the total opposite of making the fans paranoid. He’s telling them there is nothing to worry about.

As for his writing, this article was on PSR and that NBE site that is linked on here often, and it’s edited wildly different in each. So I’m guessing the editing is more of the problem. Or, as I’m sure most think, it’s a good article from a good Pitt writer and you don’t like him for some strange reason that is known only by you. But, hey, that’s your problem to deal with!!!

I can see your point. However, after reading Dokish’s work for some time now and visiting his blog in the past I don’t think the piece, or his writing, is as innocent as you believe. In my opinion, he has a very negative tone in most of his pieces and his sources are frequently incorrect. He definitely has a bias and it comes through in his writing.

We can certainly agree to disagree.

Are you sure you got the right person? He has the best sources for Pitt basketball there is and if anything he gets accused of being a Pitt homer by most people. Why would a guy write for years covering Pitt if he wasn’t a fan of them? It’s not like he is a newspaper writer who got assigned the job of covering Pitt. He was really high on Sam Young, DeJuan Blair, Travon Woodall, Lamar Patterson, etc. and talked those players up way before everybody else did.

Man, I have to agree with Mark on this one. Mr. Dokish’s old Blogger page was in my opinion a great source of free content in its day.

I also don’t think he ever represented himself as a “journalist” in the traditional sense but as a fan/blogger who would post content that we as consumers wished to read. In fact he mentioned multiple times that he had s regular job and that he did the blogging thing as more of a hobby.

As an aside, if you are a fan of sports writing written by some of the greatest writers of the last century, I would suggest picking up anything ever written by Grantland Rice and Dr. Hunter S. Thompson. In particular, Thompson’s “The Kentucky Derby is Decadent and Depraved” in in my opinion the greatest article that I’ve read in sports journalism.

Also, I hope that Buzz Bizzinger reads this post and his head explodes.

Amen, on that gasbag, Bizzinger. Just one more thing on Dokish because I was told this by somebody who writes sports online and that’s that you are supposed to write simply when writing online. My friend said that the site he worked for did research on the subject and any time the article was more than a few paragraphs, or even if it was written too intelligently, believe it or not, the vast majority of readers would stop reading. Online writing is supposed to be short and simple. The fast food of sportswriting. Compare Dokish’s articles online and his articles in the actual PSR newspaper and they are night and day. And this goes for all writers, of course. I’m not singling out Dokish. It’s just that his name was brought up and personally I think he’s good. Hey, look at it this way. A lot of us were wondering for months what was going on with Dodson and only one person had it. And it wasn’t the PG, Trib, Scout, Rivals, or countless other media outlets that covers basketball. So as long as his info is unparalleled, I don’t care if it’s written like Dr. Seuss.

I definitely agree that his insider knowledge is great…however, I also agree with what Omar says about both his style as well as his writing ability, the latter of which is not all that important. If you guys read this blog at all, you should know that Omar is about as close of a Pitt follower as there is, and if you guys read closely into what Dokish says, there is definitely a negative tone that shines through often. He is typically very vague as well with his statements, so when people try and call him out on it, he’ll spin his articles the other way, thus making him seem more like a Pitt fan or at least optimist than he really is.

I feel sometimes he is a realist/pessimist to a fault, and if you disagree with me, find me a article that proves otherwise. But in terms of his writing style, I’m going to back up Omar day and night.

Buzzinger’s rant was spot on. Fortunately we are lucky. This blog is fantastic and one of the few exceptions. We are lucky to have a talented writer with smart, original content in Chas.

Regarding the Dokish situation, Mark we can agree to disagree. I think he is terrible. He has a few sources and that is it. Unfortunately, his sources are frequently incorrect (see Eloy Vargas and Terrelle Pryor). I’m not a fan of the guy and you are let us leave it at that.

As far as his writing style, please don’t defend it. It is terrible. He needs to go back to Pitt and take some classes. His grammar is awful and his sentences are very poorly structured. Read the work on this blog and compare. It is night and day.