Purvis with the Hashtag of the Year

[upstater]

It was definitely a hack job and clearly the guy had an ulterior motive. But the article was written 16 years ago and the writer has been dead for five. Not to mention it was published in the Pottsburgh Post-Gazette which no one reads. I think we can just let this one go.

It was not a pleasure going into that database to find that. People were asking for a citation.

 

[CAHUSKY]

By the way, BigErn and CAHUSKY.

The UConn grad rate in 1998 (the last grad year before that article was written) was 33%. Actual grad rate.

Duke's grad rate in 1998? 40%.

So, tell me why UConn's players were treated so badly by the writer relative to Duke's players.

Who cares? It was 16 years ago. I would just like to see more of our players, especially those not playing professionally for big $$$, get their degrees. That's my only point in this thread.

 

[upstater]

Who cares? It was 16 years ago. I would just like to see more of our players, especially those not playing professionally for big $$$, get their degrees. That's my only point in this thread.

Holy cow, what is wrong with you people?

 

[willie99]

I don't mind being known as thugs on the basketball court. I like being more physical, I like overcoming better talent with better effort

that's what we are when we're best, blue collar thugs

and I simply don't value the opinion of media members, they have their own agenda, and they're not honest enough to acknowledge their own inherent bias

 

[nomar]

It was definitely a hack job and clearly the guy had an ulterior motive. But the article was written 16 years ago and the writer has been dead for five. Not to mention it was published in the Pottsburgh Post-Gazette which no one reads. I think we can just let this one go.

No way. Let's exhume the body and yell at it.

 

[Excalibur]

A bunch of thugs! Ha! I lived in a dorm with Khalid, Rip and Kevin. They were always at practice or on the road so you never really got to know them, but they were hardly thugs. They were pretty friendly.

We likely lived on the same floor. Khalid lived with Souleymane Wane at the end of the hall. Khalid still owes me $5.

 

[MexicoHusky]

We likely lived on the same floor. Khalid lived with Souleymane Wane at the end of the hall. Khalid still owes me $5.

Watson 5. I was done in 98. I lived in the triple.

 

[Da_Aisijimo_Gou]

No way. Let's exhume the body and yell at it.

Or, minimally a seance to bark at the Pitt fan's spirit.

 

[superjohn]

Who cares? It was 16 years ago. I would just like to see more of our players, especially those not playing professionally for big $$$, get their degrees. That's my only point in this thread.

Off of that team three played professionally for really big money, one is still playing and two of them are assistant coaches at UConn where they won themselves a championship as players and coaches. A couple of others played professionally in Europe for a while, another one is a teacher and coach, another works for DCFS and does some coaching.

 

[superjohn]

I don't mind being known as thugs on the basketball court. I like being more physical, I like overcoming better talent with better effort

that's what we are when we're best, blue collar thugs

and I simply don't value the opinion of media members, they have their own agenda, and they're not honest enough to acknowledge their own inherent bias

Thug doesn't connotate playing physical and playing hard.

 

[Pudge]

This is less than 10% of the article so it meets fair use:


BEATING DUKE DOESN'T MAKE UCONN A WINNER
BY BRUCE KEIDAN
4 April 1999
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

* Pardon me if I don't get tingly all over because Gentleman Jim Calhoun and his UConn Huskies managed to upend mighty Duke in the Mother of All College Basketball Games.

I'm supposed to feel good because a school that graduates fewer than one basketball player in three wins the national championship by defeating a school from which nine players in 10 depart with a degree?

Here's a personal promise to Calhoun in lieu of heart-felt congratulations: If a simple majority of your supposed student-athletes who played for you Monday night leave your campus with a sheepskin in hand, I'll drive to Storr's and polish the championship trophy annually. I'll even supply the Brasso.

Go ahead. Make my day.

* Schools such as Connecticut doubtless will take full advantage of the recent appeals-court decision outlawing Proposition 16, which prohibited athletes from participating in varsity sports as college freshmen unless they achieved a modicum of success on standardized tests given to high school seniors. That's why the NCAA adopted Proposition 16 to begin with. But the court was right.

The fact of the matter is, the NCAA had no business telling its member institutions whom to admit, whom to give grants in aid, or whom to play. All that should be up to the individual institutions to decide. If UConn chooses to recruit and play an entire basketball team with a collective IQ in single digits, that's up to them. It's up to other schools to decide whether they want to play those teams or not.

The NCAA has neither the expertise nor the authority to tell Stanford which of its freshmen can dribble a basketball and carry an academic load simultaneously. Stanford knows best.

And if it makes bad, short-sighted decisions, it will pay for them in the end.

RIP Bruce Keidan

You could not be more wrong. Today, you'd be amongst the suck-ups to Pitino and Calipari. We (*at UConn) know better. Calhoun built a Better Man in his players over 4 decades.

