Notre Dame Basketball: Twitter-Based Power Rankings

1. Steve Vasturia

Quick Facts: Steve Vasturia is a 6’5″ junior starting guard from New Jersey and was recently named a team captain by Coach Mike Brey to go along with Jackson, Auguste, and Burgett. He is the team’s best wing defender and generally does everything well, averaging 12.3 points, 3.1 assists, 2.9 rebounds, and 0.9 steals per game.

Steve Vasturia does not have a Twitter account.

Or, at least, not one I can find.

But what he does have is an immensely strong Twitter brand that he has carefully crafted via other people’s tweets. My friends and I discovered this last year, during the team’s dramatic and exciting 77-73 win over Duke in late January. Vasturia made the clinching shot, a three-pointer from the corner to extend the Irish lead to 4 with very little time remaining.

That moment, of course, is when Torii Hunter Jr., a wide receiver on the ND football team, gave the world this absolute treasure of a reaction tweet:

My friends and I loved this tweet because, of course, Torii Hunter Jr. felt the need to clarify which Steve he meant. It begs the question of what other Steves there are that Torii thought his followers might confuse this Steve with, and so he made sure he was clear he meant the white boy. Was Japanese Steve a possibility? Maybe Mexican Steve is typically clutch, and so Torii wanted to clarify that he meant Vasturia instead? Are there other Caucasian Steves that Torii’s followers might still confuse with Steve Vasturia?

It’s unclear, but what Hunter gave us as fans was a new identity for one of its most fundamentally sound players.

“White Boy Steve” became Vasturia’s calling card among my friends, and soon it evolved into just “White Steve!!!” that we loved to yell out as he drained big shot after big shot from the outside.

But his evolution as a strong Twitter #brand did not actually begin there. Nay, we must return to 2014 for that origin story…

I give you “Homeless Steve,” complete with messy, untamed locks and a look in his eyes that says, “I either just woke up or just rolled around on the ground.” Also, side note: Austin Burgett put this tweet out there, so more points for him for that. Truly great work helping to establish your teammate’s previously nonexistent brand!

Homeless Steve was a statement. A movement. An icon.

And once he was then transformed into clutch White Boy Steve that fateful day in January, well…his personal Twitter brand essentially skyrocketed.

Take the above picture, which is essentially the coolest picture of anyone, ever. So cool, in fact, that it spurred the ND Men’s Basketball Twitter account to use the term “mad flow.” That’s incredibly impressive.

But with that homeless hair and love of the peace sign, Homeless White Boy Peace-Loving Steve still needed his big break. He needed his one shining moment.

Well, I am happy to inform you all that we witnessed that, in May 0f 2015:

So smooth. So talented. So very obviously crushing the guitar part of this song.

Harold Swanagan (Notre Dame Coordinator of Basketball Operations) didn’t do so bad himself, but was simply overshadowed by Steve’s performance.

Bonus Brand Nugget: Steve does not dunk or dress well, which somehow plays perfectly into helping build up his pTb. Fantastic.

"WATCH:Want to hear sophomore guard Matt Farrell (@MattyFarr3) respond to random questions? You’re welcome. https://t.co/x7GB1lNRje — Notre Dame MBB (@NDmbb) December 10, 2015"

Thus, White Steve stands just above the rest of his teammates in terms of personal Twitter brand, which is even more astounding considering his lack of an actual Twitter account. Hats off to him, and to the rest of the team as well, as they all contribute something different to the Twitter universe. I appreciate that.