DavidsonCats.com

DCA06 wrote:

It seems like you want one and done type players, which just isn't happening. You've sparked a discussion about lowering our academic standards to a small degree but what you are suggesting is eliminating them all together, whether you realize it or not. I'm skeptical of where you are coming from and don't think hoping that Davidson completely shifts its culture so drastically and starts recruiting every McDonald's All American is a healthy mindset.

I have a nephew who went to the NC Science and Math HS. He was 1st in his class at Jordan Matthews HS (Siler City) before Science and Math. Science and Math does not do class ranking. He made good grades. The classes were challenging. He scored 5 on five different AP tests. He had a grandfather and an uncle attend DC. He was wait listed.

At the time Science and Math grads got free tuition to any UNC system school. He and his HS advisors think DC had given all the scholarships to Science and Math folks that they were going to give that year (he knows several who got at least partial scholarships), and decided to wait list him and a few others since admissions didn't think they would pay full price with the other options they had available. I guess they were wait listed so they could contact admissions and beg if they really had their hearts set on Davidson.

It worked out OK for him. He was Phi Beta Kappa at Carolina, got a Masters in Marine Biology at Maryland's campus on the Chesapeake Bay, and just started working for NOAA in DC.

wildforthecats wrote:

DCA06 wrote:

Dr Bliss ain't leading us to the Elite Eight.

Yeah, but teamed with waitress in the backcourt...

Waitress wrote:

wildforthecats wrote:

DCA06 wrote:

Dr Bliss ain't leading us to the Elite Eight.

Yeah, but teamed with waitress in the backcourt...

No i don't want one and dones. I might be ok with 3 and dones (which becomes more of an economic decision then academic if ability to play pro exists). I'm just saying I'm sure there's one player who was slightly under typical average. If once and a while you added that player; someone who could still contribute to community but maybe didn't find easy Ed to be easy, could we live with it for the added sports glory, national attention etc that brings more notoriety to the school.
This all may be mute, maybe there is no clear cut way to get a kid to come to you over a P5 consistently. But like MO Bamba is a smart kid. Clearly he's not worth our resources, but he took a visit to Harvard. We can craft just as good if not better reason for our degree and athletic competition than Harvard. If u had a kid like that it's a game changer. Maybe it's the Stephen curry effect - kids like KG just want to play here smart or not because of what Stephen is and where he came from; long term it's to our benefit.
If we could have one more NBA player I think that helps recruiting Too

DCA06 wrote:No i don't want one and dones. I might be ok with 3 and dones (which becomes more of an economic decision then academic if ability to play pro exists). I'm just saying I'm sure there's one player who was slightly under typical average. If once and a while you added that player; someone who could still contribute to community but maybe didn't find easy Ed to be easy, could we live with it for the added sports glory, national attention etc that brings more notoriety to the school.
This all may be mute, maybe there is no clear cut way to get a kid to come to you over a P5 consistently. But like MO Bamba is a smart kid. Clearly he's not worth our resources, but he took a visit to Harvard. We can craft just as good if not better reason for our degree and athletic competition than Harvard. If u had a kid like that it's a game changer. Maybe it's the Stephen curry effect - kids like KG just want to play here smart or not because of what Stephen is and where he came from; long term it's to our benefit.
If we could have one more NBA player I think that helps recruiting Too

The one and done players are the only players that can be easily projected as NBA players, of course having NBA players is a good thing and every college basketball player aspires to that, and now that we're recruiting at the A10 level we have a chance, but there are no guarantees. To your previous point about adding one player to get us to the elite 8, what other player in the A10 (again, that is our level, and we are still new to it) would you add to our roster that you actually think gets us to the elite 8?

Bamba looked at Harvard, but is no longer considering it. You cannot force kids to want to go to your school, and I'm sure we will reach out to academically inclined kids and if they reciprocate interest, we will pursue them. We are already competing with high-academic colleges like Stanford.

