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Saadiq Mohammed ESPN Article


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Wow, so SLU provided that info and the ESPN writer didn't share. That's horrible. And I take back most of my criticisms of SLU 

Given this development, the next wave of emails should go to the author...

Edit: Thinking about this a little more, what narrative purpose does it serve not to say that he had the option to stay at SLU, and that they helped him along in his case? His journey was already harrowing enough. If anything, saying that SLU was helpful and that he's working in Kalish's camps this summer is a nice little button on that chapter, even if transferring may not have been what he wanted to do at the time. Maybe his hosts really do have some axe to grind, for some reason. Maybe someone at SLU pissed them off somewhere along the way and they didn't portray SLU's actions honestly. Regardless, the writer has to clean that up before publishing this. Bummer.

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1 hour ago, brianstl said:

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

Insert my oh no not espn shocked face 

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16 hours ago, rgbilliken said:

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. 

 

 

Clearly you give much more to SLU than I do. Kuddos.  

The response my email got was, “Sorry you didn’t like the article.”

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14 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 have to believe that isn't allowed. Otherwise, teams would find whatever academic or otherwise non-athletic scholarships they could, give them to soccer players and then not have to use up a portion of the 10 athletic scholarships they were allowed.

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Kshoe, I know three soccer players over the last thirty years who were full academic schollies, and played on the team at D1. One of my friends at work has a son doing this at Fontbonne, albeit D2.

i don’t know if the NCAA still has a preferred walk-on category, but when they allowed that for basketball in the past, it allowed the walk on to eat at the training table in season.

Reading the article again, the three main salient points that hit home are the status of Saadiq’s citizenship status, his not knowing the complete status of a schollie in May of his sophomore year at SLU, and Kalish seemingly indicating a disinterest in his return to the soccer team for his junior season.

in many situations like this one, a reporter is on a tight deadline and must provide a story within a five to ten day turnaround. SLU is famous in media circles for deploying a circle the wagons strategy, developing a a single statement, and releasing it to the reporter a couple weeks down the road.

contrast how Kalish inadvertently/situationally is painted here with how Travis Ford and his wife were exemplified, when they reached out and supported the OKST basketball player who served time and came back to the team.

Sometimes total support becomes meaningful, validated, and creates a richly rewarding environment. Case in point is how DJ Foreman and TI both provided critical play to get us to the big dance last year. A solid majority of fans had given up on both during last season, but not their coach. This creates a lot of goodwill, and that goodwill is money in the bank when recruiting players in the future.

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20 minutes ago, Sheltiedave said:

Kshoe, I know three soccer players over the last thirty years who were full academic schollies, and played on the team at D1. One of my friends at work has a son doing this at Fontbonne, albeit D2.

i don’t know if the NCAA still has a preferred walk-on category, but when they allowed that for basketball in the past, it allowed the walk on to eat at the training table in season.

But I doubt his was academic.  SLU has eligibility requirements for their full academic scholarship which since he got a 23 on the ACT, he didn't meet but I am guessing in the examples you know of the kids met the requirements.  I can't imagine SLU can just offer full academic scholarships to kids that play soccer that don't meet the minimum eligibility to earn it.  So SLU probably just offered him a full scholarship another way due to his situation which could be why it took so long to respond to him after Kalish was hired, maybe SLU was checking with the NCAA if he could still play with that scholarship.  We don't have all the details so I don't like assuming Kalish did something wrong, especially when Saadiq is on campus with him this summer.  

Usually what I assume, if there is a decision to be made for a student athlete for the right thing to do for them as a person, the NCAA will do the opposite.  

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On 6/26/2019 at 12:48 PM, Pistol said:

It's pretty clear to me it was a matter of the coach trying to make things uncomfortable enough for him to transfer:

The university fired its soccer coach, Mike McGinty, in the fall of 2017, after Saadiq's sophomore season, and tapped Kevin Kalish, a former All-American for the Billikens, to take over in January 2018. Saadiq's relationship with the team frayed quickly from there. In February: the first indications the school did not intend to follow through on its pledge to make Saadiq's partial scholarship a full one, one that included books, meals and on-campus housing. In April: the first confusion over whether SLU might just not offer Saadiq scholarship money, period. In May: a letter sent by an attorney on Saadiq's behalf, asking the school to honor its promise of a full scholarship and, absent that, a formal request for a hearing. The notice, which gave SLU until the end of the month to respond, was met with silence.

There were other red flags along the way, small issues that added up to one big issue: Saadiq did not feel welcome at SLU anymore. He fielded concerns from Kalish, who said he felt Saadiq seemed overwhelmed; he showed up to follow-up meetings where the coach suggested that Saadiq might benefit from a school with less rigorous academics. He listened to asides from Kalish in practice about Saadiq's hairstyle, Jessica says, comments Saadiq internalized as disapproval.

They talk about meeting with the AD and writing letters to the president, but the issue here is clearly with Kalish. If a coach doesn't want a player, the AD isn't going to overrule him. I guess the president could've replied to those letters - which I'm sure talked about his unique situation - but I'm not sure how his office vets correspondence regarding individual student matters. And if he contacted the AD or HC about the matter, they'd have said that it's in his best interest to move on.

If there were any justice in the world, they wouldn't have shoved him out the door and even if the HC wasn't going to play him anymore, the school could've found a way to keep this kid enrolled and safe. And the HC could've been even just a little sensitive about this kid's unique situation instead of refusing to communicate major details like his scholarship, and making fun of him in the process.

Justice would be for America to take care of its own and not every worldwide charity case. 

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8 hours ago, Clock_Tower said:

Yes. Which passage is it in which Jesus says to use other people’s money to remedy things?   Not a dime out of your wallet but very generous and moral with other people’s money. Typical 

I’m pretty sure he wouldn’t approve of families being separated and put in cages so a group of hayseeds can feel good about themselves.

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1 hour ago, Brighton said:

I’m pretty sure he wouldn’t approve of families being separated and put in cages so a group of hayseeds can feel good about themselves.

Two comments in return:

1.  Of course Jesus would not.  But please don't blame the Obama administration and all those photos you see.  Learn the facts and stop showing your ignorance.  Or as Mark Twain (another hayseed from the great flyover) said, and I paraphrase, when the rest of us are unsure how dumb you are, keep your posts limited so as to not remove all doubt.

2.  Please obey Steve's command:  keep the politics out of this Board

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