Page 2 of 3 FirstFirst 123 LastLast
Results 21 to 40 of 45
  1. #21
    I'm confused: Duke is ranked among the top 10 universities in the country and among the top 15 universities in the world. Last year, Duke had the most student-athletes placed on the ACC Honor Roll, which requires a 3.0 GPA. Why are people upset that Duke's basketball players not only win, but also has outstanding grades at one of the top universities in the world?!

    Better question to ask: Why aren't people questioning the "student"-athletes at the other schools?! The only other school in the ACC that's ranked among the top 25 universities in the country and top 100 in the world is UVa. It's speaks volumes about the "student"-athletes at these other schools, who can't even earn a 3.0 at a school that's not ranked...

  2. #22
    Join Date
    Feb 2007
    Location
    Deeetroit City
    Quote Originally Posted by JStuart View Post
    ... all 5 of the NC State players listed as being majors in "rural recreation", whatever that was. ...
    Isn't that commonly known as "cow-tipping?"

  3. #23
    As a tutor for the Athletics department, I can tell you all that dozens of athletes in the past three years (since I've been a graduate student) are pre-medicine or otherwise associated with the Biology major. This includes basically all of Duke's major and Olympic sports teams, with the notable exception of men's basketball.

    As someone who was also a Duke biology major as an undergraduate, I can tell you that it definitely serves a challenge. So while the men's basketball team certainly toils away at other majors, my personal experience has been that many Duke scholarship athletes are taking (and thriving in!) tough classes. I must also add that they all seem to be great young adults, as well.

  4. #24
    At the ACC Tournament this year they listed the majors for each of the players whenever they were shooting FT's, scored, or were introduced. Among my favorites was the Apparel, Housing, & Resource Management for Va Tech.

  5. #25
    Join Date
    Aug 2007
    Stayed at the same hotel as Feinstein, other obsrure writers and the entire CBS media. Feinstein was at best intraverted, at worst arrogant. I think he is jealous of K's success as a coach and now also a writer. I really think he is bitter he wasn't allowed to write an inside book by shadowwing Coach K. He really is not a very good ambassador of Duke University, imo.
    By the way, Duke Basketball players unlike many high profile schools are quite intelligent.

  6. #26
    Join Date
    Feb 2007
    Quote Originally Posted by Devilsfan View Post
    Stayed at the same hotel as Feinstein, other obsrure writers and the entire CBS media. Feinstein was at best intraverted, at worst arrogant. I think he is jealous of K's success as a coach and now also a writer. I really think he is bitter he wasn't allowed to write an inside book by shadowwing Coach K.
    Hasn't he already written two?

    John Feinstein is a man with many flaws. Resenting Mike Krzyzewski is, as far as I can tell, not one of them.

  7. #27
    Quote Originally Posted by mehmattski View Post
    As a tutor for the Athletics department, I can tell you all that dozens of athletes in the past three years (since I've been a graduate student) are pre-medicine or otherwise associated with the Biology major. This includes basically all of Duke's major and Olympic sports teams, with the notable exception of men's basketball.

    As someone who was also a Duke biology major as an undergraduate, I can tell you that it definitely serves a challenge. So while the men's basketball team certainly toils away at other majors, my personal experience has been that many Duke scholarship athletes are taking (and thriving in!) tough classes. I must also add that they all seem to be great young adults, as well.
    Taymon Domzalski was a history major and ended up an MD.

  8. #28
    Frankly, this is why I am proud to be a Duke fan. I think it clicked with me after I saw Ed Cota interviewed and he talked about using his penetrating moves on the ho's in the defense (I swear that isn't a joke.) Our least articulate players communicate far better than some schools best.

  9. #29
    Join Date
    Jan 2010
    Location
    Washington, DC
    Who do you think is the best example of basketball star and intelligent, well rounded person? My top 3 would have to be Grant Hill, Shane Battier and Jay Williams. Any other notables?

  10. #30

    From California

    I went to Duke in the 60's so am pretty far removed from what is going on now.

    We did have a language requirement. I remember my roommate tutoring Bob Verga in Latin.