 

[willie99]

Thug doesn't connotate playing physical and playing hard.

to me it does, it's a badge of honor

 

[willie99]

RIP Bruce Keidan

You could not be more wrong. Today, you'd be amongst the suck-ups to Pitino and Calipari. We (*at UConn) know better. Calhoun built a Better Man in his players over 4 decades.

what he and so many people seem to miss, JC prepared them for life, the best thing he could do for them

haters hate

 

[CL82]

This is less than 10% of the article so it meets fair use:


BEATING DUKE DOESN'T MAKE UCONN A WINNER
BY BRUCE KEIDAN
4 April 1999
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

* Pardon me if I don't get tingly all over because Gentleman Jim Calhoun and his UConn Huskies managed to upend mighty Duke in the Mother of All College Basketball Games.

I'm supposed to feel good because a school that graduates fewer than one basketball player in three wins the national championship by defeating a school from which nine players in 10 depart with a degree?

Here's a personal promise to Calhoun in lieu of heart-felt congratulations: If a simple majority of your supposed student-athletes who played for you Monday night leave your campus with a sheepskin in hand, I'll drive to Storr's and polish the championship trophy annually. I'll even supply the Brasso.

Go ahead. Make my day.

* Schools such as Connecticut doubtless will take full advantage of the recent appeals-court decision outlawing Proposition 16, which prohibited athletes from participating in varsity sports as college freshmen unless they achieved a modicum of success on standardized tests given to high school seniors. That's why the NCAA adopted Proposition 16 to begin with. But the court was right.

The fact of the matter is, the NCAA had no business telling its member institutions whom to admit, whom to give grants in aid, or whom to play. All that should be up to the individual institutions to decide. If UConn chooses to recruit and play an entire basketball team with a collective IQ in single digits, that's up to them. It's up to other schools to decide whether they want to play those teams or not.

The NCAA has neither the expertise nor the authority to tell Stanford which of its freshmen can dribble a basketball and carry an academic load simultaneously. Stanford knows best.

And if it makes bad, short-sighted decisions, it will pay for them in the end.

Butt·hurt
[ˈbətˌhərt]

ADJECTIVE

1. overly or unjustifiably offended or resentful:
   "they're all butthurt that she released the album online first"

NOUN

1. an excessive or unjustifiable feeling of personal offence or resentment:
   "it's time to get over the butthurt from last year's playoffs"

Oxford Dictionaries · © Oxford University Press

 

[superjohn]

Butt·hurt
[ˈbətˌhərt]

ADJECTIVE

1. overly or unjustifiably offended or resentful:
   "they're all butthurt that she released the album online first"

NOUN

1. an excessive or unjustifiable feeling of personal offence or resentment:
   "it's time to get over the butthurt from last year's playoffs"

Oxford Dictionaries · © Oxford University Press

Nice job using vulgarity on the forum, really classy. Ultimately, your choices are your own.

 

[CAHUSKY]

Off of that team three played professionally for really big money, one is still playing and two of them are assistant coaches at UConn where they won themselves a championship as players and coaches. A couple of others played professionally in Europe for a while, another one is a teacher and coach, another works for DCFS and does some coaching.

And they wouldn't be coaching at Uconn if they hadn't received their degrees. Awesome that they did.

 

[CAHUSKY]

Holy cow, what is wrong with you people?

Because I don't care abut a 16 year old article written by a guy who has been dead 5 years and I want Uconn players to graduate? You're right, I'm nuts.

 

[Excalibur]

Watson 5. I was done in 98. I lived in the triple.

Yep. I think my room was 510. That was my junior year. Pretty sure we had more damage charges than any other floor on campus that year . . .

 

[superjohn]

And they wouldn't be coaching at Uconn if they hadn't received their degrees. Awesome that they did.

Yes but Freeman graduated many years later so he reflects poorly on our graduation rate from that time. This is the case with many kids, they leave early to make money playing professionally somewhere and then come back years later to finish their studies.

 

[upstater]

Because I don't care abut a 16 year old article written by a guy who has been dead 5 years and I want Uconn players to graduate? You're right, I'm nuts.

No, because you made a point about how it was somewhat deserved since UConn had a low grad rate compared to Duke, and when I showed the rates were close, you wrote "I don't care!"

 

[mauconnfan]

I especially respect the guys who come back later to get their degrees. Free, Taliek, Tony R I believe and others.

 

[HuskyCLT]

Speaking of degrees, Purvis is going to get his this year. With a #SlickRickFace.

 

[Pudge]

Who cares? It was 16 years ago. I would just like to see more of our players, especially those not playing professionally for big $$$, get their degrees. That's my only point in this thread.

I will come at you a different way: WHO DA F KNOWS?

That dead writer PRESUMED he knew. Do you? Does anyone think the Graduation rates or the APR (as mandated by the NCAA) actually reflects the academic advancement of UConn basketball since 1987? I would really like to know. Given a quick Google of the members of 1999 NC team, I agree with upstate: these kids live fairly full and productive lives. And they were pushed along by a great mentor.

