[NU Sports] Off-Topic: Amaker

[SjT (Stephen J. Truog)]

> hockey fan and Princeton basketball fan ... but I
> really wonder if there isn't more to this because of
> the high profile of both the institution and the
> coach.

Oh, I don't think anyone is disputing that. In fact
the story on Rivals/Yahoo News today flat-out says it
- along with jestful commentary from Jerry Tarkanian.
It wouldn't be a story at most schools.

But it is an interesting story because it is Harvard -
and intriguing for the NU list because of Amaker on
our job hunt search earlier.

It goes to the old question of academics vs. athletics
at schools like Duke, NU, Stanford, etc. Yes, bars are
lowered for athelets, but how far is too low.

And because it's Amaker, it does tie back to the "If
Duke can do it why can't NU (or others)?" ... bringing
up doubt over how exactly Duke did it. 

I don't think anyone questions the building of the
program in the late 80s and early 90s ... but it is
interesting that once Duke became more than just a
cute underdog story and a true power in the late 90s
that they got all those "one-and-done" All Americans
for a few classes, but now seem to be back to getting
the cream of the crop for players who are also good
students and stay four years to graduate ... perhaps
someone had a "teaching moment" with Coach K after
those megastar/lower GPA classes of the late 90s,
early 00s???

But yeah, it's just a story because it's Harvard. And
they can do what they want - I'm sure they liked the
possibility of a big-name coach and top-notch
recruiting class enough to lower a few bars ... now
the question is whether they like it enough to suffer
the embarassment of having this out in the open now
and a bunch of articles that add some crimson to their
faces.

GO CATS!!!
-SjT

* * * * * * * * *
STEPHEN J. TRUOG
sjtruog at yahoo.com
GO CATS!!!


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