Bradley to give up Schollie (ESPN)

[UCDaveD]

What bothers some people?

I don't know either. Maybe they're worried about his feelings getting hurt.

 

[upstater]

I don't see why this is distasteful to people. It's a net benefit to the team, the school, Andre Drummond, and most importantly, to Michael Bradley himself. He's very likely saving a bunch of money going down this route.

What bothers some people?

If Bradley can stick it out, it will be a net positive. If it were my kid, though, I would probably wait to cross the grad school bridge when we came to it. It's kind of like those parents that prepay for four years of college by locking in a tuition-rate.

 

[ctchamps]

It looks like this is not the prevailing opinion, but I don't like this either. It gives me that SEC football, win at all costs kind of feeling. To ask a kid that you recruited to give up a schollie just sucks. I don't care what kind of financial aid Bradley is going to get.

I think you are forgetting something very important in this story of Bradley. This kid was dirt poor and homeless. I think he was helped by a coach and taken off the streets. He is a very good student and wanted to go to pharmacy school. UConn has one of the best pharmacy schools. Bradley was probably not a high major basketball player never mind a UConn bb player. So why did JC offer the kid a scholarship? People will argue it is only because of future potential. There might be some truth to future potential. But there were other raw bigs available that JC did not bother with. I think the tipping point was the story behind the kid and the desire to help him out with a degree in pharmacy at UConn. So he burns a scholarship on a kid who is a big bb question mark.

As upstater has pointed out, pharmacy is a six year program. Bradley will still maximize his free tuition towards his degree, but he was going to have to pay at least one year of his tuition without the bb schollie. This was a win, win, win situation for everyone. JC gets Andre, Bradley will get tuition paid for in his fifth and sixth season as a pharmacy major, which are the most expensive years of his degree, and the school gets to demonstrate how things work when cooperation takes place as opposed to trying to make an example of someone. I expect the amount of donations to increase significantly because a lot of donors will learn first hand about Bradley's story.

Certainly there are people who will only look at the cynical side of this situation. The people with distaste for JC will never give him credit for helping Bradley in the first place. They will never consider the possibility that the only reason Bradley is on the team was to help him in his academic pursuit. The people who are angry with JH's removal will never consider how much JH might have enjoyed taking action just to spite JC and then he would hide behind a badge of phony propriety. They will argue that he had high standards and kept JC in check.

I'm not so sure JH's standards were impeccable. His supporters have the luxury of stating this because the report that came out of the independent examination of Jeff will never be revealed. They will underplay the monies Jeff left on the table as a condition for the report being sealed. They will over state that Jeff left the 2.5 million he was contractually owed based on a report of incompetence. They will under play the argument incompetence is refutable. Jeff could have argued against the report in his future job interviews if incompetence was the issue. There are schools with leadership who would ignore a UConn finding if only because there is rivalry or worse amongst top echelon people. Something was in that report that had to be more damaging to make his decision so quick and decisive. Something had to be in that report that would have made any future hire unlikely and incompetence is not a strong enough condemnation.

This is all pure speculation on my part. But a lot of people are speculating that something underhanded was done in getting AD into school, including the removal of JH and taking away of Bradley's scholarship. So in a court of law my arguments would be inadmissible. But in a public forum where speculation runs rampant and we argue against actions based on unsubstantiated opinions, I felt the need to offer counter arguments people may want to consider.

 

[ctchamps]

If Bradley can stick it out, it will be a net positive. If it were my kid, though, I would probably wait to cross the grad school bridge when we came to it. It's kind of like those parents that prepay for four years of college by locking in a tuition-rate.

There is a risk that Bradley can't complete his degree. In which case this decision impacts him negatively. However if he does succeed he comes out ahead. Hopefully the kid has the aptitude to succeed and the accurate perspective to know the risk he is taking and whether he has a legitimate chance of success.

 

[ctchamps]

I don't see why this is distasteful to people. It's a net benefit to the team, the school, Andre Drummond, and most importantly, to Michael Bradley himself. He's very likely saving a bunch of money going down this route.

What bothers some people?

I don't see it as wrong either. See my long(er) post above. We all come from different perspectives about propriety. Some people think tattoos are bad. Others think they are beautiful. Some people think taking one drink is horrible. Others do not see it this way. If you take every issue, you will have a range of opinions that offer support or condemnation of that issue.

Some people are looking at the removal of Bradley's scholarship as creating a burden to a poor kid with the sole purpose of getting in a high profile recruit. Having to pay back loans is a much greater burden than having a free ride if Bradley could keep his scholarship. This rightfully bothers people. It would bother me as well if I didn't examine the points I made in my long post above which supports the process of this specific situation regarding Bradley.

