Posted: 12/5/2009 7:34:17 PM EDT
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What? No BIG BLUE win topic yet?
You gotta love the new team and new coach! Its about time the CATS were coming around. |
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Quoted:
i agree. its about time we have a coach in there that plays the team to meet the expectations that us fans expect. i like the look of the new squad, but they are running these games way too close for comfort. Lets just sit back and watch the Graduation rate nose dive. This Coach has more Baggage than Delta. But hey a winning Basketball Team is what's important. |
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Quoted: Damn straight :)Quoted: i agree. its about time we have a coach in there that plays the team to meet the expectations that us fans expect. i like the look of the new squad, but they are running these games way too close for comfort. Lets just sit back and watch the Graduation rate nose dive. This Coach has more Baggage than Delta. But hey a winning Basketball Team is what's important. As for the grad rate.....big deal. Would you rather the one / two seasons and doners went elsewhere to play, or would you rather enjoy them while we have them here. The point is, the really phenomenal players are not going to graduate no matter where they go, so be it. It's reality. The money is just too big not to go to the NBA when you can. When your recruiting is not bringing in the top players in the nation, you have a high grad rate. When you're getting NBA quality guys that are good enough to hit the NBA early, your rate is going down, but your team is a lot more exciting. Having a top basketball program is very good for the school as a whole, because kids like to attend "winning" colleges, it's more fun period. That's good for UK and the state of Kentucky in general. Also, for the baggage comment...well hopefully Coach Cal has now learned how to do it right without getting caught, lol. If you think anyone in the top 25 is running a perfectly legit ship.....lets just say that would be HUGELY naive. I welcome Coach Cal and wish him the best here, it should be a fun ride. And besides, we weren't going anywhere before, Gillespie or Tubby, so what do we really have to lose? (PS, I don't hate Tubby, I think the man is a class act, and I'm happy to see him so comfortable in Minn. But lets face it, he was never going to give UK another banner that the fans and organization so wants. Plus, with NC breathing down our necks for most wins.....we had to act quick) |
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Quoted: they looked pretty good! i'm sure we will be losing the good ones after the 2010-2011 season if not after this one, although it would be nice to see them all stay and graduate.... who knows what they could accomplish if that happened. Sure, we're going to lose guys, that's just the business. But, at the same time, we'll hopefully be picking up other blue chippers to replace them. We'll have up years, and some mediocre years, it's a given, look at all the regular top teams. But hey, basketball season is fun again in KY no matter what, and hopefully we will be stopping the Donovan sec dynasty building :) Having a high grad rate does nothing for the school except a minor bragging right. A winning program brings in huge money, and that huge money helps all the programs in the University, as well as taxes and such for the state ....win/win |
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Quoted:
Quoted:
they looked pretty good! i'm sure we will be losing the good ones after the 2010-2011 season if not after this one, although it would be nice to see them all stay and graduate.... who knows what they could accomplish if that happened. Sure, we're going to lose guys, that's just the business. But, at the same time, we'll hopefully be picking up other blue chippers to replace them. We'll have up years, and some mediocre years, it's a given, look at all the regular top teams. But hey, basketball season is fun again in KY no matter what, and hopefully we will be stopping the Donovan sec dynasty building :) Having a high grad rate does nothing for the school except a minor bragging right. A winning program brings in huge money, and that huge money helps all the programs in the University, as well as taxes and such for the state ....win/win I hear you. Its just that the term"Student Athlete"doesn't seem to exist anymore. U.C had Huggins who was a great Coach but he Graduated like 5 kids the whole time he was there. There are some programs that try to do both. I don't think asking the Kids to go to class and keep a C average is too much to ask. I know I'm not living in today's reality but they interview these kids and they cant even speak English. |
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Quoted: Anybody that chooses a college based on the power of an athletic program (who isn't an athlete) is a tool. You misunderstood my point. I surely didn't mean that would be THE reason, of course not, but sure, it adds to it. Heck, the atmosphere of a college does come into play for SOME students. If your going into a specialized field, then it won't really matter, your much more deicated and the curriculum is what's most important. But there are a lot of "general" categories of study out there that really aren't that different between one college and the next. Campus life comes into play in those instances. But I think the bigger plus to a successful program, is of course the extra money that ends up coming in through many different avenues, but are a direct result of an athletic program. Those monies get disbursed all around and keep other activities and programs going or growing. |
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Wow, a little bit of disgruntleness here now.
Having super sport talent brings in more super sport talent. I could care less if the athletes graduate especially if they are going to the big leagues after a couple seasons. UK is a good school academically and has proven that, to each their own. Those who wish to play ball or those who wish an education, or both, there is room for everyone. |
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Sorry to go off on a tangent here but I feel this could be a good discussion.
