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Reggie Johnson Makes SI's Breakout List

Sophomore center Reggie Johnson has been named as one of five breakout sophomores to watch by Sports Illustrated's Luke Winn.

Winn has tested out a statistical method of identifying breakout sophomores based on a Basketball Prospectus study of players' possession usage over their first three seasons.

Nebraska forward Christian Standhardinger, Texas forward Jordan Hamilton, Villanova guard Maalik Wayns and UCLA forward Reeves Nelson also made Winn's list.

Read more at Sports Illustrated's web site.

Zampogna, Gonzalez, Marley on allCanes Radio Tonight

Former 'Canes Rohan Marley, Joaquin Gonzalez and Francesco Zampogna will join Brian "The Beast" London on allCanes Radio, live from Smoke't Southern Kitchen and Tap in Coral Gables tonight at 7pm.

Marley played at Miami from 1992-94 and played for Ottawa of the CFL in 1995. He is the son of the late reggae legend Bob Marley.

Gonzalez starred at Miami from 1997-2001 and spent four years in the NFL with the Browns and Colts.

Zampogna was the 'Canes primary kicker during the 2007 season. Showing the form of Garo Yepremian but the results of Dan Marino, his touchdown pass on a fake field goal (above) helped lift the 'Canes past the Seminoles in Tallahassee that year.

Manny Navarro of the Miami Herald will also appear.

You can listen to allCanes Radio online by visiting allCanes.com.

Cleveland Rocks Saturday's Practice

Seantrel who?

Asante Cleveland, a 6'5," 255 pound freshman tight end from Sacramento, California, was the newcomer to watch during Saturday's practice in front of 3000 'Canes fans.

Cleveland sure caught Coach Shannon's eye; he had this to say while meeting with reporters after practice: “I’m very excited about Asante Cleveland’s performance today. The big catch he had with three people around him was unbelievable.”

Rolle Media Guide Gaffe Not FSU SID's Worst Error

After reading "Cane Mutiny" author Bruce Feldman's retweet from Heath Cline about the 2010 FSU media guide featuring Rhodes Scholar Myron Rolle on its academics page and misspelling his name "Myrone," I was reminded this gaffe wasn't the most egregious one in 'Noles Sports Information history.

Back in the fall of 1982, Florida State printed 10,000 copies of its 125th Anniversary special edition football program before someone noticed one of the fans on the cover was none other than Miami Hurricanes baseball coach Ron Fraser. Fraser, fresh off the 'Canes first College World Series title, was photographed as part of a crowd shot with his daughter Lynda, who attended FSU at the time. While Fraser is a FSU alum, his claim to fame being "The Wizard of College Baseball" was due to his success of leading the rival Miami baseball program to national prominence.

Needless to say, the program was pulled after the discovery.

Neither case compares to the Florida Gators putting a photo of a crocodile on the cover of their 2003 media guide. Only in "Floriduh!"

Thanks to John Clough for the Rolle story and to Karen Fraser for the program story and the copy of the program shown above.

A Pirate in the Midst

Yesterday, I signed into Facebook and was surprised to see a friend had been tagged in a photo of a photo - specifically, “The U Pro Bowl” photo we posted on our blog back in February shot by my assistant, Eric Espada.

The photo had been enlarged to what looks like a 16x20 print and professionally matted and framed. The text below the photo stated prints were available for $25 and framed for $85.

We have never authorized this image for reproduction, other than to UM for inclusion in their website and media guide. Only a couple of prints were made for close friends, and not at this size and ratio.

A little investigation revealed the offender’s name, high school, college and employer. Further talks with people involved with UM and the autograph business revealed he was a former ball boy for the Hurricanes. So how did he get the image? We believe he got it from someone inside UM, and this wouldn’t be the first time this has occurred. Because it was likely carried out by someone inside the Canes family it is all the more insulting and offensive. It’s also not the first time a graduate of Cooper City High School pirated our work.

Even though UM helped arrange this shot, in the end, the copyright lies with the photographer, Eric Espada.


I have fought the piracy of our photos for years. I have seen our photos many times on eBay. The pirates have copied our images from magazines and have even somehow acquired original files from an insider at the athletic department. I once caught a former Hurricanes baseball player doing it. I also caught someone doing it who, after being suspended by eBay for these acts, implied a threat of bodily harm against me for protecting my own work. That person now works for an nationally-known autograph and trading card authentication service!

I have also seen our images pirated at memorabilia shows. In most cases, when called out, the dealer/seller usually claims "I bought them at a card show" and when pressed for more information they "can't remember" where they got them.

Now it appears the new excuse is “I got it from Getty.” It was the first excuse our pirate from the University of Central Florida used in his defense of the Pro Bowl photo.

Many pirates buy and share passwords to Getty and other wire services and steal all the files they want. The company, which has almost single-handedly destroyed the sports stock and editorial market, appears indifferent to piracy of their photographers' work.

My contention concerning pirated works on eBay and at memorabilia shows is, "If the photo is pirated, then why would you trust that the seller acquired the genuine autograph?"

So how can we tell the image is ours? Sometimes the images just stick out because the other crap being offered on eBay and other venues is horrible. I always cross-check those images I believe are our property with our archive, looking for minute matching details in the images.

You may have also noticed we only offer 8x12’s instead of 8x10’s of most images from the “revenue sports” at UM. The reason is twofold: The images come out of our cameras at a 2:3 ratio (8x12) and also because a familiar image, made into an 8x10, on an auction site immediately catches our attention. We do supply 8x10's to Allcanes for their annual player signings.

In another example, I had a shot from the 2002 Miami @ WVU game of Willis McGahee running between two defenders. Even though the print was originally sold as an 8x10, I have only sold the print as a limited print signed and numbered by Willis. The print offered on eBay was apparently unsigned, telling me it was a pirated work.

“People will pay if you make it easy, convenient, and a good value. Marketing 101.”

That model has worked for Apple and their iTunes music store. Apple cut through the nonsense and figured out a way to reach a middle ground between piracy and compensation. Customers have downloaded billions of songs in response.

The difference between the music and photography industries is most music pirates are grabbing files for personal use and not trying to resell the material to the general public. In our case, the pirates are making an often-inferior product and selling to the unsuspecting public for profit.

Instead of spending time and energy on a guilt message, we are trying something more focused on becoming a partner with the customer. So last year we started offering digital downloads for $2.99 with the freedom to use those images for your personal use, such as on blogs and social media pages. We also post compelling images on our blog and Facebook page, which you can use personally in electronic form as long as you don’t remove our credit line at the bottom or the IPTC data. We are also dropping the price of an 8x12 photo to $14.99 this fall. We hope these actions are a “middle ground” for most of you.

One thing we will not knowingly condone is the blatant piracy of our images, especially from a Scoop Orlando bartender who is trying to profit off our hard work, sweat and expertise.

On To Football Season We Go

After UM Baseball's disaster in Ganesville I thought the summer doldrums would commence with the image of error after error burned in my brain until football season. Fortunately for me the marketing department wanted to do their football shoot this week, and now I'm in full football mode.

So early this morning I made my way to Joe Robbie Stadium Pro Player Stadium Dolphin Stadium Landshark Stadium Sun Life Stadium to shoot Jacory Harris, Brandon Harris, Allen Bailey, Matt Bosher, Orlando Franklin, Colin McCarthy and Leonard Hankerson for the 2010 Hurricanes poster. We set up in the 'Canes locker room and did the group shot then had fun with some individual set ups.

While I'll wait for the poster release before I show the groups I'll give you a peek at the individuals, like Jacory's shot above, every so often in the coming days on the Caneshooter.com Facebook fan page.