If people don't factor in that the scholarship was given to Bradley by JC as primarily an attempt to help a marginal high major bb player in his academic pursuit, they will come to a different conclusion than I did.

If people do not factor in the pharmaceutical degree is a six year program and Bradley would have to pay one year regardless of this current action to remove his bb scholarship they will come to a different conclusion than I did.

If people do no consider something in Hathaway's tenure as AD was condemning they will consider his removal was done to get AD and condemn this scholarship removal.

If any of the three points are disagreed with, or weighted in a different way than I weight them, they will end up finding this scholarship removal wrong.

 

[coloradohusky]

A recruited player is not allowed to play for the team he likes if he's been recruited and they don't have available scholarships? That is a freaking joke! The NCAA is so backwards and I hate forcing a kid like Bradley to have to pay his own way when Drummond was most likely willing to.

I'm confused as well. Notre Dame football has had a preferred walk-on each of the last 3 years. They recruited Nate Montana and Joe Schmidt and both walked on. How is this different?

 

[Jimmy Serrano]

Fleud - the point you make about having to pay the extra year is a valid and fair one. The others I'm not buying. Especially the suggestion that JC gave Bradley a scholly because he felt bad for him and did it out of the goodness of his heart.

People were questioning why Bradley was given a scholly last year, and now they praise JC for giving a marginal prospect a free education. I think that's a bit naeve.

 

[ctchamps]

Fleud - the point you make about having to pay the extra year is a valid and fair one. The others I'm not buying. Especially the suggestion that JC gave Bradley a scholly because he felt bad for him and did it out of the goodness of his heart.

People were questioning why Bradley was given a scholly last year, and now they praise JC for giving a marginal prospect a free education. I think that's a bit naeve.

No problem with disagreement. You are correct people were questioning the Bradley scholarship. It made no sense, which is why I came to the conclusion that JC gave him the scholarship to help the kid out with his academic pursuit. JC is a smart coach and knows what it takes to win. He plays the game really well off the court as well as on the court to accomplish his goal - to win.

So I never meant to imply that JC acts from his heart first and makes all or most of his decisions from a feel good basis. With most of his recruits it is business first and the story isn't even considered. But every once in a while JC puts aside the business and factors the importance of the kid first. He did that the season after the first NC when he moved Kfree to the 3 from the four to give Kfree a chance to get to the next level. That decision was for Kfree and adversely impacted the team.

Unless SR was on academic probation, JC took a chance by removing SR's scholarship to push SR to change. His act was a gamble and could have resulted in SR going back home. Alabama was salivating.

He never withdrew Mandeldove's scholarship, or at least allowed Mandeldove the scholarship long after it was obvious Mandeldove wasn't going to contribute to men's bb.

JC was offered a 2.5 million raise in direct salary from USC but he passed on it to stay with UConn.

JC does most things the way you see things. But once in a while he does something to just be helpful, even at the expense of his own success. And it makes sense if you understand his personal history growing up, with the tragedy of his father's death at sixteen. He doesn't just understand the difficulty of impoverishment, he experienced it. He lived firsthand what it is like to lose your father. And he was fortunate to have a bb coach take on the role of a father figure when his father died. So this is in the back of his mind when he takes recruits - this mentoring role. Occasionally it makes him do something non business like. And it accounts for why so many of his players appreciate the relationship they had with him.

 

[nelsonmuntz]

Thank you Michael Bradley and his family for doing this. I hope and expect this will work out well for them.

 

[Walker11]

I highly doubt Bradley was signed because of his story. He was a developing athletic big when signed, rated as a 4/3 star before he was downgraded after putting up 6ppg in hs.

 

[intlzncster]

If Bradley can stick it out, it will be a net positive. If it were my kid, though, I would probably wait to cross the grad school bridge when we came to it. It's kind of like those parents that prepay for four years of college by locking in a tuition-rate.

That's fair enough. The only thing I'd add is that Bradley is a kid who grew up with nothing and is reportedly mature, motivated, and intelligent. If he opts out of Pharmacy, I'm thinking he'd pick up his Masters is something else (some of science or business or something). This kid appears to be more of an Emeka Okafor type than anything else.

 

[intlzncster]

I highly doubt Bradley was signed because of his story. He was a developing athletic big when signed, rated as a 4/3 star before he was downgraded after putting up 6ppg in hs.

