Maryland Basketball Graduation Rate

[gw67]

In contrast to the DBR story on the outstanding graduation rate of Duke athletes, the Post ran an article this morning that stated that none of the ten Maryland scholarship basketball players entering school in 1997-2000 had gotten a degree within six years after entering school. The article later noted that two of the players, Miller and Slaninka, had transferred and gotten degrees and one, Holden, had gone back and gotten a degree after the six year period. As best I can remember, the ten, less the three noted previously, were Dixon, Morris, Blake, Baxter, Nicholas, Mardesich and Cephas. All attended school for four years and, except for Cephas, all play pro basketball at some level.

This is old news. About two years ago, a golfing buddy who is a Maryland booster, told me that the school athletic administration was very upset that none of the players from that era had gotten a degree and that they were upgrading their academic support approach to help ensure that those who stay for four years get their degree. They are getting better - three of five graduating last year got degrees and the next three classes are apparently solid academically.

I realize that every youngster's situation is different, but the combination of good academic support, summer semesters and a clear expectation for graduation should be sufficient to ensure a degree for most. It appears that Fridgen figured this out before Williams.

gw67

[fuse]

While I realize the NCAA calculation method may be at fault, the N&O ran an article today about graduation rates for area schools:
http://www.newsobserver.com/sports/story/725370.html

Unfortunately this link does not have the table that was in the paper, but Duke's graduation rate is 67% for men's basketball. Again, adjusted for early NBA defections, transfers, etc I am sure the number is much more Duke like, and while its hard to look at 67% not being orders of magnitude better than 0%, I would have liked to have seen a higher number for dear old Duke :-)

[OldPhiKap]

"Maryland -- the N.C. State of the North"

[TheTrain]

Per the Baltimore Sun...all 10 players went on to play professionally

http://weblogs.baltimoresun.com/spor..._fat_zero.html

[Olympic Fan]

While I realize the NCAA calculation method may be at fault, the N&O ran an article today about graduation rates for area schools:
http://www.newsobserver.com/sports/story/725370.html

Unfortunately this link does not have the table that was in the paper, but Duke's graduation rate is 67% for men's basketball. Again, adjusted for early NBA defections, transfers, etc I am sure the number is much more Duke like, and while its hard to look at 67% not being orders of magnitude better than 0%, I would have liked to have seen a higher number for dear old Duke :-)

I was told that Duke's 67 percent grad rate was 10 of 15 players recruited in the period included in the study. Of the five who did not graduate at Duke, I believe two (Chappell and Burgess) transferred and graduated at their new schools and three went pro early (Brand, Avery, Maggette). I believe this also includes the Jason Williams, Boozer, Dunleavy class but even though three of those players left early for the NBA, I'm pretty sure that all three graduated within six years (actually, I think Jason and Carlos graduated after three years and one extra summer ... I think Mike took five years).

As for Maryland, they have a bigger long-term problem than the graduation rate. They are having big problems with the APR (the academic progress report) since the majority of their seniors over the last 2-3 years have dropped out of school without finishing their second semesters -- much less graduating. There's a very good chance they could end up with some major penalties.

[hurleyfor3]

"Maryland -- the N.C. State of the North"

More like the UNLV of the east. I mean, I'm usually impressed by a degree from NC State.

[4decadedukie]

Not unexpected and not "new" news, but clearly further confirmation of Williams' "Thug Ball" and attempted winning at any cost (to the players, to the University of Maryland and its wider reputation, and to the ACC). Do I remember correctly that NCAA-sanctioned loss of scholarships for substandard basketball graduation-rates begin in 2008?

[SilkyJ]

More like the UNLV of the east. I mean, I'm usually impressed by a degree from NC State.

oooh. I was gonna agree with phikap, but I like this one better.

SWEAT GARY SWEAT

[Jfrosh]

Here is the link for the NCAA rates (GSR) and the national rates which counts tranfers against your graduation.
For Duke
http://web1.ncaa.org/app_data/gsr2007/193.pdf

to find other schools go to :

http://www.ncaa.org/wps/portal

I want to know who didn't graduate from the fencing team

[mgtr]

I think comparing Maryland to UNLV is an insult to UNLV (hard as that may be to imagine). Maryland is more like a for-profit trade school.

[ivduke]

UNLV has been "clean" for several years since the Shark left. Of course, they also haven't been any good either, although Krueger seems to be getting positive results. Maryland has been and always will be "THUG U"

[Johnboy]

I just couldn't go on when I read this sentence from the linked article (Baltimore Sun blog post):
"It's no wonder no other school in the nation didn't have a zero percent graduation rate."

Is this writer a Maryland graduate?

[4decadedukie]

I just couldn't go on when I read this sentence from the linked article (Baltimore Sun blog post):
"It's no wonder no other school in the nation didn't have a zero percent graduation rate."

Is this writer a Maryland graduate?

English major.

[OldPhiKap]

I just couldn't go on when I read this sentence from the linked article (Baltimore Sun blog post):
"It's no wonder no other school in the nation didn't have a zero percent graduation rate."

Is this writer a Maryland graduate?

Is our children learning?

[hurleyfor3]

I just couldn't go on when I read this sentence from the linked article (Baltimore Sun blog post):
"It's no wonder no other school in the nation didn't have a zero percent graduation rate."

Is this writer a Maryland graduate?

What's that, a quadruple negative? There's a "no", another "no", a "didn't" and a "zero". So I parse this sentence as:

"It's a wonder at least one other school had a positive-real-number graduation rate."

Is that what [s]he means?

[snowdenscold]

What's that, a quadruple negative? There's a "no", another "no", a "didn't" and a "zero". So I parse this sentence as:

"It's a wonder at least one other school had a positive-real-number graduation rate."

Is that what [s]he means?

I believe so - but it sure made my head hurt when I read it. If it is the case - that's a pretty sad statement.

[OldPhiKap]

^ That sentence has more twists than a Triple Lindy.

[Duvall]

I just couldn't go on when I read this sentence from the linked article (Baltimore Sun blog post):
"It's no wonder no other school in the nation didn't have a zero percent graduation rate."

Ooh, she blog posts good.

The goofiness of the NCAA's approach to calculating graduation rates should not prevent us from referring to Maryland as Cincinnati on the Beltway.

[VaDukie]

How soon until Maryland fans bash us for being 'elitist' for 'showing off', being 'holier than thou', just because we 'graduate' our players?

[Biscuit King]

If you ignore the grammatical debacle, you have to admire the moxie of the writer (and Gary). Best I can tell, the essence of the article is:

"Sure, we don't even pretend to have a desire to uphold the academic goals of our institution. But we WON IT ALL, BABY! So there."

Hey, at least they're honest.