A couple of pieces of ITH related news (for those interested) that we feel compelled to pass along, after the jump:

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It seems there are still some questions regarding the NCAA rules and how they apply to Twitter. Who knew NCAA rules could be confusing? In order to eliminate any confusion on a couple of topics, I’ve reached out to a compliance contact and then prepared answers to a couple of questions raised in the comments of Ryan’s post. Details, for those interested, after the jump:

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Tom Crean is on Twitter. I know you’ve probably heard this. And his tweets have been pretty good — an interesting and insightful look at his philosophies and some of the happenings of his team. There’s been other updates besides just that kind of stuff, too. For instance, Crean was watching the “Real Housewives of New York” reunion last night on Bravo. Ha.

Anyway, for all the good Crean’s Twitter account has wrought, there are a few things to know here. Like Facebook and other electronic transmission outlets, there are restrictions on what Crean can do on Twitter, and also what you, the fan, can do on it as well. For instance, Crean can’t be @replying back and forth with you all day, per NCAA rules. If he so chooses, he can direct message with you. Let’s go to a blockquote of something I wrote yesterday for ESPN because I’m too lazy to re-write it.

However, direct messaging on Twitter — which can only be viewed by the two people involved in the communicating — is permissible. (Same goes for Facebook. A coach can use the messaging function, which is similar to an e-mail, but he can’t write on Facebook walls.) This falls in accordance with the current electronic transmission guidelines that are already in place.

“We view that option on Twitter the same as we view normal e-mails,” said Cameron Schuh, Associate Director of Public and Media Relations for the NCAA. “It’s just you can’t post those (direct messages) on your main page.”

“We view Twitter as a blog,” Schuh continued. “As long as coaches are on there talking about what they’re doing with their day and how their practice went or things like that … not getting into specific terms, that’s fine. They can’t talk about a person they’re recruiting, or they can’t use it to talk about their whereabouts on a recruiting trip.”

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For those of you unfamiliar with Twitter, which by this point shouldn’t be many of you, it’s a micro-blogging service that allows users to post short updates about what they’re doing. Everyone’s favorite basketball coach, Tom Crean, has apparently found the platform viable enough that’s he’s decided to enter the fray:

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – Coach Tom Crean wants to give you the chance to be informed with what is going on with him and the Indiana Hoosiers.

Keep yourself updated by visiting twitter.com/tomcrean.

So far, Crean has been tweeting several times per day and here’s a quick sampling:

Paul davis from msu and the clippers is trying 2 find the girl of his dreams on bravo. A indiana alum would never need a show 2 get a date 9:31 PM Apr 16th from txt

The Evans Scholars house on campus busted into the IU fight song when jeremiah and matt ran past. ITS INDIANA 6:01 PM Apr 16th from txt

Two quick observations: 1) Believe it or not, I actually caught Paul Davis on Millionaire Matchmaker or whatever the show is called. Incredibly awkward dude. 2) With the enormous growth Twitter is currently experiencing, I have a feeling you’ll be seeing more and more college coaches interacting with their respective fanbases, and indirectly with recruits, this way.

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