That writer's words were blasphemy. And, they simply painted a black & white picture on something we all know has lots of gray. Duke kids all graduates? Louisville recruits always with strippers? UNC had no kid graduate from standard academic courses?

The other thing that I want you to internalize: did these kids get a better life due to being mentored by Jim Calhoun? I graduated. I wish they all had a degree. But, just like with my own kids, there is absolute accountability for those 13 guys. If Antric Klaiber (or others) was given opportunity and lots of academic help (and even a path to degrees after eligibility), then I think we can say that the lack of degree is on them.

 

[aboogieee]

#bullyseason @tcf15

 

[CAHUSKY]

No, because you made a point about how it was somewhat deserved since UConn had a low grad rate compared to Duke, and when I showed the rates were close, you wrote "I don't care!"

I said our grad rate was abysmal. It was and continues to be pretty bad. I wish it was higher

By the way, BigErn and CAHUSKY.

The UConn grad rate in 1998 (the last grad year before that article was written) was 33%. Actual grad rate.

Duke's grad rate in 1998? 40%.

So, tell me why UConn's players were treated so badly by the writer relative to Duke's players.

Again, I could care less about Duke's graduation rate and the article. I just wish we graduated more players. You are reading more into my response than is there.

 

[BigErnMcCracken]

No, because you made a point about how it was somewhat deserved since UConn had a low grad rate compared to Duke, and when I showed the rates were close, you wrote "I don't care!"

I'm not going to get into this, because it's the middle of the work day, and you're arguably the biggest homer on the board so I know it's a lost cause. But it's easy to cherry pick a number. It was 50% through '98, then 31% in '03, 25% in '04 and 10% in '05. It was abysmal.

And no one said the "thug" moniker was warranted. I didn't see anything in Cahusky's post that even hinted at that. Saying that the graduation rate was brutal for a while at UConn does not warrant a "what is wrong with you people."

Your zeal to constantly portray UConn as a beacon of virtue in the morass of college athletics leads you to make some ridiculous statements. I'm sure you think Calhoun was going to donate $25k to Cecil Kirk anyway because he's all about urban renewal, it was just a happy coincidence that Rudy Gay played for them.

 

[Pudge]

I said our grad rate was abysmal. It was and continues to be pretty bad. I wish it was higher

Again, I could care less about Duke's graduation rate and the article. I just wish we graduated more players. You are reading more into my response than is there.

McCracken goes whacked. He has joined the Louisville writers and Providence fanboys in the most whackadoodle UConn Program digs.

Look ... this irks me. I am a parent and I feel like I have broad views on this issue. Graduation was a hammer that William Rhoden and Derrick Z. Jackson used to slam Calhoun. We start from the fact that we brought far different kids into our Program than Duke. Heck, Geno Auriemma brings in a far different student; he's now able to recruit both for basketball and academics (skipping the marginal student - which there are less of on the female side). Calhoun brought athletic hard-working kids from urban environments; yes, K had more suburban kids. Graduation was prioritized by Calhoun. But, he did seem to think not to push a kid to finish if he absolutely could get paid as a pro (let alone the NBA types, it was Foreign too).

Was Calhoun lax? The evidence (comparing him to others that had 25 year coaching careers) is he was probably average to below average; and more of a poster child for this than others because ... he won a lot of big games. But, that is pointedly skewed as the number of kids got REAL dollars by not graduating. That doesn't happen at Bucknell. As I said earlier, the NON-graduates are now surrounded by members of the fraternity that did graduate. Prioritized the degree. These UConn graduates aren't the only ones who heard the benefits of having a college degree. Every kid alive now knows the income disparity between those with degrees and those without. These UConn players have accountability.

On that 1999 team, Saunders and Wane and Archibald coached college (means they graduated) with Freeman and Moore. Big long Pro careers for Hamilton, Voskuhl, EJ Harrison, Mourning, El Amin. Justin Brown teaches school in Australia - graduated. Rashamel Jones has an Administrative position in NYS Child Protection services - graduated. That leaves Klaiber who runs a small business ... as an unknown. Productive full lives.

And ... not deserving of the Pittsburgh writers scorn.

 

[MexicoHusky]

Yep. I think my room was 510. That was my junior year. Pretty sure we had more damage charges than any other floor on campus that year . . .

I remember an emergency exit sign getting wrecked. Not much else. I've never been too into vandalism. Schenanigans...yes. Vandalism...no. You mind if i ask your name? I'm wondering if I know/remember you. My name is Tim.

 

[UConnSwag11]

I really hope this team is mean and a bunch of bullies. Haven't had a team like that since '09.

 

[UConnSwag11]

I really want to see this hashtag at all the games with Ricky's face