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If you read the thread, this comes down to one class which had an academically solid senior (Gavin Edwards) leave for training camp 6 credits shy of finishing, another who never played but never finished (Mandeldove), Nate Miles (obviously a disaster all around), and a couple of transfers who didn't take care of business.
I'd like to chime in on a couple things here...
If you are reading this whole thread you already know I come down on the side of personal responsibility. Nobody but the players themselves are ultimately responsible for their academic success. Period.
Beyond that, however, this sounds to me like it is really a weak way to prevent programs from taking a flyer on a kid. And if that's the real point, then you need to structure the rules that way. Because, honestly, that exactly the issue with Darius Smith and Jamal Trice. There is no link between academic potential and basketball talent. NONE. And the only reason either of those guys ran into trouble was because their basketball talent, ultimately, was not enough to measure up at a major division 1 program. Calhoun took a flyer on those guys because he was somewhat desperate for guards. They satisfied the academic entry requirements for eligibility.
I just don't understand why UConn should be punished over academics because Smith and Trice had 2-yr college and Juco level talents. Should they have been able to maintain their academics regardless of their playing time ? Sure. But, again, that's on them, primarily, and secondarily on teh athletic dept. as a whole.
Miles is another guy that Calhoun took a flyer on. The recruiting situation with Miles is irrelevant to the academic discussion completely. And then UConn gets docked on the APR because the University expelled him for disciplinary reasons. Calhoun and the athletic dept. never even had a CHANCE to keep the guy academically eligible.
Frankly, they need to stop trying to force-fit some kind of numerical, statistical system into place that makes it easy for the NCAA. If the NCAA wants to see academic progress, then they need to WORK at it. Make every university maintain a program for orientation, indoctrination, study habit evaluation, curriculum advisement, etc. Make them self-evaluate every player, and then aggregate that into a department-wide self evaluation and initiate corrective actions to improve individual player's performances and programmatic shortfalls. And then the NCAA audits some percentage of the schools every year. You get caught screwing it up and you get audited every year until you are taken off academic probation (such as reduced scholarships or post-season bans).
THAT would actually force the schools to do their work, but most importantly, it would actually make the NCAA do some work for a change, and to me, that seems to be the biggest reason for the BS APR system.
Honestly, you tell me how a program like that 1) can be fooled, and 2) how you blame Nate Miles situation on an inability to maintain academic standards. And the other thing here is that if you document the actions taken to try and keep Darius Smith and Jamal Trice on track, and yet they fail to uphold their personal responsibility, it is, again, hard to hold the university responsible for that.
