Kemba graduates in 3 years, just read first book

[kchoya]

Apr 21, 2011 8:54:16 GMT -5 ScreamingHoya said:

Apr 20, 2011 15:29:21 GMT -5 HoyaSinceBirth said:

b) Ok but I see this as more point out our superiority.

And there's the elitist attitude I'm talking about. I also think it's funny that you proclaim your superiority over a guy who says he just finished his first cover-to-cover book while exhibiting your own problems with the English language.

Yes, because a post on a message board is the perfect example of one's grasp of the English language.

I can't believe you're defending this kid for making all the way through college without reading a book. If you had a son or daughter who, upon graduating from college, told you, "Hey Dad, guess what, I've never read a book all the way through," how proud would you feel?

[strummer8526]

Apr 21, 2011 9:19:15 GMT -5 kchoya said:

Apr 21, 2011 8:54:16 GMT -5 ScreamingHoya said:

And there's the elitist attitude I'm talking about. I also think it's funny that you proclaim your superiority over a guy who says he just finished his first cover-to-cover book while exhibiting your own problems with the English language.

Yes, because a post on a message board is the perfect example of one's grasp of the English language.

I can't believe you're defending this kid for making all the way through college without reading a book. If you had a son or daughter who, upon graduating from college, told you, "Hey Dad, guess what, I've never read a book all the way through," how proud would you feel?

Is he or she going to be a professional athlete? Did he or she just personally carry a team through three of the toughest tournaments in amateur sports?

No, I wouldn't be proud of his or her apparent aversion to the written word. But I think that, on the whole, I'd be proud.

[rosslynhoya]

Apr 21, 2011 9:19:15 GMT -5 kchoya said:

Apr 21, 2011 8:54:16 GMT -5 ScreamingHoya said:

And there's the elitist attitude I'm talking about. I also think it's funny that you proclaim your superiority over a guy who says he just finished his first cover-to-cover book while exhibiting your own problems with the English language.

Yes, because a post on a message board is the perfect example of one's grasp of the English language.

I can't believe you're defending this kid for making all the way through college without reading a book. If you had a son or daughter who, upon graduating from college, told you, "Hey Dad, guess what, I've never read a book all the way through," how proud would you feel?

Standing in the living room of Paul and Andrea Walker's Bronx apartment, surrounded by their son Kemba's basketball trophies, The Post asked which accomplishment were they most proud of.

"That he's going to graduate from college," Kemba Walker's parents said almost in unison.

"We're proud of the gift he has to play basketball because that allowed him to go to college," Andrea Walker said. "Basketball will not be in his life forever. His education will be."

Walker, coming off a postseason in which he was named the Most Outstanding Player of the Big East Tournament, MOP of the NCAA Tournament West Regional and the MOP of the Final Four, will graduate from Connecticut in May with a degree in sociology.

www.nypost.com/p/sports/college/basketball/kemba_announces_he_leaving_uconn_mOjQqpyIn5pw6bItVR0ZlN

If he didn't play for UConn, I don't think we'd be fighting this so fiercely. I also didn't realize until just now that both of Kemba's parents were immigrants.

[nashvillehoyas]

If kemba Walker had graduated from Howard, a great school, would the issue of reading a book from cover to cover be an interest? If Obama would say that he never read a book from cover to cover would that be an issue?

As a black man I am so proud to see this young, intelligent, and skilled young man be so successful in life. When the basketball become deflated he will use his education to move on and become an All-American in the public sector.

[kchoya]

Apr 21, 2011 10:32:41 GMT -5 nashvillehoyas said:

If kemba Walker had graduated from Howard, a great school, would the issue of reading a book from cover to cover be an interest? If Obama would say that he never read a book from cover to cover would that be an issue?

As a black man I am so proud to see this young, intelligent, and skilled young man be so successful in life. When the basketball become deflated he will use his education to move on and become an All-American in the public sector.

What sort of accomplishment is it to "graduate" from college without reading a book?

"Basketball will not be in his life forever. His education will be." Umm, if he hasn't even read a book while in college, I'm guessing his "education" isn't going to be much of a help later in life.

[HoyaSinceBirth]

Apr 21, 2011 8:54:16 GMT -5 ScreamingHoya said:

Apr 20, 2011 15:29:21 GMT -5 HoyaSinceBirth said:

b) Ok but I see this as more point out our superiority.

And there's the elitist attitude I'm talking about. I also think it's funny that you proclaim your superiority over a guy who says he just finished his first cover-to-cover book while exhibiting your own problems with the English language.

You misunderstood me. I mean Georgetown's Superiority over Uconn's in the fact that we graduate our players.

[CTHoya08]

If Obama, the President of the United States and a former law school professor, said he had never read a book from cover-to-cover, it would be a far bigger issue. Not even in the same league as Kemba graduating from UConn without reading one.

