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Coach K has guys on his bench who could have deep tournament runs if they played for other teams and he probably turns away guys who could be stars on other teams. Lute Olson always goes out and gets good players but nobody out recruits Coach K. At UCLA they're still trying to replace John Wooden and Duke will have that same problem if and when Coach K hangs it up. When Maryland beat Duke in the ACC tournament I thought that was nice but BFD Duke will be around longer in the tournament than the Terps.

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There's Nothing Sweet About These Stats

Six of the last 16 basketball teams in tournament had graduation rates below 50%.

COMMENTARY

By Fred Droz

The Sweet 16 games of the National Collegiate Athletic Assn.'s March Madness tournament were played this week. It is a wonderful time to watch the skills and efforts of college athletes. It really is March Madness because you never know what will happen. Top teams get beaten.

Mostly, it is a time to watch our nation's best young basketball amateurs play to their heart's best.

It is also the best time of the year for me in watching sports. Like millions of other Americans, I immerse myself into this phenomenon. It is college athletics at its best.

But, there is a dirty little secret to all this. Actually, it isn't much of a secret. The graduation rates of NCAA athletes are atrocious.

Check out the graduation rates of the basketball players from the schools going into the Sweet 16. Six of the teams in the men's tournament had rates below 50%.

The high is Duke at 67%. The lowest is Georgia Tech at 27%. (Stanford graduates 100%, but it was eliminated and didn't make the regional finals.)

Here is an even better illustration of the problem. In 2002, Hawaii, McNeese State and Oklahoma graduated zero athletes. Yes, zero, nada, 0%. Yet, these three schools qualified for the first round of 64 finalists.

So what? It's just a bunch of kids who play sports. Well, I think there is a lot of "what" in this issue.

A lot of folks believe that the top college athletes move on to become professional athletes. Unfortunately, the statistics do not bear this out. Basically, fewer than 1% of NCAA athletes become professional athletes each year. Let's cut to the heart of the issue. Of the 64 schools that made the NCAA basketball tournament, only 25 have graduation rates above 50%. That means that 60% of these schools are graduating between 0% and 49% of their athletes.

"So what" raises its ugly head again. Though these schools take in millions of dollars from ticket sales and commissions, the athletes — the performers, the income generators — are left with nothing. They don't graduate with a degree. They don't get a contract with a professional athletic team. Their jerseys are not retired.

The NCAA is expected next month to pass regulations that would reward schools with high graduation rates and penalize those with low rates. This is a start. But the issue isn't just about basketball. Check out the graduation rates of schools in the other income-generating sports: http://chronicle.com/stats/ncaa/.

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Do we, as viewers and supporters, have any responsibility for any of this? Maybe. Probably.

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i have a real problem with how the ncaa calculates graduation rates.

they only look at incoming freshan and only look at the end of 6 years.

i know the university of cincinnati has taken alot of shit for a 0 graduation rate a couple of years ago, but that particular year they only had 1 freshman and he transferred to a different school, so their graduation rate was 0.

junior college transfers do not count even if they graduate on time.

if a kid transfers to another school, they count against the school he transferred from and they do not count for the school that he transfers to.

if a kid leaves early to make millions in the nba - he counts against a school's graduation rates.

if a kid comes back to school after the 6 years is up - he does not count.

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Check out the graduation rates of schools in the other income-generating sports: http://chronicle.com/stats/ncaa/.

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There are some interesting stats here.

I just glanced at the womens basketball and in alot of schools, the women athletes have a higher graduation rate than the average student at their school.

This average graduation rate for the schools should have been posted in the article for comparison too.

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NCAA - Women

Just watched a dynamic last 15 seconds between Stanford and Vanderbilt. Stanford was behind by 1 and a 3 pointer was made by Stanford wining the game with about 2.1 seconds to go. Very exciting since I was pulling for Stanford.

I am hoping for Duke, UConn, Tennessee, & Stanford in the final four.

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Really??? How will Tech stop Okafor? Schensher has played well and within himself vs KU and OSU, but I see that little run coming to an end. Still, GT did kick their butt earlier this year. I think it will be a good game though.

Eric

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