- Connecticut bumped up its APR score to 978 for 2010-11 season, but as we all know it was too late for the Huskies as they along with nine other schools have been banned from the 2013 NCAA Tournament. The Huskies, who are by far the most high-profile team to be banned, were brought down by scores of 909, 844 and 826 between 2007 and 2010. None of this is news to any of us, but what is interesting is how the NCAA is claiming that its academic reforms are a success based on a rise in APR scores in men’s basketball, football, and baseball. While this shows that schools are doing a better job at achieving higher scores it does not prove that they are doing a better job at producing individuals who can contribute to society. In fact, their use of APR to measure the success of academic reform and impact on the lives of student-athletes reminds us of the classic management article “On the folly of rewarding A, while hoping for B”.
- With the ridiculousness of conference realignment one of the voices we have not heard enough from is the commissioners of the conferences particularly the smaller more vulnerable conferences. Siena Saints Blog was able to secure an interview with Rich Ensor, the MAAC Commissioner, and asked him some questions about the impact of realignment, his conference’s future, and their role in the college basketball landscape. Ensor does not deliver any shocking revelations, but he does appear to answer the questions in an honest, straightforward manner, which is more than we can say for many of the other individuals involved in similar situations.
- The new NCAA rules allowing increased contact between coaching staffs and recruits was supposed to foster an era of more openness while also decreasing the chances of infractions being committed although to some it would be like saying that speeding violations would decrease if you would just raise the speed limit. One family that has not bought into the idea of having more contact with colleges is the family of Jabari Parker, the #1 recruit in America. Parker’s family, whose protective strategies we have detailed here before, is not even giving out Parker’s number to colleges as the colleges have to go through the family before they can talk to the star recruit.
- The 2012 NBA Draft is just one week away and while most people are looking forward to the upcoming Draft, Matt Norlander is looking back at the last decade’s worth of Drafts. Going through the 117 schools that have had players drafted during the time he notices some rather distinctive trends for certain schools and conferences. The blue bloods continue to churn out multimillionaires, but the numbers for the various conferences and some schools in particular may surprise you.
- We have not commented on the Under 18 basketball team competing in 2012 FIBA Americas U18 Championship mostly because they have been so dominant, but after winning the final by a score of 81-56 over Brazil it is time to recognize their play. Composed of many of the top incoming college freshmen next year, but missing the consensus top two players in the class, Team USA dominated its opposition and improved its record to 43-2 all-time in the tournament. We don’t think you should make too much of this because from what we have heard the opposition was not that good (sorry, we are not experts on teenage basketball in Central and South America) and frankly this group of incoming freshmen is not supposed to be as talented as last year’s group so although this does not signal a return of the dominance of US basketball at the grassroots level it is a nice accomplishment for the group.