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Saadiq Mohammed ESPN Article


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37 minutes ago, brianstl said:

Again, we are only getting one side of the story here.  We don't know what his academic standing was beside the fact he was eligible. We don't know if there were any disciplinary issues.  We don't know if the kid was missing practices or workouts.  We don't know that and to be honest the couple housing him doesn't know that either because that is not information SLU can share with them legally.   SLU can't share that information legally with the media.  SLU could have been keeping him in school as long as they did so he could transfer to another school without the stain of having been dismissed from the team at SLU. 

Or, SLU could have been the devil here and been determined to get as much bad press as possible with a kid that they knew had multiple connections with the media.

My guess is that the truth is probably somewhere in the middle and that Saddiq hasn't been completely open with the people who took him in.  People he desperately doesn't want to disappoint.

You're giving SLU a lot of credit here without any evidence. If he had academic issues, why would he have been immediately eligible at Bradley? How would it have been a disciplinary issue with a new coach? It seems like any issue that he would've hidden would've been out of shame (like the meal card) or misunderstanding (like a paperwork issue).

I just don't see any reason not to believe him. Kalish gave one quote and it's pretty weak and based on a lie.

If the truth lies in the middle, I'm thinking it's still way, way over on Saadiq's side of the middle.

Is SLU really legally prohibited from giving a statement to the media? I'm not so sure if that's true. I think they just avoid it because they don't want to go on record. We often see statements from schools if a player leaves for "violation of team rules" or something like that.

This really just looks like a case of a coach not wanting a player, not having the courage to be straight with him, and no one at the school stepping up to make sure he had the resources he needed for a smooth transfer because of the potential consequences if a vulnerable kid like this got lost in the bureaucratic shuffle.

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5 minutes ago, Pistol said:

You're giving SLU a lot of credit here without any evidence. If he had academic issues, why would he have been immediately eligible at Bradley? How would it have been a disciplinary issue with a new coach? It seems like any issue that he would've hidden would've been out of shame (like the meal card) or misunderstanding (like a paperwork issue).

I just don't see any reason not to believe him. Kalish gave one quote and it's pretty weak and based on a lie.

If the truth lies in the middle, I'm thinking it's still way, way over on Saadiq's side of the middle.

Is SLU really legally prohibited from giving a statement to the media? I'm not so sure if that's true. I think they just avoid it because they don't want to go on record. We often see statements from schools if a player leaves for "violation of team rules" or something like that.

This really just looks like a case of a coach not wanting a player, not having the courage to be straight with him, and no one at the school stepping up to make sure he had the resources he needed for a smooth transfer because of the potential consequences if a vulnerable kid like this got lost in the bureaucratic shuffle.

FERPA makes it illegal for any college or university to release any information regarding a student's academic or disciplinary record without prior consent from the student.

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9 minutes ago, brianstl said:

FERPA makes it illegal for any college or university to release any information regarding a student's academic or disciplinary record without prior consent from the student.

Still - do you see any smoke here whatsoever?

I just find it hard to believe that a kid in his position would rock the boat by missing meetings or classes or getting in trouble. Like the article says, there are no federal loans or financial aid for those seeking asylum. As a kid in a precarious position staying with a host family, it's not like he's sitting there thinking about what programs he wants to transfer to or what other schools might be cool. He's going to play it as safe as possible.

Plus, we've seen SLU be silent on these things before, right? Why do they deserve the benefit of the doubt now, especially when it seems so unlikely this kid would be hiding something?

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1 hour ago, brianstl said:

Again, we are only getting one side of the story here.  We don't know what his academic standing was beside the fact he was eligible. We don't know if there were any disciplinary issues.  We don't know if the kid was missing practices or workouts.  We don't know that and to be honest the couple housing him doesn't know that either because that is not information SLU can share with them legally.   SLU can't share that information legally with the media.  SLU could have been keeping him in school as long as they did so he could transfer to another school without the stain of having been dismissed from the team at SLU. 

Or, SLU could have been the devil here and been determined to get as much bad press as possible with a kid that they knew had multiple connections with the media.

 

My guess is that the truth is probably somewhere in the middle and that Saddiq hasn't been completely open with the people who took him in.  People he desperately doesn't want to disappoint.

Ok fine but if the team is going to drop him and the school is going to pull a scholarship offer then do it.  Do it and inform the kid and his family as soon as the decision is final.  No need to be coy about it.

