http://www.suntimes.com/sports...demon28.article

JW: "..everyone who knows [the program] knows no one made excuses [for last season]. We know we have to get better.''

JLP: "Last season was a tough year to be in the Big East with young [players],''

Yep, thats the EXCUSE we heard all last year.

And can we please get off the high academic acheivement soap box, because frankly I'm tired of hearing it.  Nobody paid a dime to come and see me graduate with High Honors at DePaul, and neither are we.  Listen, I am happy that these kids seem to be an okay bunch and take their classes seriously.  But guess what, I'm not going to sit here and applaud what is expected of all DePaul students.  Is it a tough committment to play D-1 sports and maintain a good GPA, sure.  But they are afforded a lot more resources to help them succeed than the rest of the student population.  And many other DePaul students (including myself) have or are working their asses of to support their college education and that time committment is many times equal or greater to a D-1 sport.  And that includes the stress of actually paying for your education instead of getting it for free.  So enough with the GPA bull.  I'm happy that you are doing well in school, but your job is also to work hard on the court.  And many players last year failed to bring the effort to the basketball court and that I don't applaud.

Good post, couldnt agree more.

LetsGoDemons wrote:

JW: "..everyone who knows [the program] knows no one made excuses [for last season]. We know we have to get better.''

JLP: "Last season was a tough year to be in the Big East with young [players],''

 

Yep, thats the EXCUSE we heard all last year.

 

And can we please get off the high academic acheivement soap box, because frankly I'm tired of hearing it.  Nobody paid a dime to come and see me graduate with High Honors at DePaul, and neither are we.  Listen, I am happy that these kids seem to be an okay bunch and take their classes seriously.  But guess what, I'm not going to sit here and applaud what is expected of all DePaul students.  Is it a tough committment to play D-1 sports and maintain a good GPA, sure.  But they are afforded a lot more resources to help them succeed than the rest of the student population.  And many other DePaul students (including myself) have or are working their asses of to support their college education and that time committment is many times equal or greater to a D-1 sport.  And that includes the stress of actually paying for your education instead of getting it for free.  So enough with the GPA bull.  I'm happy that you are doing well in school, but your job is also to work hard on the court.  And many players last year failed to bring the effort to the basketball court and that I don't applaud.

Let's remember Dar Tucker wasn't a Rhodes scholar candidate, so enough with the academic prowess of the players.  He bailed on school after 2 years with no job lined up.  We are not Princeton or Yale.

Academics are what JLP and JW are hanging their hats on these days. Does anyone know what the team's overall GPA was last year? How does it compare to the rest of the student body? Seems like JLP and JW are grasping at straw...

I agree with LetsGoDemons' post that it really gets tiresome to hear JW and JLP continually point to the academic progress that the men's basketball players are making when there is little positive to report concerning to their performance on the court.  It is a given that academic success is always a top priority for any college student.  However, JW and JLP are leaders in our ATHLETIC Department and we die-hards are interested in hearing about the ATHLETIC progress that our teams are making.  So let's hope our coaches and administration can also talk about the progress and success on the court this year.

As a reply to Peteey's post, here is some information on the academic performance of DePaul's sports teams as reported by the Big East Conference for the 2008-09 academic year:

• In July, the BE headquarters announced that 2,662 student-athletes qualified for the designation of "Big East All-Academic Team" for 2008-09 (varsity letter winners with GPAs of 3.00 or better).  DePaul had 144 athletes that qualified for that award.
• The breakdown for DePaul's 144 all-academic qualifiers were: women's basketball (12), women's soccer (21), women's softball (17), women's cross country / track (14), women's track & field (10), women's volleyball (9), women's tennis (8), men's soccer (15), men's track & field (13), men's cross country / track (9), men's golf (8), men's tennis (8), men's basketball (0).  These results were reported on DePaul's official athletic website on 7/27/09.
• The only DePaul sports team with zero BE all-academic qualifiers was the men's basketball team.  That means that no one on the men's team attained a 3.00 (B) GPA for 2008-09.  In comparison, for example, the BE official website reported that  the men's basketball program from Louisville had 9 all-academic qualifiers, Notre Dame's men's basketball team had 7 all-academic qualifiers, and West Virginia's men's basketball team had 6 all-academic qualifiers.

