lEXINGTON hERALD lEADER eDITORIAL: bALANCE aTHLETICS aND aCADEMICS. i agree.
Balance athletics and academics
UK team's low GPA overdue priority
Herald-Leader sports writer Jerry Tipton's report Sunday on the abysmal academic performance of the University of Kentucky men's basketball team during the fall semester drew the usual cacophony from rabid fans.
But nobody disputed the facts.
Admirably, UK President Lee T. Todd Jr. and athletics compliance officer Sandy Bell stated their clear disappointment at the cumulative 2.025 GPA — worst among all UK athletic teams, worst among nine Southeastern Conference schools that supplied similar information.
Yet, UK athletics declined to make either Coach John Calipari or Athletics Director Mitch Barnhart available for comment, citing "privacy concerns."
Confronted with his first blush of negative publicity since becoming UK coach, Calipari surfaced on Monday and took an unseemly tact — questioning whether "this story was meant to embarrass me."
Hey, coach: It's not always all about you. What about embarrassing the program, and the university?
This page has often celebrated the successes of the program and excoriated its excesses and expects to do both as long as basketballs are dribbled in this state.
Some sort of balance is needed. The type of player who can leave early for the National Basketball Association — as five of this year's team are doing — may be exciting to the fan base, to agents and to NBA scouts.
But it's instructive that this year's Final Four teams were stocked with upperclassmen who stayed for three and four years — and remained academically eligible.
UK isn't the NBA. It's our flagship university and it's struggling — because of the state's inability to adequately fund it — to reach Top 20 status among public research institutions.
Nobody is saying it's going to be easy to rebuild the basketball program and have the academic success the university community can be proud of.
But, hey, it's why the coach is already getting paid the really big bucks — more than 31 million of them over eight years.
Curiously, just as the first blemish on Coach Cal's UK tenure was being debated in Lexington came a report from Yahoo Sports that he would be willing to listen to a pitch from the NBA's Chicago Bulls about its coaching vacancy.
Could it even be possible — the coach himself a "one and done," leaving a little more than 13 months after accepting his "dream job?"
He says no and we believe him.
However, included in the report was a curious reference, based on unnamed sources, that Calipari "hasn't connected" with UK's athletics administration.
If there wasn't a connection before, one sure seems to be happening now, and pronto.
No sooner had that report hit the Internet than Barnhart said UK had begun initial discussions on restructuring Calipari's contract so that he is coach here "until he retires."
Calipari's current contract has two clauses regarding academic performance — potential $50,000 bonuses each for the team achieving a .950 Academic Progress Rate and for achieving a 75 percent graduation rate or better.
By contrast, the bonus for making the NCAA Sweet 16 is $100,000, making the Final Four is $175,000 and winning an NCAA title is $375,000.
Now that it is revisiting the contract, UK has the opportunity to put more financial incentives on the academic side of things.
Read more: http://www.kentucky.com/2010/05/06/1253760.html#ixzz0n97JNWVy
UK team's low GPA overdue priority
Herald-Leader sports writer Jerry Tipton's report Sunday on the abysmal academic performance of the University of Kentucky men's basketball team during the fall semester drew the usual cacophony from rabid fans.
But nobody disputed the facts.
Admirably, UK President Lee T. Todd Jr. and athletics compliance officer Sandy Bell stated their clear disappointment at the cumulative 2.025 GPA — worst among all UK athletic teams, worst among nine Southeastern Conference schools that supplied similar information.
Yet, UK athletics declined to make either Coach John Calipari or Athletics Director Mitch Barnhart available for comment, citing "privacy concerns."
Confronted with his first blush of negative publicity since becoming UK coach, Calipari surfaced on Monday and took an unseemly tact — questioning whether "this story was meant to embarrass me."
Hey, coach: It's not always all about you. What about embarrassing the program, and the university?
This page has often celebrated the successes of the program and excoriated its excesses and expects to do both as long as basketballs are dribbled in this state.
Some sort of balance is needed. The type of player who can leave early for the National Basketball Association — as five of this year's team are doing — may be exciting to the fan base, to agents and to NBA scouts.
But it's instructive that this year's Final Four teams were stocked with upperclassmen who stayed for three and four years — and remained academically eligible.
UK isn't the NBA. It's our flagship university and it's struggling — because of the state's inability to adequately fund it — to reach Top 20 status among public research institutions.
Nobody is saying it's going to be easy to rebuild the basketball program and have the academic success the university community can be proud of.
But, hey, it's why the coach is already getting paid the really big bucks — more than 31 million of them over eight years.
Curiously, just as the first blemish on Coach Cal's UK tenure was being debated in Lexington came a report from Yahoo Sports that he would be willing to listen to a pitch from the NBA's Chicago Bulls about its coaching vacancy.
Could it even be possible — the coach himself a "one and done," leaving a little more than 13 months after accepting his "dream job?"
He says no and we believe him.
However, included in the report was a curious reference, based on unnamed sources, that Calipari "hasn't connected" with UK's athletics administration.
If there wasn't a connection before, one sure seems to be happening now, and pronto.
No sooner had that report hit the Internet than Barnhart said UK had begun initial discussions on restructuring Calipari's contract so that he is coach here "until he retires."
Calipari's current contract has two clauses regarding academic performance — potential $50,000 bonuses each for the team achieving a .950 Academic Progress Rate and for achieving a 75 percent graduation rate or better.
By contrast, the bonus for making the NCAA Sweet 16 is $100,000, making the Final Four is $175,000 and winning an NCAA title is $375,000.
Now that it is revisiting the contract, UK has the opportunity to put more financial incentives on the academic side of things.
Read more: http://www.kentucky.com/2010/05/06/1253760.html#ixzz0n97JNWVy
Labels: News reporting
posted by KYJurisDoctor at 8:00 AM
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