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17 minutes ago, Pistol said:

Still - do you see any smoke here whatsoever?

I just find it hard to believe that a kid in his position would rock the boat by missing meetings or classes or getting in trouble. Like the article says, there are no federal loans or financial aid for those seeking asylum. As a kid in a precarious position staying with a host family, it's not like he's sitting there thinking about what programs he wants to transfer to or what other schools might be cool. He's going to play it as safe as possible.

Plus, we've seen SLU be silent on these things before, right? Why do they deserve the benefit of the doubt now, especially when it seems so unlikely this kid would be hiding something?

Saint Louis University deserves absolutely no benefit of any doubt whatsoever, especially when the athletic department is involved. The clown show of Situation 1 and the almost as ham-handed handling of S2 lead me to the conclusion that if there's a way to screw up, this school will do it.

Being a Billiken fan is quite a bit different than being a fan of Saint Louis University.

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4 minutes ago, TheChosenOne said:

That's an interesting plot twist.

Agree.  There is more to the story.  I think the writer of the story took advantage of the situation and created a very one sided account for purposes of an article that got clicks.  If he is participating with the team and coaches at camps, it shows that the situation is not as depicted in the article, IMO.

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3 minutes ago, cgeldmacher said:

Agree.  There is more to the story.  I think the writer of the story took advantage of the situation and created a very one sided account for purposes of an article that got clicks.  If he is participating with the team and coaches at camps, it shows that the situation is not as depicted in the article, IMO.

Sh!t. I wouldn’t be surprised if Saddiq and US family weren’t aware of the spin of the article.

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2 minutes ago, billikenfan05 said:

Sh!t. I wouldn’t be surprised if Saddiq and US family weren’t aware of the spin of the article.

You mean the "spin" resulting from their direct quotes, and the story they and Saadiq shared?

Yes, they're aware of it:

 

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Take this for what it's worth, but I received this reply from Chris May to an email I sent to Dr. Pestello's office. My original email basically just said I was disappointed in what I had read, and would like further clarification on the way Saadiq was treated by SLU and the AD. 

 

Quote

 

I am responding to your email to Dr. Fred Pestello, President of Saint Louis University, referring to a recent ESPN article detailing Saadiq Mohammed's journey. Thank you for your email and for your pride in being a daughter of Saint Louis University.

Stories always portray situations in many ways, sometimes not completely accurate because some facts may not be in the best interest of the vision for the story. As you mention in your email of concern,  SLU was not welcoming to  Saadiq and "SLU did not do the bare minimum." Your assertion is concerning and not accurate from my perspective. I can understand how you came to your conclusion based upon the story, but I would like to share some further information for you that may shed more light on the issue.

SLU and the athletic program worked diligently to help Saadiq gain the opportunity to attend a University in the U.S. and compete at the NCAA Division 1 level. SLU spent a year pursuing the case for Saadiq with the NCAA. As referred to in the story, SLU went through a coaching change in men's soccer during Saadiq's sophomore year. SLU offered to continue the generous offer of a full tuition scholarship for Saadiq to stay at SLU. As you know, this is a very substantial scholarship that not many SLU students are fortunate enough to enjoy. The offer would have allowed Saadiq to earn a degree from SLU.  Saadiq declined the offer, and went to Bradley where SLU helped Saadiq transfer to. Lastly, Saadiq is working the SLU summer soccer camps this summer for Coach Kevin Kalish. These things don't happen when you are not working with people and welcoming them to your community. 

I share the above with you so as to give you some more information that the ESPN writer was provided, but decided to not share. We at SLU continue to support Saadiq and wish him the very best. 

In summary, please consider the other side of the story before making a full decision on how SLU treats students. We in the athletic department work diligently at serving students daily in their pursuit of a world class education, competing in NCAA Division 1 sports, and building community. We do this with a foundation of gratitude and the values of trust, a commitment to excellence, and caring for people. We work hard to serve students and the community. We aren't perfect, but we are very proud of how we support students. 

In conclusion, thank you. I can't thank you enough for caring about SLU and being a proud member of the SLU community. We will do our best to make you proud of our University. 

Warmest regards-Chris

 

 

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Thanks for sharing.  So it sounds like they offered him a full scholarship that just wasn't athletic?  Maybe he couldn't have played soccer then because of concern of NCAA trouble if a kid went from having a scholarship to not but still getting a full ride?  Just trying to make sense of why he would leave.  

