GW - What is going on?

[cheeseman]

I just heard a ***** from Slaten about how GW got caught cheating by playing an ineligible player this year. He did not go into details since he must have talked about it earlier. What happened? - Steve? anybody?

[jjray]

Here is an article about the issue:

http://www.dailycolonial.com/go.dc?p=3&s=2395

Don't think anyone has determined the player to have been "ineligible" in the NCAA sense (at least not yet).

[cheeseman]

Thanks for the link but I still do not know anymore than before. What exactly is he suppose to have done or not done?

[jjray]

This is the Washington Post story that started the controversy:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...6030401384.html

[jjray]

For balance's sake, here is the official press release of GW in response to the article:

http://www.gwu.edu/~gradinfo/pressrelease.cfm?ann_id=21012

[cheeseman]

Jjray - thanks for the links- now I understand what is happening. I got to say this smells to high heaven. I guess so much for going to a league that has similar academic expectations. This sounds like something you would expect to see happening at Cincy or Louisville, or Memphis. Maybe it did at those places but the papers never blew the lid off of it. I am not sure what the A10 can do at this point if the NCAA Clearing House - major screw up - approved the kid. Although I guess you do have to wonder what kind of acceptance process GW has. You got to wonder where the other players ended up and is somebody doing a follow up on them. Gee Steve did anybody look at your transcript - sorry a cheap shot.

[guest]

This wa sent to the studentd

This statement may be attributed to Tracy Schario, spokesperson for The George

Washington University

Senior Omar Williams and sophomore Maureece Rice were recruited by GW Men's

Basketball Coach Karl Hobbs in accordance with NCAA rules. The applications of

both of these young men to the University were vetted by the NCAA Clearing House

(Williams in 2002, Rice in 2004). Both students met the academic standards

independently set by the NCAA to obtain initial athletic eligibility for

Division I competition. As a result, both were eligible for consideration for

admission as recruited student-athletes to The George Washington University.

While the NCAA more recently began a review of its procedures regarding how the

Clearing House manages its oversight responsibilities, this should not tarnish

the good reputations of these two young men, nor should it reflect negatively on

Coach Hobbs, the GW Men's Basketball program or the University.

Both Williams and Rice are successful student-athletes at GW, and the University

is proud of their achievements. Williams has made the Dean's List and is

scheduled to graduate this May. In fact, four seniors on the team are expected

to graduate in May. Rice, a second semester sophomore, has made satisfactory

academic progress and will have completed half the requirements for his

sociology major by the end of the current semester.

"I have great confidence in Coach Hobbs and the University's admissions policies

for student-athletes," said GW President Stephen Joel Trachtenberg. "I trust

Coach Hobbs to make recruiting decisions that not only meet NCAA guidelines, but

also bring student-athletes to the University who display good citizenship,

character, motivation to succeed in the classroom and who help build a quality

team that fosters loyalty to and pride in the University. He is a teacher/coach.

I would have been honored to have had my two sons under his leadership."

"Success invites scrutiny, but a sense of fairness based upon the facts

surrounding eligibility and academic progress must ultimately prevail," added GW

Senior Vice President for Student and Academic Support Services Dr. Robert A.

Chernak. "This may be a legitimate issue nationally, and I applaud the NCAA for

researching appropriate remedies. But these two young men represent success

stories, not problems. We are all immensely proud of Coach Hobbs, this program

and these two members of our highly successful basketball team."

As Coach Karl Hobbs has said, "Part of my responsibility as a coach is to offer

opportunities to young people who have a burning desire to graduate and the

character and desire to want to succeed. I saw those qualities in these two

young men. Their individual achievements in the classroom and on the court have

only served to reinforce my confidence in them."

