Friday, April 03, 2009

UConn Basketball Player Has Not Recieved A Grade Since Fall Semester 2007

This is, about UConn forward Stanley Robinson, is astonishing:
It is a story both heartwarming and head-scratching. FERPA laws assure his privacy, but if we are hearing him correctly, he doesn't have a grade since fall semester 2007. He reaffirmed Thursday that he withdrew from classes last spring. It never was made clear precisely what happened, with Jim Calhoun once calling it an "academic redshirt." It was Calhoun who appealed to the dean on Robinson's behalf to prevent him from failing out.
An "academic redshirt"????? There is no such thing. What Calhoun means is that Robinson is playing college hoops without going to class. He has not received a grade in over sixteen months.

As others have noted: it's time to quite pretending that UConn is a college basketball team.

They are the UNLV of this decade--a pro team pretending to be a college team.

Carolina's the heavy favorite, but I think UConn has to be second in line. It would be a travesty were this team to win the title--tho it would probably eventually be taken away from them even if they did.

UConn of the stolen electronics equipment. UConn of the 33% graduation rate. UConn of innumerable other violations... And now, it turns out their players are not even really attending classes in any meaningful sense.

Take it from me: big-time college programs like this already know who the easiest professors on campus are, and they make sure the players are given a path through the curriculum that makes low grades a virtual impossibility. If Robinson can't make it through this already-rigged system, there is no way he should be playing college ball...even at UConn.

2 Comments:

Blogger The Mystic said...

With college sports already being such a dismal failure as it is when it comes to the academic performance of the atheletes, I don't know why you even care.

It's appalling and UConn is merely slightly more appalling. It's like choosing to stare directly at a 10,000 watt lamp as opposed to a 10,500 watt lamp. It just doesn't matter.

1:22 PM  
Blogger Winston Smith said...

Not all sports programs are academic failures. We'd all like for the whole system to be better...but that doesn't mean that the particularly egregious cases don't deserve our special disapprobation.

6:08 PM  

Post a Comment

Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]

<< Home