Some background... While I attended UofL I tutored student-athletes to make extra money. It was easy because you weren't required to teach them (they were supposed to learn that in class) and if they didn't show up, you still got paid for the full hour. That said, I can say with conviction that there isn't much "student" to these male athletes (there is a HUGE difference between male and female student-athletes. The girls actually care, the guys don't). The males aren't attending *insert Division I school with whatever athletic program here* to learn anything. When they do show up for tutoring, they ask you if you will do their homework or text on their phones the entire time. They are required to GO to tutoring, but participation is optional. And most of them are dumber than rocks. They don't even know how to cheat properly. Don't even get me started on their butchering of the English language. As an English teacher, I'm mortified by how people communicate today. Like I said, I don't care either way what they do. I'd prefer them to try to learn something because I believe in the power of education. But it is their choice. They are "adults" and are "mature" enough to make their own decisions. My biggest problem is with the universities. They pretend to care about these kids. They rope them in with grandiose dreams and promises of making it. They not only deceive the students, but their parents as well. They make the parents think their son is going to get a wonderful college education. They pump the prospects up with false hope, use them for their athletic abilities, and if they don't graduate, attempt to fudge the numbers so their graduation rates don't look bad for the U.S. News and World Report College Rankings. For the universities, it is a money making opportunity. Each athlete is looked at as a potential revenue stream. I know this happens everywhere. I wouldn't care about it so much if the universities were HONEST about what they were doing to these kids. Just admit that you are using them for their ability to run, jump, or catch, not to make your school a better place, but to bring in additional revenue for the athletic program. That's where the money goes back to more often than not. It gets reinvested in the "system" to build bigger stadiums, arenas (that is unless they convince the city to use tax dollars to do it!), and purchase better equipment and coaches. More often than not, the money that the athletic program brings in does NOT go to the academic side of the university, where the purpose of a university lies. If it did, think of how amazing the libraries, classrooms, and buildings would be!!! I apologize for the side-track, but I just wanted to get that off my chest. I hate the false front our society accepts from colleges and universities so we can rationalize a reason for supporting the slave-trading industry that is college athletics. If the schools just admitted what they were doing and stopped pretending to care about the education of the athletes, I'd be much happier with the system. |
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CoryL,
I agree with most of your points; however, I will take exception to the athletic department does not funnel money back into the school. If I recall correctly the moneys from the 1986 basketball championship built the SAC on Louisville's campus. In addition, the revenue sports support the "Olympic" sports which provide opportunities to the real "student" athletes. If others do not know Louisville has been very successful in most of the non-revenue sports the last several years so the money is being put to good use. As to the student athlete part, I attended the Speed School of Engineering and had several classmates who were scholarship athlete's. They were not football or basketball players but they took their education very seriously and had to work hard to maintain their grades. To tell the truth I'm not sure how they did it with the demands on their time with practice and game travel. |
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Quoted:
I agree with most of your points; however, I will take exception to the athletic department does not funnel money back into the school. If I recall correctly the moneys from the 1986 basketball championship built the SAC on Louisville's campus. That was 1986. Things are a little different now. Most large schools (Michigan, Ohio State, Penn State, etc.) have a self-sustaining athletic department where very little, if any, money goes back into the school's main fund. In addition, the revenue sports support the "Olympic" sports which provide opportunities to the real "student" athletes. If others do not know Louisville has been very successful in most of the non-revenue sports the last several years so the money is being put to good use. This is true, especially in swimming. And it's nice that football and basketball help keep the other sports afloat. It's like college sports welfare, especially since Title IX came into effect. As to the student athlete part, I attended the Speed School of Engineering and had several classmates who were scholarship athlete's. They were not football or basketball players but they took their education very seriously and had to work hard to maintain their grades. To tell the truth I'm not sure how they did it with the demands on their time with practice and game travel. [/quote] That's a totally different world. Most student-athletes that aren't football or basketball players take their education more seriously. It's because the chances of them going pro are almost nil, so they have to have something to show for their time in school. Look at any D2 or D3 school and you will see that most student-athletes take their education seriously as well. The graduation rate is inversely proportional to the popularity of the corresponding professional sport. That's why you see most women's sports with very high graduation rates and men's basketball and football without. |
| The odds of going Pro even in Basketball or Football are still incredibly slim. I have read many story's about athletes leaving school early playing Pro for a year or so and end up with nothing or in Jail. I'm not saying its right or wrong it just seems to happen frequently. More so in Basketball than Football. Sports like Baseball and Hockey that have Farm Systems appear to work out better. That way the money isn't wasted on a student with no intention of finishing School. |
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you know when I went to engineering school, the professors told me "we are not here to make you come to class, you are paying to do that. we get paid whether you come to class or not and whether you put forth the effort and graduate or not. "
Seems to be a similar attitude for academics as athletics to me. I heard students from other universities relate the same thing, I even sat in on a few of my friends classes (at a different college) once early in a semester and heard a similar spiel. |