In light of these academic results, in the Sun-Times article, JW was quoted as saying "the players had one of their best academic years" and JLP said that last year's team "achieved some of the program's strongest academic marks ever."  Hopefully, that being said, we have heard enough about the team's academic accomplishments for awhile and the ATHLETIC Department can soon report on significant ATHLETIC achievevments from the men's basketball team in the near future.

I looked up the Academic All-American list also.  I read the BE list as well.  And, came to the conclusion that academic achievement has been played up so much by our AD, that I just assume all of the other Sport Coaches must have also received longer contract extensions, and bigger raises.

If you can't produce one MBB player with a 3.00 GPA, then the last thing JLP or JW should be touting is academic achievement. 

& let's not forget one of the men's basketball players is currently failing 2 of his 4 classes.  JW felt this needed to be mentioned at the recent coaches clinic...embarassing the kid.

demonharrier wrote:

& let's not forget one of the men's basketball players is currently failing 2 of his 4 classes.  JW felt this needed to be mentioned at the recent coaches clinic...embarassing the kid.

here is a newsflash - the kid should be embarassed!  That is pathetic.

i am going to e mail the author if the ST article witht he facts presented in this post to have him ask JLP and JW about the acedimic all star crap we keep hearing b/c obviously tht isnt true either

DemonDave wrote:

 

demonharrier wrote:

& let's not forget one of the men's basketball players is currently failing 2 of his 4 classes.  JW felt this needed to be mentioned at the recent coaches clinic...embarassing the kid.

here is a newsflash - the kid should be embarassed!  That is pathetic.

Ok, your right dave, 100 percent. The kid should be embarassed. But jerry should of NEVER opened his mouth on the subject, its none of our buisness right now. The kid is not inelgibe right now any damn way. Again i agree dave, but jerry shoots himself in the foot once again.

BIGBUBBATHEBLUEDEMON wrote:

 

DemonDave wrote:

 

demonharrier wrote:

& let's not forget one of the men's basketball players is currently failing 2 of his 4 classes.  JW felt this needed to be mentioned at the recent coaches clinic...embarassing the kid.

here is a newsflash - the kid should be embarassed!  That is pathetic.

Ok, your right dave, 100 percent. The kid should be embarassed. But jerry should of NEVER opened his mouth on the subject, its none of our buisness right now. The kid is not inelgibe right now any damn way. Again i agree dave, but jerry shoots himself in the foot once again.

Exactamundo on both points...the kid should be embarassed but JW shouldn't have said anything...why kick someone when they're down? what's the point/purpose? what does the kid gain? if anything he's now DEMOTIVATED now.

Brown's Chicken caller of the day.  Couldn't agree more.

DemonDave wrote: I disagree. My guess is Jerry tried to handle it one on one with the kid... and is not getting any improvement. If the kid has any pride or nutsack at all he will turn it around when exposed a little. If it has an adverse effect on the kid I dont need him putting on the uniform because he is weak mentally and cant handle a challenge. People get called out in life every day, step up and fulfill your responsibilities acadmeically to yourself, your team, your coaches, etc. This kid is 18-23, not 8. Life is real, learn to deal with it.

Just my opinion.

Browns Chicken sounds really good right now. Mmmmmmm

doubledemon wrote:

• In July, the BE headquarters announced that 2,662 student-athletes qualified for the designation of "Big East All-Academic Team" for 2008-09 (varsity letter winners with GPAs of 3.00 or better).  DePaul had 144 athletes that qualified for that award.
• The breakdown for DePaul's 144 all-academic qualifiers were: women's basketball (12), women's soccer (21), women's softball (17), women's cross country / track (14), women's track & field (10), women's volleyball (9), women's tennis (8), men's soccer (15), men's track & field (13), men's cross country / track (9), men's golf (8), men's tennis (8), men's basketball (0).  These results were reported on DePaul's official athletic website on 7/27/09.
• The only DePaul sports team with zero BE all-academic qualifiers was the men's basketball team.  That means that no one on the men's team attained a 3.00 (B) GPA for 2008-09.  In comparison, for example, the BE official website reported that  the men's basketball program from Louisville had 9 all-academic qualifiers, Notre Dame's men's basketball team had 7 all-academic qualifiers, and West Virginia's men's basketball team had 6 all-academic qualifiers.

 

 

 

I'm sorry.  Any report that includes "men's basketball program from Louisville had 9 all-academic qualifiers" no longer has ANY credibility to me.