He was signed because of size and potential. As a project. No one in UConn gave a crap about the rankings or the 6ppg. They were knocking around red shirting him when he signed.

Not shooting down your post. Just saying that the staff knew what they were getting and getting into. They could have withdrawn their offer any time. I don't think they feel that they made a mistake.

 

[Walker11]

All I'm saying is that Bradley was signed because he had potential and was once highly regarded, not because of his background story.

 

[EricSD]

Don't want to look like a troll, but somehow this doesn't look quite right. Consider the NCAA reduces our ships. So we exceed the ship quota and put one of the existing ship guys on financial aid or whatever. Looks like we're poking NCAA in the eye. I know Louisville did something like this but the Ville wasn't on probation. Hope it all works out well for our Huskies but it looks like a Red Flag to me.

it's all about playing within the rules.

 

[ctchamps]

I highly doubt Bradley was signed because of his story. He was a developing athletic big when signed, rated as a 4/3 star before he was downgraded after putting up 6ppg in hs.

Without JC's comments we'll never know. Certainly JC takes in players that aren't ready to play immediately, or that remain as role players. Sometimes he has no choice in what players are available and so he is forced to take in a recruit that is a questionable BE caliber. Sometimes these players develop into more than scrimmage players, such as Hilton. And maybe JC sees something in Bradley that he believes has potential. I'm not eliminating this from JC's decision. But I believe he chose Bradley as opposed to other bigs available to help the kid out. I believe it factored into his decision of who he was choosing even if the factor was down the list of factors.

The most cynical viewpoint regarding JC is that he only cares about winning and that he will do anything to win including not considering what happens to his players. Certainly his on court demeanor contributes to this impression. The most gracious opinion is that he is very caring about his players. I think he falls somewhere in the middle but leans towards the personality of a having a greater than average loyalty with people or things he cares about. This is why he was hurt by Andrew's decision not to come to UConn or JH's actions not to support him. So JC's decision to remove Bradley's scholarship wasn't taken capriciously imo. It wasn't as simple as some people are implying - that he took the scholarship from an unimportant player to make way for an important player.

 

[gars44]

Without JC's comments we'll never know. Certainly JC takes in players that aren't ready to play immediately, or that remain as role players. Sometimes he has no choice in what players are available and so he is forced to take in a recruit that is a questionable BE caliber. Sometimes these players develop into more than scrimmage players, such as Hilton. And maybe JC sees something in Bradley that he believes has potential. I'm not eliminating this from JC's decision. But I believe he chose Bradley as opposed to other bigs available to help the kid out. I believe it factored into his decision of who he was choosing even if the factor was down the list of factors.

The most cynical viewpoint regarding JC is that he only cares about winning and that he will do anything to win including not considering what happens to his players. Certainly his on court demeanor contributes to this impression. The most gracious opinion is that he is very caring about his players. I think he falls somewhere in the middle but leans towards the personality of a having a greater than average loyalty with people or things he cares about. This is why he was hurt by Andrew's decision not to come to UConn or JH's actions not to support him. So JC's decision to remove Bradley's scholarship wasn't taken capriciously imo. It wasn't as simple as some people are implying - that he took the scholarship from an unimportant player to make way for an important player.

 

[gars44]

fleud, I love JC perhaps more than the next guy, more than most, but I'm not buying some of what your selling. JC has a burning desire to win, he's like the head cave man leading the band of hunters to the wholly mammoth, and bringing it home for the women and children to eat and survive. Yes he's loyal, but to his fellow hunters. Me, I'm good with that but let's keep this in perspective. Bradley has to take one for the team here. The more silver lining there is for Bradley down the road, the more this starts to look like a conspiracy to circumvent the scholarship sanctions. And that leads inevitably to more sanctions. I hope nothing has been promised to Bradley, not grad school, not 5 more years of scholarship, nothing. Because any promise of anything is a violation. If Bradley was asked and he agreed without any promises, then maybe we're ok. I'm sure it is that. Anything else would be just plain dumb.

 

[Huskymaniac]

I think you are forgetting something very important in this story of Bradley. This kid was dirt poor and homeless. I think he was helped by a coach and taken off the streets. He is a very good student and wanted to go to pharmacy school. UConn has one of the best pharmacy schools. Bradley was probably not a high major basketball player never mind a UConn bb player. So why did JC offer the kid a scholarship? People will argue it is only because of future potential. There might be some truth to future potential. But there were other raw bigs available that JC did not bother with. I think the tipping point was the story behind the kid and the desire to help him out with a degree in pharmacy at UConn. So he burns a scholarship on a kid who is a big bb question mark.

