College Sports

Just a few weeks ago, the National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC) asked its members to stop recruiting younger and younger prospects. Coaches appeared to agree, including Kentucky’s Billy Gillispie, who has been the beneficiary of several of the youngsters announcing their plans.

The NABC said it strongly encouraged coaches from asking for commitments, or offering scholarships.

Well, that didn’t last long.

Florida has accepted a commitment from a player who will be entering 10th grade this fall, and Gillispie is backing off his earlier statement.

According to Gillispie, “I’m a company man. But I’m not going to get beat up as far as competing. You always want to try to do what the coaches’ organization asks. But you’re not going to sit by the wayside while other people are getting ahead of you.”

Baloney.

First of all, as I stated in a column on May 17, (newborn-commits-to-kentucky), these commitments aren’t worth the paper they are written on. Either side can back out with no reprisals. But the situation is getting out of hand. Eighth graders are being recruited… 13 years old! Come on!

And now Gillispie is crying about getting beat out by the SEC’s head “Billy” (Donovan) for a 9th grader. Yeah, whatever!

Unless the NCAA and president Myles Brand get a handle on this thing quickly, it will escalate even more. The organization can’t afford to sit in it’s ivory tower offices in Indiana and shake it’s head “no.”

The NABC tried, but it has no real power over it’s coaches. No one wants more NCAA legislation, but if the coaches are going to push it, the NCAA needs to push back… and soon.

Rising senior Billy Humphrey, Georgia’s second leading scorer this past season at 12.2 points per game, has been kicked off the Bulldog squad, according to head coach Dennis Felton.

Humphrey, a 20 year old, was arrested early Tuesday morning and charged with DUI, failure to maintain his lane, and the underage purchase of alcohol. He was taken to the Gwinnett County jail at 3:32 a.m.

It was his third arrest in less than a year.

“I am disappointed in Billy,” said Felton. “We’ve worked really hard with him in the past to see that he succeeds, but I feel that it’s now best for our program to move forward without him.”

Humphrey played in 30 of the Bulldogs 34 games this past season, starting 28. In addition to his 12.2 points per game, he averaged 3.5 rebounds. He shot 37% from behind the 3-point line and 83% from the free throw line, both bests on the Georgia team.

The part of this story that grabs me is Dennis Felton. Felton was hired to clean up a Georgia basketball program that was running wild under former coach Jim Harrick. Harrick had turned the Bulldog program into a joke, with accusations of academic fraud. In five seasons at UGa, Felton has a record of 75-79, a winning percentage of .487. On the surface, that looks bad, but look a little deeper and see that Felton has had an uphill struggle to rebuild the program. Players have been dismissed and transfered.

This past year was supposed to be the turning point for the Dogs. They had the players to make a run, four starters returning. The previous year they had finished 19-14 and advanced to the NIT.

So what happened? Before the season even started, forward Takais Brown, the team’s leading returning scorer, and guard Mike Mercer, one of the top athletes on the team, were both kicked off. Brown (now playing professionally in Finland) had failed several drug tests, and Mercer (who transfered to South Florida) was dismissed for being a disruption. He had previously been suspended for not adhering to academic policies.

To add insult to injury, reserve center Rashad Singleton quit in January because he wanted more playing time, and freshmen forwards Jeremy Jacob and Chris Barnes each suffered season-ending injuries.

So Georgia entered the rugged SEC schedule with one arm tied behind it’s back. But a run through the conference tournament saved Felton’s job… at least for now. Georgia, the sixth-seed in the East, won the tournament with a 66-57 victory over Arkansas.

In short, Felton was hired to bring discipline to a program that lacked it. He is doing that, but it isn’t easy. He’s made some recruiting mistakes that have haunted him. Attrition is a problem in the program (players have transferred out in addition to those kicked off). This isn’t a time when schools can sit by and let that happen, as the NCAA will impose penalties for lack of academic progress within the program.

But I hope Georgia doesn’t bail out on Felton (like many schools do!). Given a full chance, Felton will win at UGa… he’s a winner, and he’ll do it the right way.

Today is our nation’s birthday. We’re 232 years old today, and maybe we’re showing our age a little bit. But today is the day to celebrate that age and all our accomplishments. We spend today with family and friends, cooking out, on the water, playing games, whatever.

There are a lot of sports traditions that go along with the fourth. When I was a kid, my family spent virtually every fourth at an Atlanta Braves game. We’d get to the old Atlanta-Fulton County stadium, grab some hot dogs and head to our seats. After the game, we’d stay for the fireworks.

My favorite year was 1985, when a game with the Mets went into extra innings and didn’t end until after 4 a.m…. and the Atlanta brass shot the fireworks off anyway! I wasn’t at the game, but was watching it at home. When I saw that they were shooting off the boomers anyway, I just started laughing. The stadium was located in the middle of a neighborhood, hard by I-75. Can you imagine waking up to that noise? The Braves lost the game in 19 innings, a game marked by a pitcher (Rick Camp) having to hit for himself and tying the game up (again) in the 17th inning. I’ll never forget the dirty look he got from the ump as he crossed home plate.

Anyway, I digress. We all have our traditions on this day, and a great many of our traditions, and memories, involve sports in one way or another. And these memories can evoke powerful emotions. Not long after my husband and I first met, I took him to Atlanta for a game on the 4th. When the fireworks started, I couldn’t believe it… I got emotional. I remembered my dad taking me to the games, teaching me how to keep score. The July 4, 1985 games was one of his last to see before he died. He didn’t live to meet my hubby, but his love of baseball, and sports in general, now is being passed down to my little girl, through me.

So today, I think about the traditions of sport. There is a lot of bad in sport, but at the end of the day it unites us in a unique bond that transcends generations.

What’s the old ad? “Baseball, hot dogs, apple pie and Chevrolet!” Amen!

China’s government has denied attempting to politicize the Olympic process, after receiving a letter from the International Olympic Committee (IOC) expressing regret over remarks made about Tibet and the Dalai Lama.

Tibet’s Communist Party boss, Zhang Qingli, was speaking at a ceremony honoring the Olympic torch as it passed through Lhasa. The remarks came at a ceremony marking the reuniting of the flame with a separate flame that had been carried to the top of Mount Everest. He reasserted China’s hard line on supporters of the Dalai Lama, the Tibetan spiritual leader who has been in exile in India.

“The sky above Tibet will never change,” said Zhang. “The red five-star flag will always fly above this land. We can definitely smash the separatist plot of the Dalai Lama clique completely.”

So, China is accused of politicizing the Olympics, the world’s largest sporting stage?

Duh!

Isn’t that what virtually every nation has done since the era of the Modern Olympics has begun? Isn’t that what Hitler did in 1936? Isn’t that what the Soviets were doing in 1980 (even though there was a U.S.-led boycott)? And the L.A. Olympics in 1984 also had a jingoistic flavor (despite a reciprocal USSR-led boycott).

The Olympics provide a stage for nations to say, “Look at us! Look what we can do, what we have done!” But because China’s policies are so militaristic in form, so strident and outspoken in speech, it has a magnifying glass over it. The IOC “tut-tuts” and shakes it’s head. “Not what we expected, we are disappointed,” the organizers cluck.

Where were these people when the decision was made to place the Olympics in China? Did they not have any idea that China would use the Games as a “coming out” party? Did they think by sending the Olympics to China, it’s human rights atrocities would simply vanish? That the nation would think, “Hey, let’s clean up our act and get with the democratic program!”

Sheesh, my five year old could have seen this one coming!