The transfers that happen every year, simply don't. Kyle Wiltjer and Ryan Harrow transferred last year, Wiltjer due to lack of playing time as Randle was coming in and he was behind Poythress already and Harrow due to family issues to be closer to them as his dad was ill.
Randle I might buy, but you had a logjam at guard and few would argue this guy just hadn't quite gotten it done at that point in his career. Wiltjer was actually a very solid offensive player (averaging double figures) and would have been a great compliment to the type of young talent they were bringing in. He was averaging 24 mins a game and shooting about 42% from the 3 pt line. He started out saying he was staying, but when Cal started getting even more 'yeses' than I think even he thought he would, Wiltjer magically had a change of heart and transferred out. When you look at the kind of kid he was and his style, I don't think Cal saw him as being in the same league as the newbies and suggested he was going to see his time drop.
In May 2012, UK had a team GPA of 3.12...now, having watched the HBO program talking about class selection for major college athletes, I have to wonder if any program, UK, NU, ND..etc. doesn't have what they described happening; it is on this month's Real Sports...watch it. Also, this from CoachCal.com(
http://www.coachcal.com/22175/2013/04/the-untold-story-at-kentucky/):
Of our 10 players who have been eligible to graduate by the end of their senior years, all 10 will have graduated after this weekend. For you math majors out there, that’s 100 percent. We’ve also had a 3.0 cumulative grade-point average over the last three years.
But please, none of us are there to see if ANY college athletes go to class, so it's hard to make statements that they don't.
There are a couple of glaring things you point out here that caught my attention. First is the GPA, and as you suggested, what classes being taken is going to have a pretty decided affect on that number, and if we take a look at the kids who are upperclassmen on the UK roster we 5 white guys who account for almost zero playing time, 2 of which graduated early, and 2 others on all academic lists. While talking to a buddy during the game when they showed a shot of the UK bench his comment was, 'must be the tutors', or something tasteless along those lines. When you have 5 guys popping out 4.0s it makes that curve a little more attractive. And that comment, 'Of our 10 players who have been eligible to graduate by the end of their senior years, all 10 will have graduated after this weekend'. That means guys who have actually stayed around, not been run off, or quit because of academic issues. It also includes guys like the 'no time on the court' walkons, who are included in that group of 10 players. Again, we can take 5 or 6 kids with pretty good grades, sprinkle in some basket weaving classes, and come up with a decent average gpa and graduation rate. I've always thought it would be interesting if people actually did a study on playing time vs. GPA.
The staff does not embrace tradition...really, tell that to the people in small towns that Coach Cal visits all season long...please look a little deeper, I think you will find there is more to Coach Cal and his program that what you read on all the hate sites. The Alumni games they have to raise money for charities, the players they invite back, the ENTIRE tradition they embrace, because JUST LIKE Nebraska, if you don't they will run you outta Lexington.
Make no doubt about their facilities are built to recruit, and to recruit the top level talent, and if you want to play at the next level, then you have a chance. But, look at Jon Hood, he was a 4 star, the #10 SF in the country, if you want to stay, you can, if it's all about you and playing time, then just like Nebraska football, you can transfer
Let's understand what we mean by tradition. I don't simply mean winning basketball games and slapping backs, I mean really getting into the feel of a university. Cal has never struck me as a guy who understands the south, the conservative south, that places like Lexington still embrace. Kentucky may not lead the country in educating brain surgeons, but like most high profile universities, it has an image of respectability in it's academics, and the embrace of the one and done philosophy in the program does not strike me as following the traditions of Rupp or Hall. I think you have to look at the coaches since Hall and feel a bit of panic in some of the hiring. Sutton came in and completely under performed and put the school on probation, so they pushed the panic button and pulled in someone as 'Un-Kentucky' as it gets in Pitino. He starts the ball rolling with the high profile recruits and fantastic results only to leave again for the NBA. After hiring Smith and Gillispie, neither were particularly popular with the fanbase, they again went after a guy who is considered by many in coaching circles as a guy who can bring in great talent and get them to coexist, but isn't a great X's and O's coach. Kentucky has facilities to recruit to, and it's not as if that's a violation, but if you look at how the basketball team lives and is treated, they are rockstars by comparison to the rest of the student body. It's a great setup to wow young kids who are looking for a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.
As for someone like Hood, he was Kentucky's Mr. Basketball. He was the golden boy of the state, but as happens with kids all the time, his game didn't translate to what Cal plays. He wasn't athletic enough, he blew a knee which wasn't going to help him. And when the conversation came that he may transfer, he decided to stay and finish up at UK. Cal wasn't politically stupid enough to try to run off the local golden boy.
Like I said, I hate the one and done rule, i miss developing a fondness for the Kyle Macy's, Jim Master's, or Goose Given's of my old UK teams. But the rule is what it is and it has worked well for UK.
And seriously, as much as people will say they don't, if their team was in 4 Elite 8's, 2 Final Fours, 2 Championship games, and won 1 championship since the coach arrived, as long as no violations had been committed...hard to say you wouldn't be happy...especially if it was our beloved football team we were talking about winning that frequently.
But everywhere teams win, there are stories about how they do it wrong...even about our beloved Huskers of the 1990's
All that said, grats to UCONN, I loved their energy, their story, their players, and their fans....wish my "Boys in blue" coulda won, but oh well
That attitude that 'if you had this much success you wouldn't complain about it', kind of goes along the lines of say an Urban Meyer, or Pete Carroll, or Jim Tressel, or Bob Stoops being the kind of guys we'd like to have coaching at Nebraska as long as they just brought us wins. Heck, we were suppose to be chatting with Steve Lavin several years ago about our basketball job and TO supposedly nixed it because of his questionable recruiting and graduation history. I don't think everyone is or should be comfortable with how a program is run simply because of wins. And considering the lack of control by the NCAA these days, I doubt they would do much if anything even if we find a lack of participation in the classrooms is a regular occurrence.
To me it's about their style. I'm not a fan. I was a fan of Georgetown back in the Ewing years, and then I talked to a guy who actually was in school at that time. He said they had an entirely different curriculum for the basketball team. Those guys rarely if ever were in regular Georgetown classes, which from what he described, are as challenging as any institution. He said what was popular with the students initially, became a point of resentment after a couple of years. I love the notion of guys still being student athletes. If the pros are in their future, great, but I still think we have too many kids getting fluffed by coaches, family and fans to the point they think they are a sure thing in the world of pro sports and that simply isn't the case. I think Cal sells the snake oil as well as anyone.
