Update: This Washington Post story says that Memphis basketball grad rate for basketball players in NCAA 2007 tourney was 25 percent. And here’s a USA Today comparison of teams in final Top 25 of 2006-07. Memphis tied for 15th out of 25.
Update: Here is Memphis academic progress report by NCAA for 2006-07. The basketball program has a rating of 927, which is in the 40-50 percentile. Here is UK’s APR. It’s 941 rating ranks in the 60-70 percentile.
M.B. sends an e-mail saying he remembered that Memphis graduation rate for basketball players has been very low under John Calipari. And, according to this report from last year, he’s right. Memphis has not graduated its African-American students at a high rate.
An excerpt:
* The median six-year graduation rate for black men (not just basketball players, but the entire student population) at school that made the 2007 NCAA men’s basketball tournament is 50.6%. The highest is Vanderbilt (92.6%), while the lowest is Memphis (18.9%). Seventeen schools graduate one-third or fewer black men within six years.
Also, Derrick Jackson writes in the Boston Globe:
BACK IN the National Collegiate Athletic Association basketball tournament this year after just missing the title last year, Memphis coach John Calipari said, “We don’t feel we have anything to prove because we’re a different team.” One thing is not different. Memphis should not be in the tournament at all, with a 44 percent graduation success rate for its African-American basketball players.
John Clay is a sports columnist for the Lexington Herald-Leader. A native of Central Kentucky and graduate of UK, he covered UK football for 13 seasons before being promoted to columnist in 2000. He lives in Lexington with his wife and two sons. You can e-mail him at jclay@herald-leader.com.
john, you stayin up all night waiting on this? it’s gotten kind of quiet out there.
I trust Sandy Bell in compliance and the CATS team to help keep everything in check and help the student athletes stay on track.
John:
Why are we moving so fast to hire this guy? I taught at the University of Memphis and I have to say I was unimpressed with the character of the basketball players. UK is not all about wins and losses and I thought Gillespie’s firing proved that. Winning with character and good kids is important too. I was ready for Tubby to leave as well, but thought he was a good man and a good coach, just a lazy recruiter. Why not use the clout we have to take our time interview more than one guy?
No fear, Michael Stone will keep them on the straight and narrow!
I would be curious to know what the percentage is once you remove the player that left early for the NBA. I understand that is counted against the school as far as graduation rates are concerned but it would still be an interesting number to know.
John,
The problem with you stats you listed IS NOT for the basketball team, it is for the school as a whole (specifically black males)(the full figures…Memphis (18.9 black males/ 30.2 white males…neither include females)) I think this points to Calipari\’s favor. I will admit, I didn\’t verify this but according to the Athletic dept at Memphis the basketball team graduated 19 of the past 22 student athletes who played their Senior year. This is obviously a weighted stat (what about those athletes that did stay until their Sr. year) but Memphis is not known to send 25% of their players to the NBA. Add an arbitrary 5 (about 25%) to the 22 and you still have over 50% graduation rate of a basketball player (the majority is black males…which graduates school wide at 18.9%) This gives me reason to think that Calipari isn\’t anti-education.
Correct me if I’m wrong but players who turn pro before graduating and players who leave the program count against the graduation rate, no?
These numbers may be skewed somewhat because Memphis has had players turn pro early.
Mark Liptak
According to the Memphis website (under the coach’s bio), Calipari took over a team with a 0% graduation rate.
“Much like he did at UMass when his players graduated at nearly 80 percent, Calipari is doing the same at Memphis. Fifteen of the last 18 seniors that have come through the Tiger program have earned their bachelor’s degrees. All three 2008-09 seniors — Antonio Anderson, Robert Dozier and Chance McGrady — are on schedule to graduate, and junior Shawn Taggart could graduate following the 2009 spring semester. Those graduates under Calipari have their cap-and-gown photographs hanging in the men’s basketball office.
Furthermore, Calipari — with the help of the university administration — is reaching out to former Tigers to come back to campus and finish their degrees.”
