Reporting from the Jockosphere
Club Trillion gives bench warmers a voice.
by Ryan Corazza
Coach Thad Motta's response to Club Trillion? "I don't even know what that is and nor do I care."
Mark Titus is averaging one minute, 0.5 rebounds and 0.5 steals this season for the Ohio State Buckeyes. He spends most of the game parked near the end of the Ohio State bench, watching rather than playing.
"It's not necessarily a bad situation, but it's kind of bland," Titus says. "You're just a scrub that gets abused at practice."
So what did Titus do to make a name for himself? He started a blog.
"I started the blog as a perspective no one really hears about," Titus says. "I feel like the media always covers the superstar guys and you hear their stories all the time. You never really hear the stories of the guys at the end of the bench."
Titus founded Club Trillion along with fellow Ohio State benchwarmers Kyle Madsen and Danny Peters, but he is the driving force behind the majority of the content.
Unlike your typical vanilla athlete blog, Titus writes long, witty and funny entries on just about everything. In one entry, he's riffing on how he couldn't pay attention to the game, because Erin Andrews was distracting him. In another, he's writing about stealing teammate Evan Turner's Facebook status, while using a Bob Dylan song for his headline. And, of course, no blog can be complete without explaining a game of eye tag with the Michigan State dance team:
"So I lock eyes with this particular hunnie and I try to set the tone with my initial stare down," he writes. "I mean, I'm staring at her so hard I start to piece together stories of her life. I can tell she's a little bit of a daddy's girl and will never forget her first boyfriend for not remembering her birthday that one year. Yes, it is possible to tell all these things from staring at someone. I'm just that good."
So, is this everything Titus wanted out of the blog? It's only been alive and kicking since October, but it has received nearly half a million visits and has been featured local TV. (Be sure to check out the ringing endorsement from his coach.) Bill Simmons even had him on his podcast.
"It's kind of weird," Titus says. "I'm 21; I've spent 18 years of my life playing basketball and putting in the work to get good at basketball. I've been blogging for (a few months) and I'm more known for my blogging than my basketball skills. It's kind of backwards, but it's something I embrace. It's an opportunity, and I just took it and ran with it."
Club Trillion is the name Titus, Madsen and Peters gave themselves back in '07 because, when they'd get in a game with a minute to go and they accumulated no stats, the box score reads "1" with a whole bunch of zeros after it.
If things keep up this way for Titus, that number might be more akin to his blog traffic than his box score.