Can they even count to 65?

[yendi]

Anyone who knows me knows that I don't like College Basketball. In fact, of all the professional* spectator sports out there, it's quite possibly my least favorite, ranking below synchronized dwarf tossing, circle jerking, and the Olympic Hide-and-Seek Final. It manages to be both boring and corrupt, with half-assed on-court play more often than not getting overshadowed by assholic off-court behavior, and is something that I'm usually able to blissfully ignore as long as Bobby Knight isn't threatening his students or flinging chairs, or some other coach who everyone called "classy" isn't getting in trouble for hiring a thug to beat up guys on the other team.

But during this three-week period, when I have to fill out a fucking NCAA bracket just to get past the annoying flash-blocker at espn.com, it's hard to avoid NCAA news.

And it's really hard to avoid this piece of news: 42 of the 65 teams in the NCAA tournament this year failed to graduate at least 50% of their student athletes.

For those of you who are Division 1 basketball players, let me do the math: That's almost 2/3 of the teams in the field that failed to graduate half their class.

And "half" isn't exactly a goal to strive for in the first place, y'know?

It gets better: Only 6 schools had more than 70% of their players graduate. 70%, in general, gets you a C-.

Only two schools had 100% of their players graduate.

Give me Professional Wrestling any fucking day of the week.



*Yes, I said "professional." They get paid nearly $100K and more over the table in the form of scholarships, and tons more in the form of bribes and gifts**; the coaches get paid six and seven figure salaries; schools get millions in TV rights; and newspapers cover it as thoroughly as any other sport.


**And the ones who don't are in Division 3, where they also don't get on TV. You're free to call them amateurs.

Comments

[gmslegion.livejournal.com]

Oh, I don't know, I'll grant you every single point you made, but somehow I just find myself irritated and annoyed by "March Madness," whereas the entire NBA season, from start to dear-God-will-they-ever-finish, just makes me want to retch. Forced to choose, I'd pick NCAA basketball over pro hoops every time.

[lubedpumpkin.livejournal.com]

My school is Division III. I tutor one of the kids on the team. :) We made it to the final 8, AND we were on locak po-dunk television!

[litch.livejournal.com]

I think they need to disentangle to the pseudoprofessional sports from the schools and have the only sports schools engage in the intermural sort.

[lunza.livejournal.com]

I've really got a problem with the way we glorify student athletes in this country, starting in high school. I suppose to stop doing that we'd have to stop glorifying the pros, whom people are also overimpressed with IMAO.

[demetria23.livejournal.com]

This is why I wanted to go to a Division 3 school. At Emory, our athletes have a higher GPA than the average students. Our sports may not be very good, but honestly I think it's worth it.

[sainthuck.livejournal.com]

Well, schools are lucky if their players even enroll in the first place, much less finish. I remember everyone thinking the world of Carmelo Anthony for attending precisely ONE year of school at Syracuse.

Even Coach K at Duke - renowned for keeping his players all four years and graduating virtually all of them - has been losing guys left and right to the NBA.

The NCAA is basically the NBA's minor league, and they've been forced to accentuate what they've got, while they've still got it. And since these coaches can't sit back on their laurels, recruiting blue-chipper after blue-chipper, they take one of two roads: they short-cut and push for one great season out of five (and disregard little details like grades and graduation), or they get snippy and bitter and locked in their old-school ways (like oh, John Chaney there in Temple).

[yendi]

See, I see that as almost a separate issue -- the folks like Anthony who leave for the pros may be making a poor decision, but at least their actively leaving college for a job. Most of these kids are flunking out of programs and have not chance at being one of the few to get drafted, let alone make a roster. And that's where I have a real problem. Any coach who lets kids lie, cheat, or otherwise get grades they don't deserve, or who doesn't mandate studying and passing, doesn't deserve to be an NCAA coach.

[sainthuck.livejournal.com]

Oh, it is a separate issue, most definitely. But it's forced the hands of some of these coaches who used to be hardasses about graduation rates (like Knight, or Krzyzewski).

Basically, if a guy is going to college at all, and he has any interest in going to the NBA (or the talent to make that happen), he's gone in a year or two. Which has required these coaches to react to the situation. Before, when guys stayed four years, the coach could smack them down to get their degrees and keep their grades up. Now? That threat doesn't fly with a guy who's more concerned about his posse and his Hummer than midterms. So the old hard-ass coaching style of 'do it my way, and keep your grades up, or you're outta here' leads to nothing but a series of 14-14 seasons with guys who just don't have the talent to hang with these future NBA guys.

So some coaches shortcut more than ever, if only so they can manage to find a year or two where they have enough guys on the roster (like Syracuse two years ago with Anthony) to make a run at a championship.

NOt to say that in the 'old' days, these guys were paragons of the student-athlete. The jock on campus has always gotten away with murder and had his grades 'fixed', and never had anything tougher than Basketweaving 101. But now, the subtlety about all that is even gone. These dudes drive massive SUVs, wear furs and chains, and basically flip the school the middle finger, with a "You're lucky I even CAME here" attitude.

Anyway. Heh. Off the soapbox.

[correspondguy.livejournal.com]

And the ones who don't are in Division 3, where they also don't get on TV. You're free to call them amateurs.

And the Patriot League folks. See The Last Amateurs, one of my favorite books.