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4 minutes ago, Bills_06 said:

Thanks for sharing.  So it sounds like they offered him a full scholarship that just wasn't athletic?  Maybe he couldn't have played soccer then because of concern of NCAA trouble if a kid went from having a scholarship to not but still getting a full ride?  Just trying to make sense of why he would leave.  

Yeah, my takeaway from that was that he wouldn't be able to play if he accepted the scholarship, so he chose to go somewhere he could continue to play.

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12 minutes ago, TheChosenOne said:

Thanks for passing along #narratives.

I just posted the response I was given and gave the source of the response. Each person on this board is an adult and more than capable of understanding that Chris May's job is to spin things to look good for SLU. Several people have said that the truth is probably somewhere in between. Now at least we have two sides and people can decide what to believe, whether it's ESPN, the SLU AD, or something in between. Personally I don't care what people choose. But I'm a scientist and I like having all of the data. Thought other people might, too.

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What May said makes sense and I can't believe he'd BS for the sake of BSing. The most similar thing I can think of would be the Femi John scenario. Femi "retired" from basketball but maintained a full ride offered by the University. He couldn't play basketball anymore, but was able to stay and get a degree. Saadiq could have done the same thing, sans injury and any sort of NCAA rule around that, but would not have been able to play soccer. I know the guy probably loves soccer, but not sure why he wouldn't have stuck around for a full ride and played club soccer. 

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37 minutes ago, JMM28 said:

What May said makes sense and I can't believe he'd BS for the sake of BSing. The most similar thing I can think of would be the Femi John scenario. Femi "retired" from basketball but maintained a full ride offered by the University. He couldn't play basketball anymore, but was able to stay and get a degree. Saadiq could have done the same thing, sans injury and any sort of NCAA rule around that, but would not have been able to play soccer. I know the guy probably loves soccer, but not sure why he wouldn't have stuck around for a full ride and played club soccer. 

Dude BS’s and this doesn’t really have his BS sound to it. Again I always roll with the truth in middle. 

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On 6/26/2019 at 1:13 PM, Speyburn said:

 

The crux of the matter is when Saadiq was offered a free ride, how it was communicated, and whether Kalish extended him a slot as a preferred walk-on, if soccer has a setup similar to D1 basketball.

IIRC, Saadiq scored three game winners one of his two years, so he  had a certain value within a system that could cover his shortcomings on the field. 

The sad part of the situation is Saadiq has a desperate need to have competitive soccer as a significant part of his college life. If Kalish did not go out of his way to help assure him that Saadiq was in line for a humanitarian full ride, and was awarded one, and he would be a member of the soccer team as a preferred walk on, then he needs to recalibrate the balance between the team mission and the University mission for exceptional cases like this.

as it is, no matter the truth and the timeline, SLU has managed to again capture a couple million $$$ in negative publicity. 

I am glad that Bradley stepped up, and Saadiq will graduate with a degree, and again be a member of the soccer team. He needs to catch more than a few breaks to help with his lifelong healing.

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2 hours ago, Sheltiedave said:

The crux of the matter is when Saadiq was offered a free ride, how it was communicated, and whether Kalish extended him a slot as a preferred walk-on, if soccer has a setup similar to D1 basketball.

IIRC, Saadiq scored three game winners one of his two years, so he  had a certain value within a system that could cover his shortcomings on the field. 

The sad part of the situation is Saadiq has a desperate need to have competitive soccer as a significant part of his college life. If Kalish did not go out of his way to help assure him that Saadiq was in line for a humanitarian full ride, and was awarded one, and he would be a member of the soccer team as a preferred walk on, then he needs to recalibrate the balance between the team mission and the University mission for exceptional cases like this.

as it is, no matter the truth and the timeline, SLU has managed to again capture a couple million $$$ in negative publicity. 

I am glad that Bradley stepped up, and Saadiq will graduate with a degree, and again be a member of the soccer team. He needs to catch more than a few breaks to help with his lifelong healing.

I just read the article again to make sure, but Saadiq doesn’t say one bad thing about how SLU handled his situation.  It is implied by the writer and Jessica.  The fact that Saadiq is working at the soccer camp would make it appear that the writer and Jessica might be trying to create an issue where one didn’t exist.  

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