    I have a friend whose daughter was a recent scholarship athlete at Duke. She majored in Sociology which her mother referred to as the "jock major." Can't say if that is true or not. However I would say that "anonymous" knows very little about he writes. I am sure that there are non-athletes majoring in Soc and, as many have written, basketball players with other majors.

    To call Duke the dirtiest program in college basketball and your only charge is that players major in Soc is just totally stupid.

    I was glad to see all of the posts that were critical of anonymous.

    SoCal

  11. #31
    Join Date
    Nov 2007
    Location
    Meeting with Marie Laveau
    Quote Originally Posted by CrazieDUMB View Post
    Who do you think is the best example of basketball star and intelligent, well rounded person? My top 3 would have to be Grant Hill, Shane Battier and Jay Williams. Any other notables?
    Jeff Mullins

  12. #32
    Join Date
    Feb 2007
    Location
    Steamboat Springs, CO

    Talking Lots of Competition...

    Quote Originally Posted by CrazieDUMB View Post
    Who do you think is the best example of basketball star and intelligent, well rounded person? My top 3 would have to be Grant Hill, Shane Battier and Jay Williams. Any other notables?
    Not surprisingly, there is a lot of competition...

    Gminski and Bilas seem to have accomplished a lot on and off the court, although the G-man had the better basketball career. Trajan, once his career in Europe ends, will likely have some other accomplishments of note. Wasn't he a math major?

    Others with serious professional careers are Spanarkel, Jay Buckley (PhD physics plus 2nd team All-ACC), Jack Marin (NBA All-Star and Duke Law). Heck, good old Kenny Dennard is apparently doing really well with his own financial public relations firm. And these days, he is certainly "well-rounded."

    The late Denny Ferguson (team captain in 1965) was a professor at Cornell.

    sagegrouse
    'BTW I must add that when I enter "Class of Mullins" after my name, I am telling the literal truth. Others who claim Class of G. Hill, Class of Cherokee, etc. are indulging in unsupported hype. Jeff Mullins was, in fact, the President of the Class of 1964'

  13. #33
    Quote Originally Posted by sagegrouse View Post
    The comments below the Feistein blog are definitely worth reading. They include somewhat literate "foaming at the mouth," such as the ones by Anonymous, and intelligent defense of K and Duke. Especially read the comment that points out that there are no sociology majors on the Duke team, which would seem to be a slight flaw in Anonymous's reasoning.

    The other points made by Anonymous also suggest why he adopted the posting name he did. Sociology is not a major limited to athletes. And BTW isn't Cultural Anthropology a really tough set of courses? Moreover, one's major occupies only about 25% of the courses an undergraduate takes, unless things have changed since the full decade I spent on college campuses at Duke and at Rice. Moreover, athletes are mainstreamed at Duke, taking courses along with other students.

    And why, for heaven sakes, is Duke being singled out for easy majors, when it does not offer Phys Ed, unlike Wake, or Recreation, unlike UNC?

    And don't get me started on the Ivy League. No way do Ivy League athletes compete for admission with regular students. And BTW, why is American Studies one of the most popular majors at Yale? Hint: it isn't because of the academic challenge offered.

    sagegrouse
    'I am happy to see John F. recant about Krzyzewski. It was due, and I am tired of reading anti JF comments on this Board. JF has been a hugely successful sports journalist (in terms of money earned) BECAUSE he is controversial'
    Sorry but I am a Phys Ed major at Eastern Washington University and it is not easy...

  14. #34
    Join Date
    Feb 2007
    Location
    Fairfax County, Virginia
    The subject of academic rigor and "athletic majors" frequently appears. Living in the DC area, I am the direct and indirect recipient of many outrageously pro-Maryland comments, especially during basketball season. In January or February 2009, during the worst of the Vasquez and Williams turbulence, the local media suggested that Maryland was: (a) the most selective university in the ACC as well as (b) the most academically challenging. They highlighted a few majors at Maryland including FIREFIGHTING. I was astonished; that's great for a training school, but inappropriate for a university. A MIND IS A TERRAPIN THING TO WASTE.

