It's OK Andre Drummond forced a teammate out of a scholarship, right?
by Nick Fasulo on Aug 29, 2011 11:42 PM EDT
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A growing trend in college basketball is the reclassification of top high school talent, which allows the player's respective college commitment to fill out a shallow bench or improve on a potential weak spot of the current roster a year earlier than normal.
For fans, the idea is great. You get much talked about players like Andre Dawkins, Daniel Hackett and Khem Birch sooner. Pent up anxiousness is quelled, and you're usually a bit better off than originally planned. But when schools who take this route already have maxed out their scholarship allotments, some reshuffling must ensue.
See: Drummond, Andre.
Arguably the top player in the class of 2012 turned one of the top players in the class of 2011, Drummond will join UConn a season early, filling out an already strong frontcourt and giving the Huskies a legitimate shot at repeating as National Champions.
Peel back a layer or two and - if you're a morally upstanding citizen - you might have a beef with the consequences.
You see, despite an embarrassingly low Academic Progress Rating (APR) and the elimination of three scholarships Jim Calhoun, with the blessing of the school president and a newly minted athletic director, revoked a redshirt freshman's hard-earned scholarship and awarded it to a 6'11" center because he has the "size, mobility, athleticism, instincts and pure ability to be a future lottery pick."
Michael Bradley is that redshirt freshman, and now his parents have to hope the school gift wraps some sort of financial aid package or he will be paying his way right to the end of the Husky bench this season.
That alone may make some people cringe, but it gets worse. If Bradley is compensated to the tune of approximately $38,000 in tuition fees, then that money spent on him may not be able to fund one or more hard-working book worms whose only athletic involvement in Storrs is throwing the Friz outside of his or her dorm.
That being said, I doubt Jim Calhoun would give a dime back.
The justification of stealing from the average and giving to the elite is easy: "this is what's best for the team." It most certainly is, but it's also sort of a pathetic way to circumvent a rule and a penalty. It also probably made Michael Bradley just a little less cool on campus, and maybe forced a family living in a Hartford suburb to consider a more financially responsible college option for their child.
As a fan of the game, I love the addition of Drummond. UConn will probably win the Big East, and they'll challenge for the program's fourth National Championship in 13 years. As a person I hate it, but just have to accept that this is the world and it probably will occur with greater frequency as a means to field the best possible team.
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Drummond is very good.
The fact that it’s a shady, shady move aside, his addition is huge for UConn. But I think it’s always hard to project a team as a national title contender just because one freshman (and a center for that matter) shows up on campus. Remember, UConn finished 9th in the Big East last year and then got very very hot down the stretch. Can that happen again? Absolutely. But there will be far better teams vying for that national championship this year than last, and with Kemba gone the offense pretty much completely falls on Lambs shoulders. I’ll give them that they’ll be one of the 3 or 4 best teams in the Big East (I like Louisville and Syracuse better, and Pitt will be very good as always), but I’ll hold off on putting them in with UNC, UK, and Ohio State until I see what they actually do on the floor. By the end of the year I think UConn could very well be in that conversation, but right now I think folks are jumping the gun a bit thinking of last years great run and a freshman that’s never played.
SHASHASHAA!!!
by RustyShackleford on Aug 30, 2011 2:26 PM EDT reply actions
An alternative take
I’m a UConn homer, so keep a grain of salt at the ready as I nitpick a little bit. The kid actually doesn’t have parents who are involved (no father I ever heard about, mother with a lot of problems who couldn’t take care of him) and spent most of his HS years in a Baptist home in Tennessee. While on the face of it, that makes this situation even worse, it probably helps him in that it may open up a lot of financial aid options that would be closed to most students.
It doesn’t sound like anyone wants Bradley to transfer, as he brings a lot to the table both on and off the court. On the court, he’s 6’10" tall and has good athleticism, even if he is a bit raw and could use some strength; summer reports also indicate he has great work ethic and has improved his game a lot. Off the court, he’s a Pharmacy major (UConn has an excellent program) and certainly wants to be here, so APR won’t suffer with a transfer. The link I will provide below seems to indicate that Bradley is not opposed to taking financial aid in lieu of a scholarship, so hopefully this is not something that’s been forced on him. While I hate the prospect of a kid taking on any student loans against his will in this economy, if the kid’s OK with it, then so am I, I guess. He’s still got a great opportunity, academically and athletically, by being at UConn, and this scholarship situation is likely temporary (Drummond likely being a one-and-done), so it’s probably not the worst thing in the world.
Also, there is the possibility that this may not impact Bradley at all. There are rumors that little-used German C Enosch Wolf may head back to Germany, faced with the prospect of another year of limited playing time. If I recall correctly, reports from earlier this summer indicated that Wolf was likely still at the back of the depth chart for guys who might play either PF or C, including Alex Oriakhi, Roscoe Smith, Tyler Olander, and even Michael Bradley. With the addition of Drummond, he doesn’t figure to get a lot of playing time. That being said, he seems passionate about the game and is supposed to be very skilled, so I hope he stays, but if wants to play elsewhere, I’d understand. At the end of the day, these kids take these scholarships hoping to play basketball, not to watch it from the bench.
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