Again, to reiterate, the staff cannot force kids to want to come to Davidson. I love Davidson and there are a plethora of reasons to attend, but kids who put making the NBA above academics in their college decision will likely attend elsewhere, that is just a reality. Being an elite liberal arts college is one of our best selling points, so we will continue to recruit kids who prioritize school.

If you are interested in rooting for a team that recruits NBA talent at the expense of academics, you have plenty of other options in North Carolina.

Our starting five next year

Magarity
Peyton
Kishawn
Kellan grady
Jax

Key reserves
Luke
Nate
Dusa

I'd take one of...
Luke Kennard
Moe Wagner
DJ Wilson
Sam cuncliffe

And bet we'd be a pretty dangerous team

Hypothetically, if we had landed Cavanaugh I believe the season would have been longer. That wasn't an admissions issue.

All except Bates will start...very talented!

CatsUpNorth wrote:Again, to reiterate, the staff cannot force kids to want to come to Davidson. I love Davidson and there are a plethora of reasons to attend, but kids who put making the NBA above academics in their college decision will likely attend elsewhere, that is just a reality. Being an elite liberal arts college is one of our best selling points, so we will continue to recruit kids who prioritize school.

And there are all sorts of reasons besides hoping for the NBA (in addition to, maybe I should say) that players decide to go else where.

The player from Idaho comes to mind. Our coaches really wanted him. His parents were thrilled about his coming to Davidson. All of the above were sorely disappointed when he decided to go to Idaho State. Probably our guesses why he made that choice are probably pretty good.

You're probably talking about the kid from Denver who went to Boise State.

citycat wrote:You're probably talking about the kid from Denver who went to Boise State.

Something like that maybe. I thought maybe one of the factors was being close to home and going somewhere that schoolmates had heard of.

The situation I'm thinking about was within the last 2 or 3 years, it seems like.

But my point had more to do with the general idea than with the specifics of this case.

edit

MLC67 wrote:
"TC88 said:

There are some that think we don't make exceptions for our basketball team and/or other teams. This is not true. I don't disagree with what we do, but some would boast that our athletes get admitted using the same criteria as the rest of the student-body".

I am concerned that your view is that our athletes in some instances are inferior students because they get admitted using different criteria than the rest of the students. I may be wrong here, but as I understand DU Admissions, all applicants are given added benefits for extra-curricula activities, be it orchestra participation, debate club, football team membership or community volunteer service. Any applicant characteristic which demonstrates student commitment to broader than "book learnin" is deemed a positive by Admissions.

Accordingly, I believe that our athletic scholarship athletes do indeed compete for admission to DU on a level playing field.

I never said our athletes are inferior. Not all of our athletes compete for admission to Davidson College on a level playing field. For that matter, not all of our athletes compete equally for admission with other athletes.

I have no problem with that, no problem at all. I don't for a second believe we admit any student, athlete or not, that we don't believe can graduate and be successful academically on some level. However, if you believe that some of our athletes would have gotten into Davidson without being a top recruit, you are mistaken. For that matter, if they were an outstanding french horn player and applying to Davidson with the same academic profile as say a top basketball player, but both were below what I will call the "admission line", the music department would be short a french horn.

Again, I have no problem with this model. I expect us to recruit, admit and expect our athletes to pass and graduate. I expect them to be model citizens while doing so. I also wish our admissions office to "stretch" this process more often.

All I am saying is that I guarantee it is happening and I am fine that they are doing it. Our athletes, coaches and professors hold each other accountable when they are here and almost to an athlete, they make us proud to be a Wildcat. To me, that's all that matters.

Big Boss Man is in Cali. Tag Team Proteges splitting time between Minny and SC. Wrecking Crew? You think DCats is unsatisfied?

And nothing to Duquesne is out there tossing 7 figures around?

We are out there. Working hard for the money.

Why bother? Because as much as we love it, they love it more.

Without a doubt, we have the most challenging admission standards for big time college hoops. It's not even close.

Money in the bank? We've got it. I trust the ones that love it will use it judiciously when it matters.

Their bosses. Not so much.