Mark Titus is a new Interweb sensation. You might be thinking, “No way, I’ve never heard of this guy,” but really he is. And it happened fast. Like in about two months. Titus is a walk-on basketball player for Ohio State, which plays here tomorrow against the Gophers. He started a blog around the start of the season called “Club Trillion” and has since been featured on Bill Simmons’ podcast (The BS Report) among other places. Marthaler linked to Club Trillion a couple weeks ago, and that was the first time we had heard of it. We read. We liked. This guy gets what it means to be a college athlete, and he gets what it means to have a blog. A sample, from a post about per diem money that players get:

Per diem for road trips ranges anywhere between $10 and $10,000. Over Christmas break, we are given anywhere between $100 and a 10 day NBA contract. The rationale behind per diem is that we are getting cash in place of the meals that we missed while we were on the road. I could care less what the rationale is. Alls I knows is that daddy is beefing up his pockets for doing absolutely nothing. And that’s the great thing about per diem–it comes out of nowhere for unclear reasons and brightens my day.

So we e-mailed Mark. He big-timed us and told us to go through the school’s Sports Information Director (OK, actually he said he’d be down with it as long as it was cleared by official channels). And this morning, we talked to Mark “The Shark” Titus. (We also swiped that picture from the Club Trillion Facebook page. It was either that, a picture of a palm tree or some random shot of him with Larry the Cable Guy. We demand some Greg Oden party pictures! But we digress). Let’s put some points in your face. Here we go:

RandBall: So where did the idea for a blog come from in the first place?
Mark Titus: I guess at the start of this year I was doing a halftime reflection thing. What I’ve been through the first two years, all the fun stories that go on behind the scenes. You turn on ESPN and you hear the same stories about athletes all the time. I thought I had a perspective nobody else had. I felt at least somebody would be interested. I thought it would be cool to start something. I’ve been planning on writing a book for a while, when I graduate. I kind of nosed around at possible ideas … and with a blog you write something short every time things happen. It kind of took off. I don’t know how or why. I thought it would last a couple weeks. I would show my mom and dad what I did. And that would be that.

RB: Some places can be guarded with information. Did you have to get clearance from your coaches or anyone else to do a blog like this?
MT: I had a talk with our compliance guy and our SID and some of the coaches. Everyone over here is not too strict about it. Coach (Thad) Matta is a crack-up himself. I know he doesn’t read it, but … it’s not like I’m saying “here are the plays we are going to run.” It’s more self-deprecating humor. Some coaches will make fun of me … how I’ve become a “big deal.” The coaches’ wives read it. Part of reason I started it is that I would tell my dad about what goes on here, and it made me think that most people don’t realize (the life of a college athlete). We’re going to be on a chartered plane today. We take a chartered bus to the chartered plane. It’s pretty much grapes being fed to us and palm leaves cooling us. … Not everyone knows that. You take too much for granted. I have a great opportunity here. That’s why the walk-ons at every school can become fan favorites. People can relate to us. I’m not incredibly big or incredibly athletic. I’m just a guy who worked hard and got decent at basketball.

RB: What did you think when the BS Report contacted you?
MT: I thought it was a hoax. I was about to delete the email. Yeah, that’s funny. Good job. My best friend who helps me out a little bit saw it, and I was like “I can’t believe someone tried to trick me.” But that was kind of a big deal.

RB: I want you to rank the Big Ten cities.
MT: To be honest, I was pleasantly surprised by Minnesota and Minneapolis. I’m a Vikings fan, by the way. I was a huge Cris Carter fan. My dad is friends with his family. I’d say, besides Columbus, Minneapolis is up there. I like Madison, too. East Lansing, probably. Really, we don’t go out much the places we go. We went to Miami earlier this year. I was excited because it was December and a tropical climate … but I wasn’t even outside for longer than 10 total minutes when we went to Miami. It’s a lot more of a job than people realize.

RB: Does this blog make teammates nervous?
MT: They all know about it, and they all know it’s more successful than it ever should have been. Every now and then, someone will be like, “I checked out your site last night.” I made a list of people I want to make 3s on, and that raised their awareness. There will be people guarding me the entire length of the court in practice because they’re so concerned with this list. From that standpoint, they are pretty aware of what’s going on. But I have to use it as a threat sometimes. “You realize I have an audience. I can grill you on my blog.” But it’s not too bad.

RB: You talked about writing a book. Could this be a springboard?
MT: Obviously I would prefer to make money off it, so I’ll probably wait until I graduate. But yes, I am going to use this as a springboard. I have a story that not a lot of people know. I wasn’t a five-star recruit who played one year of college and went straight to the NBA. I want to write a book. Hopefully I can get that going. I experienced the entire NCAA tournament my freshman year. I experienced the entire NIT last year when we won it. I have a lot of stories to tell, and hopefully someone will want to read them.

RB: How did you get on the team in the first place? What was the walk-on process?
MT: I played AAU ball with Greg Oden, Mike Conley and Daequan Cook. I applied to OSU as a safety school, and then after those guys committed, a friend was like why don’t you just follow them there and become a rock star and hang around there with them. I had a chance to go to some smaller mid-majors. I looked into OSU more, the academics. It was kind of close to home. It was a great opportunity and a great fit. With the team, one of the coaches approached me, knew of my connection to the guys, and asked if I wanted to be a manager. I thought it was a nice way to stay attached but not be fully committed. I didn’t realize being a manager would be all about filling up water bottles. I was not aware that was the role. I quit doing that after about a week. So a couple weeks go by, just being an average student, then Greg had his wrist injury. Someone else rolls an ankle in practice. They gave me a call and saw me play, and I was at least decent enough to help out. I thought it would be a three-week thing or something. But I pushed the right buttons or something and two-and-a-half years later I’m still here.

This entry was posted on Friday, January 2nd, 2009 at 11:24 am and is filed under Main. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.