Dan Kadar

He wasn't invited.

I'll just preface this with I'm not backing up or defending anything the Beacon Journal sports department does, I'm only clarifying.Marla Ridenour is the Ohio State beat reporter. Tom Gaffney is the University of Akron basketball beat reporter.Gary Estwick is the Can't State University basketball beat reporter.

First, thanks all for reading Mike's story. I apologize for the site not being up. We're working on it right now. It should be up later today. The worst thing about being a student journalist is having classes get in the way of your work. Unfortunately, that is the case with the Web site.Now, in regard to Mike's story. I've been lucky enough to work with and for several excellent journalists in my budding journalism career, and this story is as good as anything I've been involved with. While I'm certainly biased, Mike's coverage is superior to the other coverage this topic has received.Reading it yesterday, was I aware it left some ifs? Absolutely. The only problem is you can't answer those ifs at this time because there has been no ruling by either Ohio, UA or the NCAA. Real "second rate" journalism would falsely answer those ifs with speculation. That is something the Buchtelite does not do in it's news reporting. You can say what you will (and frankly I'm glad you do), but in this story, only the facts were reported and both sides were given an opportunity to talk. Maybe you all are disappointed because you already knew everything that is happening. Oh well. Not everyone does and hopefully they do now. That said, you all should be commended for being such incredibly dedicated Zips fans. Your knowledge and pursuit of it should be recognized.My hope for the story is that it offered some insight into what Keith Dambrot, Bubba Walther and some of the UA players had to say and also talk to the university about what issue(s) could arise because of the situation. Do I think the story succeeded? Certainly. Will we pursue any further developments on the situation? Of course.Some of you that have a problem with the story, let us know what those problems are. Instead of just nailing at us, please, offer your suggestions. Remember, we're all young, growing journalists. We're here to appease our readers, not ourselves. So if there is ever something you want us to look into for a story, or have a news tip, let us know.Again, thanks for reading. Though some of you may not have liked the story (but come on, weren't some of those quotes great?), we all certainly appreciate you reading it.

I hate to be rude, so I won't be.I'm just curious (you know, I'm connecting with my paper's readers and/or haters), would you mind telling me a specific article where you think Hixenbaugh spun something "six ways to Sunday?"Maybe you're a little bias because we decided to not cover the rifle team, partially because a rifle team member threatened to furiously burn "every copy of the Buchtelite I can get my hands on."

Hey, thanks a lot. That was a fun story to do.