Failure Is An Option

The debatable storylines… Will Florida win consecutive national championships? Will Ben Howland restore UCLA’s luster? Will John Thompson III equal his father? Who garners the glamour pivot clash? Georgetown’s Roy Hibbert or Ohio State’s Greg Oden? Excitement is this Final Four.

Graduation rates are not passionate. They are black and white barriers. They delineate those who embrace and forsake education. They are unspoken and unpleasant. They condemn coaches, stigmatize institutions, and stereotype combatants. Graduation rates quantify failure. Who desires thought concerning them?

Tonight, basketball is our focus. We will discuss a player’s major or academic prowess when they are noted. However, cheering and tactical conversations will dominate this evening. Reality should intercede. The male basketball graduation rate is fifty-one percent. As we observe those scoring and defending, ponder the aforesaid. Will the triple draining guard or dominating center fail to graduate?

Now, I am not Murray Sperber. Ohio State and USC are football foundations. North Carolina and UCLA are basketball academies. No network or person observes their English or Natural Sciences departments. I also concur with Program coach James Caan. If these are academic driven institutions, when was the last time eighty thousand people showed up to watch a kid do a darn chemistry experiment? Academics are essential. Athletics are visible. If the reverse were true, this discussion would be moot.

The truth? Both classroom and court aptitude matter. Each will dictate one’s primary path. Only the former will dictate one’s overall path. Twenty subsequent Final Fours, who will struggle with life? The triple draining guard or the dominating center? Sans education… both.