 "Photo: Photo Courtesy of Slipper Still Fits")
Gonzaga isn’t lacking in media coverage: Bulldog faithful can tune into ESPN for national coverage and game recaps or “The Mark Few Show” for a more local approach and profile stories. Sometimes, however, Zags just want to hear what a fellow fan has to say and share their own opinions.
With this concept in mind, 2009 Gonzaga graduates Max Mandel and Zach Bell co-founded The Kennel Report on BlogSpot in March 2008.
“Our intent was to have a site which gave Gonzaga fans a place to discuss their favorite team,” Bell said. “Max and I are both recruiting junkies and love sites like Rivals and Scout.com, but we were always disappointed by the amount of insight and discussion on Gonzaga basketball.”
The blog has since moved to sbnation.com, a site specifically oriented toward sports writing, and been renamed The Slipper Still Fits.
The title refers to the CBS announcer Gus Johnson’s famous call in the 1999 NCAA Tournament, when the Bulldogs hit the national scene by upsetting the Florida Gators.
“The name encapsulates why so many Americans fell in love with this program and it really put Gonzaga on the map,” Bell said. “To this day, I still can’t think of a name that that fits so perfectly with a Gonzaga hoops blog.”
In the blog’s early stages, there were about 100 members and only five to 10 comments per article. It now has about 750 registered members and what Mandel describes as “great discussion and dialogue” for every story.
“The real growth of the site has been the participation of all the registered members,” Mandel said. “I think we both expect growth this summer even more, as there will be lots of recruiting coverage.”
In-depth coverage in the summer and throughout the year is something The Slipper Still Fits prides itself on.
“It’s no surprise to see a great story about Elias Harris or Matt Bouldin on ESPN, but for those fans that want to go beyond that and learn about why a guy like Sam Dower could be so important heading into next season, our site provides the best option,” Mandel said.
As for coverage during the actual season, moving the blog to sbnation.com allowed Bell and Mandel to experiment with new features.
“This was the first year that we were able to have game chats for every game during the season,” Mandel said. “We saw our membership and participation continue to grow quite rapidly.”
“The best part is that we have fans of all ages participating,” Bell added. “You have recent grads like Max and I, to freshmen at Gonzaga, to guys that graduated 50 years ago posting and bouncing ideas off one another. With such a young team it was fascinating to see everyone’s views and it even gave Max and I ideas that we had never thought of.”
Those fans will have an opportunity to discuss more than Zag basketball as spring becomes summer. The Slipper Still Fits is currently covering Gonzaga baseball, and will continue coverage throughout the summer. Bell and Mandel also plan to watch AAU basketball games featuring Gonzaga prospects to further expand recruiting coverage.
Although Bell and Mandel generate all the editorial content for The Slipper Still Fits, they agree that member participation is what makes it special.
“Our readers and members really make the site so great and unique, because it is their discussion and dialogue that makes the site popular,” Mandel said. “The rewarding experience is seeing something that you write turn into a great piece of debate and dialogue.”
“At this point it really is even hard to consider our site a blog,” Bell added. “Not that we don’t like the term, but it has really blossomed into a community.”
Bell said that the goal of the blog is to write like fans, and that even when articles are emotionally driven, The Slipper Still Fits tries to present information with as cool of a head as possible.
“We’ve been called homers and we have been called cynics, which is probably a good thing, because we try and stay somewhere in between,” Bell said. “You won’t find our work on a national Web site like ESPN, SI, or CBS, but we think we paint a much more accurate picture of the program than any other site.”
The site has also been beneficial to their careers. It helped Mandel score an internship with the Portland Trail Blazers, and was a frequent topic of discussion during Bell’s interviews, which oddly enough were for finance jobs. Mandel recently completed his internship, and Bell currently works as a financial analyst for a restaurant chain in Denver, Colo.
“I tell people all the time that this Web site is the best thing I’ve ever done,” Bell said.
The Slipper Still Fits can be accessed at www.slipperstillfits.com.
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