  15. #35
    Quote Originally Posted by 4decadedukie View Post
    They highlighted a few majors at Maryland including FIREFIGHTING. I was astonished; that's great for a training school, but inappropriate for a university. A MIND IS A TERRAPIN THING TO WASTE.
    Who needs classes to learn firefighting? If I'm a Maryland basketball player, and something in my vicinity is on fire, I'd just have Gary Williams sweat on it. Fire extinguished.

  16. #36
    Join Date
    Feb 2007
    Location
    Fairfax County, Virginia
    Quote Originally Posted by hurleyfor3 View Post
    Who needs classes to learn firefighting? If I'm a Maryland basketball player, and something in my vicinity is on fire, I'd just have Gary Williams sweat on it. Fire extinguished.
    ^ ^ ^ ^ ^

    LOL, nicely done!

  17. #37
    Join Date
    Apr 2010
    Location
    Arlington, VA
    Jay Bilas made an interesting point about the difference between Duke and state schools from an academic standpoint. I think it was on a Bill Simmons podcast a few weeks ago, but I'm not positive. Basically his point was that GPA and graduation rates aren't a problem at Duke like they are at state schools, but there is much more grade inflation for both students and student-athletes at Duke.
    At a big state school, such as Maryland or Ohio State, it takes more than just showing up every day to . However, basing this on my own experience at Duke (history major, class of 09), if you show up at every day and turn in assignments, it's really easy to get Bs, but you have to work incredibly hard to move from a b/b+ to an A. If you look at the class rank curves you'll see a median around a 3.0 with a really small standard deviation. Of my trinity class of about 1300, a 2.7 (b-) was ranked at about 900/1300, while a 3.5 (b+/a-) was ranked 200/1500.
    That being said, you get out what you put in. If you're Jay Williams or Patrick Paterson, you can take a full course load every year and two summer sessions to finish your degree in three years before going to the league. Likewise, if you're John Wall, Demarcus Cousins, or even Corey Magette and you're gone after your first year, is there any reason to sit through a semester of caribbean history or african dance for another semester when you're not planning on graduating anyway?

  18. #38
    Quote Originally Posted by 4decadedukie View Post
    They highlighted a few majors at Maryland including FIREFIGHTING. I was astonished; that's great for a training school, but inappropriate for a university. A MIND IS A TERRAPIN THING TO WASTE.
    The irony of a firefighting major in the same discussion as Maryland basketball ... Well, you get the point ...

  19. #39
    Join Date
    Feb 2007
    Location
    Partly Orlando, FL partly heard Sandpoint, ID
    Quote Originally Posted by LSanders View Post
    The irony of a firefighting major in the same discussion as Maryland basketball ... Well, you get the point ...
    I don't think its ironic at all... the university is supporting one of the major needs for the state of Maryland, in order for there to be any building left in Maryland after basketball season they need all the firefighting help they can get!

  20. #40
    Quote Originally Posted by hurleyfor3 View Post
    Problem is, mid-afternoon is when K usually holds practice. If a player really wanted to study something with lab requirements I'm sure K would find a workaround, but you can't really skip labs like you can with a lot of lecture classes. (I skipped one lab, ever, on the Tuesday after we won the 1992 championship. Still got a B+ in the course, or maybe it was an A-.) Point is, the commitment is not just extra work but an extra chunk of the day that can't be moved.
    One semester K moved the practice time to late afternoon to accommodate one of his engineering students (don't remember which one). His practices then cut into both the fencing team's practice and club volleyball. I'm not sure I would call that a work-around.

Similar Threads

  1. 100 Greatest College Basketball Players of All-Time
    By bludvlman in forum Elizabeth King Forum
    Replies: 32
    Last Post: 12-03-2008, 10:02 AM
  2. JMU and Basketball players
    By dukediv2013 in forum Elizabeth King Forum
    Replies: 8
    Last Post: 09-01-2008, 03:01 PM
  3. 6 Duke Basketball Players Have NBA Potential
    By Franzez in forum Elizabeth King Forum
    Replies: 99
    Last Post: 02-02-2008, 08:48 PM
  4. We have so many players with a high basketball I.Q.
    By Devilsfan in forum Elizabeth King Forum
    Replies: 2
    Last Post: 12-18-2007, 10:55 AM

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •