Eric Bledsoe Becomes a Genius
D.A. | Sep 15, 2010 | Comments 6
The Kentucky basketball program continues to find itself in undesirable situations. First it was the revelation that Enes Kanter probably isn’t eligible as an amateur anymore and now we find out Eric Bledsoe isn’t really as smart as a sheet of paper says he is.
An in-depth report from The Birmingham News found that Bledsoe not only had a dramatic increase in his GPA by attending night school before college, but that he also aced Algebra 3 before he took Algebra 2.
Now that there’s some redneck math.
“That meant Bledsoe needed to jump from a 1.75 core GPA in almost three years at Hayes High School to a 2.475 by the end of his high school career at Parker.
Those would be two different schools and by golly, who would have guessed what the final result would be? A 2.5 core GPA allowing him to play NCAA basketball.
Do you know how easy it is to be qualified to play an NCAA sport? Remember taking the SAT? Yeah it sucked, but it wasn’t all that hard. According to the NCAA sliding scale that weights GPA vs ACT and SAT scores, even if you had a 2.5 GPA like Bledsoe, all you would need is an 820 on the S-A-freaking-T to qualify. And if you have a 3.5 or above – all you need is a 400 combined. That’s like writing your name, drooling on the test and having your saliva fill out the Scantron.
So what does this mean for the heralded 2011 SU recruiting class? Not a ton. But, there will most likely be implications for UK down the road.
Does this mean John Calipari did anything wrong? Not necessarily, but it sure sounds like strings were getting pulled behind the scenes somewhere. Maybe nobody is guilty of anything, but there are probably very few people who are innocent.
Perception is reality, no? So if you’re a potential one-and-done (Fab Melo?) recruit, are you going to choose the program with a fairly clean track record for the last two decades (Syracuse) or one that churns out NBA players but also find itself in plenty of hot messes and eligibility snafus (Kentucky)?
In this case, by just doing nothing and letting the competition screw themselves, the Per’Fesser wins again.
Posted: Mike Couzens
This may also have implications if (big if) the NCAA intends to investigate the Wildcats hoops program writ large. Maybe not now but at some time in the near future. Would sanctions or the whiff of one send top recruits elsewhere? No chance of competeting for a national championship would certainly affect even the one-and-done player. Would (impending) sanctions lead to transfers? Remember, Brandon Knight never signed a letter of commitment, but only gave a verbal. I’m not implying that ‘Cuse would stand to benefit from talent fleeing the HMS Titanic… uh, I mean Kentucky program. However, the recent sanctions on USC have led to top tier players walking away or not committing in the first place. This is something to keep an eye on for sure.
School with recruiting budget of UK should never have missed this. Someone in compliance simply looked the other way. Now they recruit Kanter – the only ‘amateur’ on a pro team (who’s parents end up with $250k). Cal will take this program over the same cliff USC drove over.
I don’t think Cal had anything to do with the actual changing of the grade but he might be involved in the negligence of the UK compliance department, and I really don’t believe that SU stands to benefit in anyway from anything that would happen to UK through this investigation, and Brandon Knight might not have signed a LOI but he is still currently enrolled in UK so even if he chose to leave he would have to sit out a year. Top players from all over the country will still continue to flock to Coach Cal because he runs a very player friendly system showcases individual talent very well. This is a story to watch though because it always seems like compliance departments at the school which Cal is at tend to “overlook” what would appear to be serious problems.
I agree, Lain. And that’s why I specifically stated that I am not implying ‘Cuse would stand to gain anything from this – but only that the situation (and the Vols program, to boot) does bare watching for a number of reasons. One can only hope the NCAA does not impose the Paris Hilton sentence on programs that habitually come up with these types of “issues” get off the hook with “community service”…
I’ve posted about this before, but it is my hope, however naive, that top tier talent would not only want to play for personal stats and the hopes of a lottery pick, but for a national championship, as well. Case in point, for all that LeBron James has amassed financially and what he has acheived in his career to date, the one thing missing is a title.
I know that I’m being naive, but I caveated it, at least…
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