Big east shoot around on ESPN

[moe09]

Aug 4, 2008 14:32:03 GMT -5 capcenterhoya said:

Lets be careful not to assume Georgetown holds its basketball players to any higher academic standard than at most other schools. Our recruits come to Georgetown to play basketball. Georgetown, if necessary, will go to the same lengths as other schools to keep our players eligible and our school out of the headlines. I mean no disrespect to the majority of our players who I'm sure do hard work and earn their grades, but basketball players are not treated or evaluated the same way as regular students at Georgetown. If you want to be a fan of college basketball, this is just a fact you have to live with. EVERY school has some dirt it wants to hide.

Feel free to, you know, provide any sort of proof for comments like these...

[summersshowers]

i feel fairly comfortable saying our guys are held to a higher standard than uconn/the majority of the big east/the majority of the elite programs in the country. i had a class with dajuan, verno and the bullfrog freshman year and they missed 0 classes that weren't on game days. i also see guys from the team in club lau just about every time i go there, which isn't often, so if i see em they're probably there a lot.

[RDF]

I always love when a guy comes out of nowhere and has a negative to say. I'm not saying Hoyas basketball players aren't there for hoops--I'm saying they aren't allowed to stay around and dont' get provided benefits like Uconn--and this is firsthand knowledge--not some pollyanna viewpoint. Fact Hoyas attend class--as in going to the damn classroom is a step up from the circus going on in Storrs--where an academically ineligible student is going to get eligible by taking "online courses". Yeah--he's proven he's trustworthy and committed to his school work--so why not trust him to be honest about taking the courses. What a joke.

[FewFAC]

I'll say top 4 in the BEAST, with the full understanding that I mean top 1.

[tashoya]

Which is worse, potentially cheating in one's online classes or stealing laptops and lying to the police? Hmmm. I remember having been adjudicated for pouring water on an awning window a floor below me in St. Mary's. I wonder if I'd have been allowed to stay in school for stealing laptops. And, if so, could I just do it online so I wouldn't have to wake up so early?

[strummer8526]

Both sides of the academic argument are correct in certain ways. Many of our players get in with grades that would have gotten most of us bounced from community college. So in that respect they do get treated differently. I'm also sure that once at Georgetown, they have access to academic resources that non-basketball players may not have access to. That being said, once at Georgetown, they do attend classes. They are expected to take academics seriously. I 100% doubt that if in a class, Jeff Green and I handed in the same papers we would get the same grades. I just don't think that would happen. I also don't think it should happen. Our guys put in an astronomical commitment to an area of our school (athletics, DI basketball) that I couldn't touch with a ten foot pole. They work hard and do the best they can. I don't mind their getting an occasional wink-knod B, as long as sincere, good faith effort is put into school work. From what I've seen, that effort and those reasonable expectations are there.

At some point, I came to accept big-time athletics and the way athletes are treated because I realized that college can be a learning experience in a lot of different ways. Our guys get a "Georgetown education" in the classroom, but it's also important the kind of education they get as far as being quality guys and representatives in a major sport. The way our alums have handled themselves in the league are proof that GU "educates" our players right.

[RDF]

Fully understand the concept of athletics being first priority and students being admitted for that reason. As I said--everyone deserves the opportunity to prove themselves--but I'd also like to see that opportunity enforced--which is my point. How is letting someone who has proven he's uncommitted to school--take summer online courses going to help him? I'll bet anything Robinson has no idea who is taking those classes for him. If you can't get your butt in a classroom--why would you sit in front of your computer and do the work you weren't committed to doing in first place? Why are athletes given this option at all? It's not like they don't live near campus--and it's not like Robinson has a road trip--so why can't he get to the classroom?

The list of what is going on at UConn is out there and comparing "opportunities" and "lesser students" being admitted to them getting work done for them, having no responsibility to be in a class, and no care for how they do as long as they help you win games is irresponsible and needs to change. You don't disgard people and if you treat someone as if they are a commodity--don't be shocked when it all blows up and ends ugly--as signs have shown is starting to slowly happen to Calhoun. Look at the off court incidents in past 5 years--and they aren't going away anytime soon.

[jgalt]

The bottom line is, it seems that if athletes are not keeping up in classes they dont appear to stay at gtown very long. The players do perform better than many students in the same classes and it is not always because they are basketball players. My roommate freshman year was in IR with Roy. Roy almost always did better than may room mate (when my roommate was able to sneak a peak at Roy's papers). Additionally my roommate says the teacher didnt appear to have any idea or any care that Roy was on the basketball team.

Regardless, athletes getting special treatment for admissions is not different than students who's parents donate large sums of money, or have legacy, or benefit from greatly inflated high school grades. How they perform when they get to gtown matters more; and gtown basketball players have appeared to be at the very least average students in general (there are exceptions, of course).