So the graduation rate for the basketball team is 25 basis points above that of University of Memphis black male students in general? Is that what these two stories are telling me?
John,
Just read a comment on FoxSports.com I haven’t seen anywhere else — that UK’s “third party” point man received word that Izzo, Wright, and Barnes all said they weren’t interested. Not that it matters — Calipari is still a huge choice — but have you heard that anywhere else?
What happened to “it’s going to move quickly.” I felt better about this happening this morning than I do right now.
Memphis is pulling out all the stops.
Calipari must be close to getting on board. We’ve got the LHL starting the attack machine. Let’s see. Story about him being shady by Story. Check. Story about his graduation rates by Clay. Check.
Next up, UK fans are still racists by Merlene.
they’re still meeting?!?
Calipari is not going to run a “graduate at all costs” program, but neither did Pitino. If I recall correctly, and I don’t claim to be doing so, Pitino had a pretty poor grad rate also. Yet, we were fine with him. Plus, it looks like he graduated a higher percentage of his black players than the school did. That can only be spun as a positive. And he sent several players to the NBA early, which counts against him. But, as we all know, a first round draft pick makes more in one year than most business school top 10 grads make in their first 10 years. Hardly seems like he is failing his student athletes if they get drafted.
John, what do you think the over/under is for Kentucky announcing a new coach?
Wow, I think Winston in the comments above nailed it, time for the LHL to go into attack mode! Please do your research a little more thoroughly first though.
No attack. Just trying to get to the answer to a pertinent question.
So what were Pitino’s and Tubby’s numbers. I mean, those facts are useful for comparison.
Tubby’s weren’t good either, if I remember right. Will do some searching.
John,
I doubt you listen to the naysayers anyway, but bringing up issues prior to a hiring is indeed your role. I hadn’t heard of World Wide Wes until yesterday, and that man scares the hell out of me considering what type of violations he could bring down on a program. If he’s deemed to be the same type of agent that Nochimson was at UConn, then we could be in the same position as them. Fans need to know about this stuff too, not just boosters and the admin.
If we end up with egg on our face because of unsavory characters that are exploiting kids and sending them to Calipari, then at least I want to know that potential existed the whole time. Lets get all the cards on the table this time.
It’s nothing we aren’t used to from the LHL. If he is the coach, this crap will bounce right off and no one will care a bit. UK fans are finished being pushed around by the national media and the local attack dogs.
Here’s the latest from Memphis. John’s sources apparently are right. They aren’t giving him up without a fight.
http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/2009/mar/30/geoff-calkins-maneuvering-calipari-goes-overtime/
Mark Liptak
I think the LHL is doing the right thing by raising questions about Calipari and what has gone on at Memphis while he has been there. Are the fans, Todd, Barnhardt, and the rest of the administration desperate enough to win to not look at the questions posed by Mark Story in his column. Look at the fine job the flagship school did with the last hire. They should be scrutinized. The last thing anyone wants is these shadowy people such as World Wide Wes around the university. Do we want UK to have a shady reputation? Being a Kentuckian, I sure don’t. I don’t want to see UK go on probation either. Just look at Indiana and what UConn is going through right now. Why do they have to rush into this hire? Why not interview Ford if he is interested? I just don’t get how everything has to be so quick and fast paced.
I want to throw my two cents in here and agree with Jack. I get so annoyed (and always have) when people make it sound like going to the draft as a first round pick before you graduate is a bad decision. You always hear the sob stories about athletes who “wish they had gotten their degree.” Last time I checked you can get a degree anytime you want - so if you’re being offered millions of dollars to go bounce a ball around why would that not be a better idea than finishing your bachelors degree in communications?
You might as well tell Bill Gates his decision to gamble on Microsoft instead of IMMEDIATELY going to college was a bad one.
So what would graduation rates (for ALL coaches - not just Cal) look like when you take everyone who went early to the draft for big money out of the equation?