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Earlier this month Louisville coach Rick Pitino told senior Stephan Van Treese that it would be in Treese’s best interest to play 30 minutes or more a game [URL=”http://blogs.indystar.com/recruitingcentral/2012/06/06/van-treese-talks-about-release-from-louisville-and-whats-next/”]on a team that wasn’t Louisville[/URL]. Since Louisville had just secured the services of former Virginia Tech commit Montrezl Harrell, the Cardinals wouldn’t have the playing time for Van Treese — and didn’t have the scholarship slot for Harrell without Van Treese packing his bags. [URL=”http://collegebasketballtalk.nbcsports.com/2012/06/07/rick-pitino-oversigning-and-some-more-ramblings-about-transfers/”]NBC’s Rob Dauster predicted at the time[/URL] that Pitino would get ripped for oversigning.
Except the ripping didn’t happen. Specifically there was no comment from organizations that focus on student-athletic integrity: The [URL=”http://blogs.comm.psu.edu/thecoia/”]Coalition on Intercollegiate Athletics[/URL]. Since the COIA responded quickly to John Calipari’s plans to schedule more non-conference neutral-court games, why did the COIA ignore Pitino’s roster-shuffling?
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In that [URL=”http://blogs.comm.psu.edu/thecoia/wp-content/uploads/COIA-Statement-on-Calipari-5-20121.docx”]urgent response (link goes to Word Document)[/URL], the COIA called Calipari’s plans do not consider “the negative impact on students” and emphasizes, “The [Kentucky] program is no longer designed to provide students pursing a college education the opportunity to compete, it is designed to train professional basketball players.”
With Pitino’s oversigning of Harrell, Van Treese can no longer pursue his degree in Sports Administration at Louisville under scholarship. In order for Van Treese to finish his education at Louisville’s [URL=”http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=jobs/070809″]well-regarded Sports Administration[/URL] program, he would have to quit playing basketball and take out student loans. If Van Treese wants to compete in his (potentially) final year of NCAA eligibility (and not take out student loans), he will have to choose a school with a SA program that’s may not be so highly regarded.
Isn’t that the very definition of a “negative impact” on Van Treese’s experience as a student? Did Pitino not just curtail Van Treese’s education in order to train a more-likely professional basketball player in Montrezl Harrell?
It’s not just Pitino who oversigns and puts departing student-athletes in a bind. Calipari shuttled out several players left over from the Billy Gillispie era in order to open up scholarships for players that could make an immediate on-court impact. Indiana’s Tom Crean oversigned by accepting [URL=”http://www.insidethehall.com/scholarship-numbers/”]five incoming freshmen for four open scholarship spots[/URL]. With [URL=”http://www.insidethehall.com/2012/06/06/crean-on-scholarship-issue-its-not-an-easy-process/”]Christian Watford not opting for the NBA Draft[/URL], often-injured senior guard Mo Creek might be told to pack his bags before the September roster finalization date.
Oversigning and the one-year, non-renewable scholarships are just part of the business of NCAA Athletics. Yet the COIA has yet to to respond in such urgent fashion about Stephan Van Treese or the unfairness of these NCAA By-Laws that allow coaches to oversign and scuttle student-athletes on a whim.
If the integrity of the student experience is so important to the Coalition on Intercollegiate Athletics, why haven’t they spoken out about Pitino’s and Crean’s oversigning? [URL=”http://blogs.comm.psu.edu/thecoia/?page_id=11″]As a member of the COIA[/URL], shouldn’t the Coalition hold Indiana to its higher standard?
Or maybe the Coalition — like most of the NCAA hand-wringers about “student-athletes” — only thinks about the student part of student-athletes when it gets them into the news cycle.
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