Here's the thing; I actually don't mind Kemba. I hate his coach and his team, but I enjoyed watching him play quite a bit over the course of this year. Yet I still find it amusing that he could graduate, in three years no less, without ever having read a book.

As others have said, given the graduation rate among D1 players (and specifically at UConn) we should give the kid credit for actually graduating. That doesn't mean we can't have a little bit of fun at his (and largely UConn's) expense.

[Buckets]

I can't believe how long this discussion has gone on. I graduated last year and I'm pretty sure I took one course that required reading a book cover to cover, and it was English in my freshman year and I got an A without doing most of the reading because it was an easy class. You think any big-time basketball program isn't nudging or at least presenting its players with easy classes in which you can coast by without doing most of the work?

I assume everyone being critical of Kemba's disdain for reading also took some calculus for fun, too, right? If you want to be a lawyer, then you should probably take some courses that require extended reading. If you want to be a sociology major and a basketball player, why would you take a literature course?

As for reading for pleasure, you know what's a lot more fun than reading? Playing basketball. Also happens to be a lot more profitable for Kemba.

[kchoya]

Apr 21, 2011 11:41:28 GMT -5 Buckets said:

I can't believe how long this discussion has gone on. I graduated last year and I'm pretty sure I took one course that required reading a book cover to cover, and it was English in my freshman year and I got an A without doing most of the reading because it was an easy class. You think any big-time basketball program isn't nudging or at least presenting its players with easy classes in which you can coast by without doing most of the work?

I assume everyone being critical of Kemba's disdain for reading also took some calculus for fun, too, right? If you want to be a lawyer, then you should probably take some courses that require extended reading. If you want to be a sociology major and a basketball player, why would you take a literature course?

As for reading for pleasure, you know what's a lot more fun than reading? Playing basketball. Also happens to be a lot more profitable for Kemba.

That's fine. But don't congratulate Walker for actually accomplishing anything, other than being able to coast by for three years.

[rosslynhoya]

Apr 21, 2011 12:46:04 GMT -5 kchoya said:

That's fine. But don't congratulate Walker for actually accomplishing anything, other than being able to coast by for three years.

Why not? It's that time of year where millions of deluded Americans are congratulating their kids, their friends' kids, nieces, nephews, grandchildren, et al., for something that mostly entails coasting by in a drunken haze for 4-5 years. Unlike Kemba though, most of the kids who get bogus degrees after subpar educations are going home to live with mom and dad for a few years.

[the_way]

So reading books cover to cover is a sign of how smart someone is or whether he could graduate college? Quiet as kept, some young folks don't read books for fun or as a hobby. As mentioned in a earlier post, there are/were such things as cliff-notes to get by for tests, writing assignments, etc.

Don't know what the big deal is really. Congrats to Kemba. I was very impressed with his leadership and carrying his team to an NCAA title. A smart young man with a degree and a bright future on and off the court.



.

[nashvillehoyas]

@the_way: great points! It's great to see two young people with spectacular achievements from the same university in the same season....Kemba Walker and Maya Moore. From a long time Hoya fan and supporter.

[kchoya]

Apr 21, 2011 13:45:13 GMT -5 the_way said:

So reading books cover to cover is a sign of how smart someone is or whether he could graduate college?

No, no one is saying that. No one is commenting on how smart Kemba is, or is not. However, actually reading books while you're in college is probably a sign of how much you're actually getting out of the experience.

Apr 21, 2011 13:45:13 GMT -5 the_way said:

Quiet as kept, some young folks don't read books for fun or as a hobby. As mentioned in a earlier post, there are/were such things as cliff-notes to get by for tests, writing assignments, etc.

I don't read many books for fun either, or as hobby. I mostly stick to Sports Illustrated and Entertainment Weekly. However, how much of an accomplishment is it to graduate college without having read a book, using cliff-notes, etc.?

Apr 21, 2011 13:45:13 GMT -5 the_way said:

Don't know what the big deal is really. Congrats to Kemba. I was very impressed with his leadership and carrying his team to an NCAA title. A smart young man with a degree and a bright future on and off the court.

We're all impressed with how he played. But how can you say he's smart, or that he has a bright future off the court. If he managed to make it all the way through college without reading a book, you think that looks very good to most future employers (after the NBA)?

[the_way]

How many books does one read cover to cover in college? A lot of classes don't even finish the textbooks. Some professors based more of their tests on the lecture material.

it really depends on your major.

Given his hectic schedule he probably doesn't have time to read a book for leisure cover-to-cover with basketball and school work. So its not shocking that he said what he said.

[nashvillehoyas]

Kemba know basketball.....Big East Champs, NCAA Champs. Smart fellow! Sounds like some folk are jealous of that.....As a Hoya, I wish that we could do it.

