Watch what U tweet cuz itll get U in trubl

Sometimes, college basketball players use @socialmedia to call out coaches and complain about playing time #whatweretheythinking. Since an outburst by a frustrated athlete could cre8 a public relations nightmare, programs are clamping down on players' use of Twitter, one of the most popular forms of social media today./Some teams even ban it OMG.

Gophers coach Tubby Smith hasn't imposed a Twitter ban but said he will restrict specific players if necessary. He could host a national seminar on the dangers of social media.

In January, Trevor Mbakwe sent a Facebook message to a woman who has a restraining order against him. The seemingly harmless memo -- the university released the entire message in a statement -- landed the junior forward in jail, after he was arrested for allegedly violating the restraining order. His next court appearance is in April.

Mbakwe chose to express his frustration by criticizing the woman through Twitter the day after he was released from jail. His account was eventually suspended, but he has returned, under a new Twitter username.

Al Nolen is probably the team's most active Twitter user. Smith said he doesn't know if the injured point guard will be ready to play in the Big Ten tournament. But Nolen offered this recent tweet when one of his followers asked him about his status: "yea that's what I'm hoping for get back for the big ten tourney but idk yet hopefully tho."

Other players, such as Rodney Williams, have stopped tweeting to avoid any possible ramifications for saying the wrong thing. "There's no need for it," Williams said recently.

"If you want any privacy in your life, you oughta shut up and don't tweet," Smith said. "But if you like all the publicity, keep doing it and it'll lead you where you don't want to go lots of times."

The role of social media, especially Twitter, in Division I men's basketball has rivaled its impact on the rest of the world. It's become a popular, yet controversial, means of communication for athletes. Although it seemed like a fad a few years ago, Twitter has evolved into a phenomena with more than 200 million users -- some of whom play college basketball at major schools.

Since most messages are public or become public when they're redistributed somewhere online, it doesn't take long for a 140-character tweet to end up on "SportsCenter" or in the local newspaper. And that's what worries Smith and some of his colleagues.

Few teams in America have encountered its pitfalls like the Gophers have in recent years.

After a game in 2009, former Gophers player Devron Bostick updated his Facebook page with this message: "Thru wit all dis... Dnt nothin matta to me nomo it's jus till da end of dis yr." The status update -- filled with the broken language common on social media websites -- spurred talk of a possible transfer that never materialized.

Later that year, freshman Royce White talked about his legal plight through Twitter and Facebook before announcing that he had decided to quit the team through a video on YouTube.

"In the heat of the moment, some young men just don't understand once they put something out there for everyone to see, there is no taking it back. That's why I'm banning the use of Twitter at this point," Stansbury said in a statement.

Notre Dame coach Mike Brey doesn't let his players use Twitter during the season. He said he tweeted before the season, but after analyzing the risks, he decided both to stop and to block his players from using it in season, too. He said he hasn't banned Facebook.

"When the season started in October ... we got off the Twitter," he said. "I twittered for a while, my [sports information director] talked me into it. And I said I was a recovering Twitterholic and everybody else was going to be. ... The Twitter thing, we just felt was something that we could eliminate."

But some coaches refuse to police the medium and instead rely on their players to make sound decisions when they're online.

In December, Syracuse guard Scoop Jardine published multiple explicit tweets referencing sexual assault accusations made against him and two of his teammates. He apologized and his account was de-activated.

"We don't have a policy, no. They're college students, college students use that," he said. "They have to understand that part of going to college is to learn how to handle yourself. And whatever goes on those pages is gonna be public record and they need to learn. That's why you go to college."

Mbakwe said his ordeal has taught him a lot about the potential risks of social media for a Division I athlete. He said he observes the backlash that pro athletes experience when they tweet something controversial.

After the Cleveland Cavaliers lost to the Lakers by 55 points Jan. 11, former Cavs star LeBron James tweeted, "Crazy. Karma is a b****. Gets you every time. It's not good to wish bad on anybody. God sees everything!" The tweet by James, who has 1.4 million followers, turned into a national news story.

Mbakwe said he understands the same drama can happen on a smaller scale if he or other players fail to exercise more caution with social media.

"I had episodes when I write something and next thing I know it's somewhere in the paper," he said. "You just have to be smart with it. It's tough, because we're in the light and everything we say, it could be used the wrong way against us. ... Unfortunately, it's cost a lot of players."