(This message has been sent in accordance with The George Washington University

mass e-mail policy and procedure. This procedure is available online at

http://my.gwu.edu/files/policies/GWMailPolicyFINAL.pdf for review. This message

was requested by the Office of University Relations and was approved by the Vice

President for Communications)

[Cowboy]

-if i read this article right, so the ncaa sets up the clearinghouse (for some reason i think it is located in iowa, insert your own line) to approve student-athletes and has no guidelines, much less rules, by which this approval process takes place, but the clearinghouse gets $50 for every s-a that applies (which is roughly only $175k for fball and men's bball)???

-and the clearinghouse doesn't even check to see if a school really exists??

-you can handwrite your act score onto the clearinghouse app with no attached verification?? wow, i gotta 36, see, i wrote it down, it must be correct!!!!

-is the act score still combined with core curriculm to determine eligibility or was that prop 48 and is that still around??

-now the other side of the coin, it appears these two s-a are making at the very least, and it appears much more than satisfactory, academic progress at gw (insert your own line)

-but where do you recruit these kids (not to sound like metz here)if there is not a school building much less a gym???

-does slu have a similar interview process as gw as described in the article???

-this does not make the ncaa look good at all, imo

-great article by the wash post, imo

[Sheltiedave]

Omar attended high school for five years, and then three prep schools over another two years, did not graduate, AND was approved by the NCAA clearinghouse to play.

I think it is great he is on schedule to graduate from GW in good standing. I also wonder WTF is up with the clearinghouse, which to me appears to be a total sham. I also find it interesting that Hobbs never once sought to talk with ANY of Omar's teachers from any program.

[cheeseman]

I have had some experience with the NCAA Clearing House for schools in the past. The school or district has to send in a course listing and descriptions of any new classes not previously approved so when students apply to the Clearing House it can be checked against the approved list and the GPA verified. What the newspaper article said was that the Clearing House does not verify if what the school sends in is accurate or not. From my experience, and I have only been associated with bonafide schools or districts, the Clearing House never questioned us so I never gave it a thought. The key here is that GW apparently only relied on the NCAA Clearing House approval and not their own admission standards. This is where they screwed up - Hobbs will be off the short list at other places now. He will survive at GW if they do not go on probation since GW did not have acceptance process that caught this themselves.

[Cowboy]

thanks, i forgot about the kid being 24 and still playing college bball and no flags being raised

-if this was the nfl he would have been draft eligilbe before he ever played a game at gw

[Taj79]

This sounds surprisingly similar to the NY Times article recently posted on similar basketball-athlete-producing prep schools. This is probably the draw down by the Post after being scooped by the Times.

We hav eheard this many times before ... about the NCAA Clearinghouse and how you have to be approved by them before you get clearance to play Divison 1 athletics. I used to think that was good ... now, I'm not so sure based on what I read here.

The question is do you knock the kid? In the Williams' case, at first blush, I said no because he was making progress and is scheduled to graduate in May. Whatever that means. Things can screw up from here. Same thing too witht he Rice kid. And sociology? Didn't we do that battle with some of the crap that the Dukies were doing with guys like Jason Williams and Carlos Boozer? I used to think progress and getting a degree were great ... but then there was that kid in Chicago who went to some school, graduated with adegree, but couldn't get a job because he was illiterate ... could not read or write???? How can one graduate if one can't do those things.

Makes you wonder. Seems to add more credence to the belief that someof these kids and schools are nothing more than shams. Make me think back to the Word Of God or whatever academy Randy Pulley was going to. Schools like Oak Hill are real; they were not put there to beat the system. I followed Carmelo Anthony out of Baltimore ... he worked his academic tail off. So too might have Tommy. But if kids can't graduate from a high school after five years and then do three prep schools in two years as well .... well, there will be folks that figure out how to beat that system as well.

And when you're a coach in a Must Win situation, what are you going to do? Most likely, you take the athlete and mold him once you get him. Hobbs was at UConn, was he not? Had to learn it somewhere. Can you say Charlie Villaneuva? There's probably hundreds like Williams out there.

The Post did not like getting scooped in their own backyard by the Times. Ethical? Ethics are a hard to find commodity nowadays.