[hoya9797]

Apr 22, 2011 17:35:10 GMT -5 nashvillehoyas said:

Kemba know basketball.....Big East Champs, NCAA Champs. Smart fellow! Sounds like some folk are jealous of that.....As a Hoya, I wish that we could do it.

I hope we never have a person graduate from GU in three years and then proudly admit that he's never read a complete book. It's ridiculous and just as ridiculous that people are defending this.

[Elvado]

most UCONN players are only required to read (or put better, have read to them) their Miranda rights...

[theexorcist]

Apr 24, 2011 23:19:23 GMT -5 hoya9797 said:

Apr 22, 2011 17:35:10 GMT -5 nashvillehoyas said:

Kemba know basketball.....Big East Champs, NCAA Champs. Smart fellow! Sounds like some folk are jealous of that.....As a Hoya, I wish that we could do it.

I hope we never have a person graduate from GU in three years and then proudly admit that he's never read a complete book. It's ridiculous and just as ridiculous that people are defending this.

He didn't proudly admit that he'd never read one book - he used it to emphasize the one book he said he did read.

Universities are coming under increasing fire for lax requirements and are far from the "look to your left, look to your right, one of you won't be here to graduate" days - Georgetown included - so using this to claim that basketball players get an easy ride (when I've pointed out before that UConn's abysmal graduation rate for men's basketball - one in three! - apparently only focuses on keeping athletes eligible) is disingenuous.

And, not to go all Generation Y on you, but reading a book cover to cover when all the key stuff is in one chapter doesn't seem that efficient (someone here turned me on to Long Reads, which is pretty fascinating and yet doesn't count as a "book" no matter how many of them I polish off). Education is about pulling together complex materials and bouncing them off of one another until you understand them and how they interact. You don't have to read a book to do that. The book's just the information delivery mechanism.

[kchoya]

Apr 25, 2011 11:31:43 GMT -5 theexorcist said:

Apr 24, 2011 23:19:23 GMT -5 hoya9797 said:

I hope we never have a person graduate from GU in three years and then proudly admit that he's never read a complete book. It's ridiculous and just as ridiculous that people are defending this.

He didn't proudly admit that he'd never read one book - he used it to emphasize the one book he said he did read.

Universities are coming under increasing fire for lax requirements and are far from the "look to your left, look to your right, one of you won't be here to graduate" days - Georgetown included - so using this to claim that basketball players get an easy ride (when I've pointed out before that UConn's abysmal graduation rate for men's basketball - one in three! - apparently only focuses on keeping athletes eligible) is disingenuous.

And, not to go all Generation Y on you, but reading a book cover to cover when all the key stuff is in one chapter doesn't seem that efficient (someone here turned me on to Long Reads, which is pretty fascinating and yet doesn't count as a "book" no matter how many of them I polish off). Education is about pulling together complex materials and bouncing them off of one another until you understand them and how they interact. You don't have to read a book to do that. The book's just the information delivery mechanism.

I'm amazed at how many people on here try and justify the position that reading books is not that important.

[TBird41]

Apr 25, 2011 11:31:43 GMT -5 theexorcist said:

Apr 24, 2011 23:19:23 GMT -5 hoya9797 said:

I hope we never have a person graduate from GU in three years and then proudly admit that he's never read a complete book. It's ridiculous and just as ridiculous that people are defending this.

He didn't proudly admit that he'd never read one book - he used it to emphasize the one book he said he did read.

Universities are coming under increasing fire for lax requirements and are far from the "look to your left, look to your right, one of you won't be here to graduate" days - Georgetown included - so using this to claim that basketball players get an easy ride (when I've pointed out before that UConn's abysmal graduation rate for men's basketball - one in three! - apparently only focuses on keeping athletes eligible) is disingenuous.

And, not to go all Generation Y on you, but reading a book cover to cover when all the key stuff is in one chapter doesn't seem that efficient (someone here turned me on to Long Reads, which is pretty fascinating and yet doesn't count as a "book" no matter how many of them I polish off). Education is about pulling together complex materials and bouncing them off of one another until you understand them and how they interact. You don't have to read a book to do that. The book's just the information delivery mechanism.

I'm curious why the complete lack of effort UConn puts into educating its players makes it more likely that Kemba's degree should be celebrated. It seems to me that if 1) UConn doesn't care / require its players to actually learn/become educated generally, and 2) Kemba gets a degree without reading a book and which requires multiple online courses and an internship with his NBA team that Kemba's degree is pretty much only worth the paper its printed on.

That's the thing being lost in this discussion of whether or not he's read the book--Kemba doesn't have the credits yet for his degree and he still has multiple courses worth left. If he stopped doing course work right now, he would not have a degree.

In terms of the credits he's already earned, Kemba walking is the rough equivalent of Jeff Green or Mike Sweetney walking after their junior year (though admittedly, Kemba probably is closer to a degree credit wise).