I Think Brandon Paul Needs His Twitter Back

It was during the Minnesota game that a follower on Twitter pointed out to me that Brandon Paul had not tweeted since Super Bowl Sunday and that the Illini had not lost a game since. Of course, they'd only played one game since then and were currently battling with Minnesota.

However -- SPOILER ALERT -- the Illini would go on to win that game and the next two after it. So since Brandon Paul stopped tweeting, the Illini are 4-0. What I didn't realize until yesterday, though, was that Brandon wasn't the only player who hadn't been tweeting.

Nobody has been.

D.J. Richardson, Sam McLaurin, Joseph Bertrand, Tyler Griffey, Mike LaTulip and even Rayvonte Rice have been silent on the Twitter machines. And it turns out it's because John Groce made them all stop.

"I think it's really important that if we're consistent in our approach that the guys on the team not after a big win re-tweet people that are telling them they're rock stars and then after a loss re-tweet people that think they're scum," Groce during his Wednesday press conference. "The biggest reason is just staying on level ground."

Now, while the players all seem fine going along with the new rule, not surprisingly it seems that Brandon Paul is the one enjoying it the least.

"People would like to think that (it helps)," Paul said. "I don't think Twitter has an effect on me at all. If I tweet something, it's not going to have an effect on the next jump shot I take. But at the same time, I guess it does give us a little more focus and not worry about Tweeting and things like that."

"It's not that hard but sometimes you want to go back because it's a fun thing to do. It's not a big deal. Twitter's still there. We can still think about it after the season."

Now, Brandon Paul says Twitter has no effect on him, and he's probably right, but I couldn't help but notice something since he and his teammates have stopped tweeting.

Sure, the Illini as a team are 4-0 in that span, but Brandon Paul has not had the best stretch of play in that time. I even made a table to prove it.

So maybe John Groce should consider banning everybody on the team but Brandon Paul from tweeting. It'll no doubt end with a national title.

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