As upstater has pointed out, pharmacy is a six year program. Bradley will still maximize his free tuition towards his degree, but he was going to have to pay at least one year of his tuition without the bb schollie. This was a win, win, win situation for everyone. JC gets Andre, Bradley will get tuition paid for in his fifth and sixth season as a pharmacy major, which are the most expensive years of his degree, and the school gets to demonstrate how things work when cooperation takes place as opposed to trying to make an example of someone. I expect the amount of donations to increase significantly because a lot of donors will learn first hand about Bradley's story.

Certainly there are people who will only look at the cynical side of this situation. The people with distaste for JC will never give him credit for helping Bradley in the first place. They will never consider the possibility that the only reason Bradley is on the team was to help him in his academic pursuit. The people who are angry with JH's removal will never consider how much JH might have enjoyed taking action just to spite JC and then he would hide behind a badge of phony propriety. They will argue that he had high standards and kept JC in check.

I'm not so sure JH's standards were impeccable. His supporters have the luxury of stating this because the report that came out of the independent examination of Jeff will never be revealed. They will underplay the monies Jeff left on the table as a condition for the report being sealed. They will over state that Jeff left the 2.5 million he was contractually owed based on a report of incompetence. They will under play the argument incompetence is refutable. Jeff could have argued against the report in his future job interviews if incompetence was the issue. There are schools with leadership who would ignore a UConn finding if only because there is rivalry or worse amongst top echelon people. Something was in that report that had to be more damaging to make his decision so quick and decisive. Something had to be in that report that would have made any future hire unlikely and incompetence is not a strong enough condemnation.

This is all pure speculation on my part. But a lot of people are speculating that something underhanded was done in getting AD into school, including the removal of JH and taking away of Bradley's scholarship. So in a court of law my arguments would be inadmissible. But in a public forum where speculation runs rampant and we argue against actions based on unsubstantiated opinions, I felt the need to offer counter arguments people may want to consider.

Will ANY major media outlet pick up on this or will they ignore it to keep the more compelling "Calhoun is evil" angle?

 

[intlzncster]

fleud, I love JC perhaps more than the next guy, more than most, but I'm not buying some of what your selling. JC has a burning desire to win, he's like the head cave man leading the band of hunters to the wholly mammoth, and bringing it home for the women and children to eat and survive. Yes he's loyal, but to his fellow hunters.

If Bradley was asked and he agreed without any promises, then maybe we're ok. I'm sure it is that. Anything else would be just plain dumb.

Pretty sure JC is treading inside the lines here, given the current climate. Apparently, Herbst, Paul P, JC, and Hobbs were all involved in this process. That's as good as you can ask for.

As far as loyalty goes, JC is one of the most loyal HC's in college basketball imo. The only thing he asks is that you buy in completely. If you are not a player who buys in, he will not be loyal to you.

 

[Huskymaniac]

fleud, I love JC perhaps more than the next guy, more than most, but I'm not buying some of what your selling. JC has a burning desire to win, he's like the head cave man leading the band of hunters to the wholly mammoth, and bringing it home for the women and children to eat and survive. Yes he's loyal, but to his fellow hunters. Me, I'm good with that but let's keep this in perspective. Bradley has to take one for the team here. The more silver lining there is for Bradley down the road, the more this starts to look like a conspiracy to circumvent the scholarship sanctions. And that leads inevitably to more sanctions. I hope nothing has been promised to Bradley, not grad school, not 5 more years of scholarship, nothing. Because any promise of anything is a violation. If Bradley was asked and he agreed without any promises, then maybe we're ok. I'm sure it is that. Anything else would be just plain dumb.

Can you post a link to the NCAA rule that says a coach can't verbally promise a scholarship to a kid for next season or even for the next 4 seasons? If it exists, fine. I would just like to see it.

 

[gars44]

I'm thinking that you can, except if it is part of a scheme to duck present scholarship limitations imposed as a sanction. But in a vacuum, not a problem.

 

[coloradohusky]

Question on this. Does Bradley need to take this year off from the team? I know that you only get 5 years to play 4, so wouldn't this mean that he now has to pay for 2 years instead of 1 if he plays this year? Or does his walkon status (and not playing) preserve a year? I'm trying to wrap my head around this and how it benefits the kid.

 

[gars44]

That's a good question. He only has 4 scholly years left. He has 4 playing years left. If he walks on this year, he will have three playing years left, and 4 scholly years. I guess it would mean that he gets one year of grad school paid for during his last playing year? Anyone know?

