If Approved, NCAA Plan Would Keep UConn Out Of March Madness

[PrivateO]

The NCAA is aiming to implement stricter academic standards, the final touches of the plan to be voted upon this week.

But NCAA President Mark Emmert dropped a bit of a bombshell in Washington on Monday, telling the Knight Commission on Interscholastic Athletics of a proposal that, if approved, would render UConn ineligible for the NCAA Tournament next March.

According to USA Today, Emmert said the NCAA Board of Directors will vote Friday on a plan to bar schools from the next tournament if their Academic Progress Rate is below 900. UConn's APR last spring was 893, and even though school officials say there was significant improvement since then, there would be no way for UConn to get to 900 for this year.

http://www.courant.com/sports/uconn-...,3034043.story

[Birds of B'more]

My God, the NCAA won't be happy until they have completely ruined college sports.

[BaltimoreTerp]

Anything that hurts UConn basketball is good for the universe.

[crissfan172]

My God, the NCAA won't be happy until they have completely ruined college sports.

You go to college to get an education. Sports are secondary.

[OFFNY]

You go to college to get an education. Sports are secondary.

Absolutely. Unfortunately, the reality is that it's essentially the other way around at most big-time college football and big-time college basketball schools when it comes to their student-athletes.

[O's are Legends]

UConn may not make the tournament anymore. They look awful. Serves them right for having such an awful OOC schedule.

I understand playing in the Big East can be brutal and all but goodness, schedule a few meaningful OOC games. Other than Harvard they didn’t schedule anyone. Florida State was a neutral site tournament game.

On a side note Cincinnati did the same thing. It seems to be their MO. Other than the crosstown shootout nobody on the OOC. Have no clue why some programs do this, wish more teams would load up like MState, Gonzaga, Xavier, LB State etc.

[PrivateO]

UConn may not make the tournament anymore. They look awful. Serves them right for having such an awful OOC schedule.

I understand playing in the Big East can be brutal and all but goodness, schedule a few meaningful OOC games. Other than Harvard they didn’t schedule anyone. Florida State was a neutral site tournament game.

On a side note Cincinnati did the same thing. It seems to be their MO. Other than the crosstown shootout nobody on the OOC. Have no clue why some programs do this, wish more teams would load up like MState, Gonzaga, Xavier, LB State etc.

They lost to the Blue Hoes of Presbyterian earlier in the year. This was not an exhibition. (Funny story: that night, I was at Outback Steakhouse with a few friends and we saw their team there. Congratulated on what is probably the school's biggest win ever.)

Honestly, I think most Big 6 schools schedule crappy OOC games, most notably teams of the Big East, like you mentioned. They don't want to play a home-and-home series with, say a Xavier or Memphis, because they know they have the possibility of losing to those teams and then having to face them at their court the following year. The problem is, like you mentioned in UC and UConn's cases this year, if you play below-average ball in conference play, you have no good OOC wins to back you up.

[CT203]

UConn may not make the tournament anymore. They look awful. Serves them right for having such an awful OOC schedule.

I understand playing in the Big East can be brutal and all but goodness, schedule a few meaningful OOC games. Other than Harvard they didn?t schedule anyone. Florida State was a neutral site tournament game.

On a side note Cincinnati did the same thing. It seems to be their MO. Other than the crosstown shootout nobody on the OOC. Have no clue why some programs do this, wish more teams would load up like MState, Gonzaga, Xavier, LB State etc.

UConn does look awful but that is more to do with chemistry issues. Boatright has been suspended by the NCAA twice because of a jealous boyfriend feeding the NCAA information to get back at the Boatright family. Fact is that just about any top 200 recruit who has played AAU ball has received impermissible benefits (one way or another). Boatright is their only other ball handler.

Oriakhi has been a complete disappointment this year and its probably due to confidence and having his time taken by Drummond. Shabazz does not have the respect of his teammates because he babied an ankle injury and didnt practice hard for a couple weeks because of his "injury" and Calhoun even called him out in the papers for that.

They have not had the continuity but they have the talent on the roster to beat any team.


And their OOC schedule was pretty much set last year. They played Tennessee since they signed a contract for a home and home and this was the last year of that. They are obligated to play so many games against in state schools and around the new england area. Calhoun wasn't sure how the team would respond from losing Kemba so he wanted to give them a somewhat easy early schedule to build confidence and mesh that is why he turned down an invite to a better tourney and chose Atlantis. Also the teams they played from the small conferences are teams picked to win their conference or finish in the top 3.

UConn has played name schools in the past years from OOC. And they aren't afraid to play away either, like Duke. Had a home and home with Gonzaga (before Tennessee with games being played in Seattle and Boston). Played Kentucky the 2 previous years. Had a home and home with Indiana, albeit the contract for that was signed before Sampson buried the program and they ended up catching Indiana when they were down. About 5 years ago they had a home and home with UNC and I am pretty sure they played at Gtech sometime in the past 6 years.