 

[3rdbass]

Question on this. Does Bradley need to take this year off from the team? I know that you only get 5 years to play 4, so wouldn't this mean that he now has to pay for 2 years instead of 1 if he plays this year? Or does his walkon status (and not playing) preserve a year? I'm trying to wrap my head around this and how it benefits the kid.

Yeah, good question. Not sure how this helps him as he is going to use 2nd of his 5 years(4 playing years and one redshirt year). He now has a loan for this year instead of a free scholarship. How does this help him? He would have been on Scholarship for 5 years straight if this event didn't happen.

 

[Jimmy Serrano]

That's a good question. He only has 4 scholly years left. He has 4 playing years left. If he walks on this year, he will have three playing years left, and 4 scholly years. I guess it would mean that he gets one year of grad school paid for during his last playing year? Anyone know?

Yes, I believe that's the rub.

 

[Huskymaniac]

Since we discussing legalities here, can people use the freedom of information act to obtain the transcript of a student on a full scholarship at a public university? I would love to see exactly what classes and how many classes the Kentucky players are taking to "stay on track" for their degree so the squid can avoid APR probems with all these one-and-done players.

 

[Jimmy Serrano]

Since we discussing legalities here, can people use the freedom of information act to obtain the transcript of a student on a full scholarship at a public university? I would love to see exactly what classes and how many classes the Kentucky players are taking to "stay on track" for their degree so the squid can avoid APR probems with all these one-and-done players.

I'm pretty sure you can't. There may be some privacy laws that protect the individual (in this case the student-athlete). At least I hope there is.

 

[tcf15]

Since we discussing legalities here, can people use the freedom of information act to obtain the transcript of a student on a full scholarship at a public university? I would love to see exactly what classes and how many classes the Kentucky players are taking to "stay on track" for their degree so the squid can avoid APR probems with all these one-and-done players.

Transcripts cannot be made public due to FERPA, a federal act that basically makes all transcripts exclusive to the student and their family. The student would have to make it Public in order for us to see it.

 

[ctchamps]

fleud, I love JC perhaps more than the next guy, more than most, but I'm not buying some of what your selling. JC has a burning desire to win, he's like the head cave man leading the band of hunters to the wholly mammoth, and bringing it home for the women and children to eat and survive. Yes he's loyal, but to his fellow hunters. Me, I'm good with that but let's keep this in perspective. Bradley has to take one for the team here. The more silver lining there is for Bradley down the road, the more this starts to look like a conspiracy to circumvent the scholarship sanctions. And that leads inevitably to more sanctions. I hope nothing has been promised to Bradley, not grad school, not 5 more years of scholarship, nothing. Because any promise of anything is a violation. If Bradley was asked and he agreed without any promises, then maybe we're ok. I'm sure it is that. Anything else would be just plain dumb.

JC is a survivor. He will do what it takes to win. I agree with your analogy of his being a hunter. He'll bring the meat home for the UConn family. I just don't think he tries to kill off one of his fellow hunters because the meat is slim. He'll divide it up differently.

I'm with you, I hope they never promised Bradley anything outside of attempting to help him get financial aid this semester. The NCAA clearinghouse will be specifically asked by UConn to review this situation about Bradley and AD and make sure the school has complied. If it hasn't the NCAA will rule otherwise. And UConn will have done nothing wrong. They are following due process.

This is certainly about Bradley willing to do this. The future is uncertain for him should he go this route and give up his scholarship. He may not make grades for his degree. He may not get his bb scholarship reinstated. There is no way he has not been informed of this, if not by UConn but by his support group. So he can force the situation and insist that JC pull his scholarship. Maybe he wanted to do this, but was afraid to, because he believed he would face retaliation by the school. That would be nonsense of course but who knows if Bradley understands this. My hope is Bradley has a great relationship with JC, that he understands that there is a possibility things can work out even better for him if he chooses this path and makes grades and develops his bb abilities. My hope is that the relationship is mutual with JC and Bradley and not parasitic. And I have offered examples where JC is not this inhuman beast that is so caught up in winning he has become a callous beast that some make him out to be.

 

[ctchamps]

Will ANY major media outlet pick up on this or will they ignore it to keep the more compelling "Calhoun is evil" angle?

I think there are some reporters who have and will defend JC and they most certainly will consider something like what I wrote as part of their arguments. And there are other reporters with different agendas who won't. And in this category you have those reporters who believe it is a better story (in the sense of more viewers and hence monies) to only present the negative and the category of reporters who just can't stand JC and have a personal vendetta against the man.