Sometimes It's Hard to Discern Sincerity from Hypocrisy

I can see it now. The game is on the line. The Final Jeopardy category is "The World's Biggest Hypocrite." Alex Trebek shows the final answer: "This guy is the world's biggest hypocrite." The first contestants answered "Who is Mark Emmert," as any sane person would. "I'm sorry, no, that's incorrect," says Alex. "Let's see what the third answer is --  Yes, you're right, it's John Thompson III, head basketball coach at Georgetown." Can this really be true? Let's look at the evidence. In this fictional world, how did Coach Thompson earn his new title (barely edging out Tubby Smith)?

Start by reading this, which was reported by Jon Krawczynski (allegedly no relation to the head basketball coach at Duke.)

Coach Thompson thinks a new rule set to go into effect next year for incoming freshmen will deny too many athletes the opportunity to go to college. According to the AP article,

"The new rules require high school athletes to have a grade-point average of at least 2.3 in 16 core courses (up from 2.0 in 13 courses). And 10 of those courses must be completed in the first three years of school in order to be eligible to compete as a freshman. Once a student completes a core course in his or her first three years, it cannot be retaken for a better grade."

Coach Thompson said he thought the bar had been set too high, and it would target minority and less affluent students.  (Before going on, we should explain something to Coach Thompson. Coach, no one in the real world can afford to send a child to college. It's just too expensive. Except maybe for you, because you make $1,894,000 per year. Or maybe for you, Coach Smith, because you make $1,800,000 a year.)  But back to the Krawczynski article.

''That dream could be taken away after six semesters in high school,'' Thompson said. ''So for someone that's a late bloomer, someone that the light bulb doesn't go on until later, now it's too late. And just the disproportionate number of minorities that's going to affect, the number of people in general that's going to affect, is not good.''

I assume that at some point 7747 will provide an official translation, but it seems to me that this pontification on behalf of "late bloomers" is really a rant against a rule that would cut down on the available number of one-and-dones. Or to put it another way, it looks like Coach Thompson is saying that he doesn't want any limits put on who can play basketball for him.

Let's list a few things that Coach Thompson does not say. He does not say anything about kids getting leaving college, with or without a degree; it's just getting into college and playing basketball. Coach Thompson was silent on programs to get all of those "late bloomers" who aren't elite basketball players into college. He says nothing about the opportunities at Community Colleges, where the costs are a lot lower. Those are surprising omissions, given that Coach Thompson was speaking on behalf of a group whose sole purpose is the well-being of college students, even if they're not athletes. Oh. Wait. That's incorrect. He was speaking on behalf of athletes --, no, that's not it either. Oh, now I see.  Coach Thompson was speaking on behalf of the "National Association for Coaching Equity and Development," which sounds a lot like an association by and for coaches. Hmm. Let's see what the HAFCED website says it is: "It's an Association founded by coaches, for the benefit of coaches, governed and operated by coaches exclusively."

To be totally candid, Coach Thompson sounds a lot like a plant manager who is griping because he finds it hard to get raw materials for his manufacturing plant.

Let's not forget Coach Tubby Smith, who is also a strong candidate for World's Biggest Hypocrite. Here's what Coach Smith had to say about the new eligibility standards:

''Changes are going to be inevitable, whether it's academic changes or the changes that the NCAA has implemented as far as giving players cost of living (stipends),'' Smith said. ''All those things are for the welfare of the student-athletes. We have to make sure we keep those things in the forefront.''

Really, Coach Smith? All you're concerned with is the "welfare of the student-athletes?" From here, it looks like your pants are on fire, but maybe I'm wrong. Let's look at how many kids graduated out of Coach Smith's program, and we're constrained to look at Minnesota, because he's only been with Texas Tech for two years. Remember, the NCAA talks in terms of academic progress, and assumes that college kids take 6 years to graduate.) (The last column is a running count of how many kids played their senior years out of how many kids started in the program.)

Here's Tubby Smith at Minnesota

	07	08	09	10	11	12	13
Jamal Abu-Shamala	JR	SR						1/1
Travis Busch	SO	JR						1/2
Dan Coleman	SR							2/3
Blake Hoffarber	FR	SO	JR	SR				3/4
Damian Johnson	JR	JR	SR					4/5
Lawrence McKenzie	SR							5/6
Al Nolen	FR	SO	JR	SR				6/7
Kevin Payton	SO	JR						6/8
Spencer Tollackson	SR							7/9
Lawrence Westbrook	SO	JR	SR					8/10
Jonathan Williams	JR	SR						9/11
Added 2008-09
Devron Bostick		JR	SR					10/12
Paul Carter		SO	JR					10-13
Colton Iverson		FR	SO	JR				10/14
Devoe Joseph		FR	SO	JR				10/15
Ralph Sampson		FR	SO		SR			11/16
Added 2009-10
Bryant Allen			?					11/17
Justin Cobbs			FR					11/18
Rodney Williams			FR	SO	JR	SR		12/19
Added 2010-11
Maverick Ahanmisi				FR	SO	JR	SR	13-20
Chip Armelin				FR	SO			13-21
Dominique Dawson				SO				13-22
Austin Hollins				FR	SO	JR	SR	14-23
Trevor Mbakwe				JR	SR	GRAD		15-24
Maurice Walker				FR		SO	SR	16-25
Added 2011-12
Joe Coleman					FR	SO		16-27
Eliot Eliason					FR	SO	JR	17-28
Chris Halvorsen					SO	JR		17-29
Andre Hollins					FR	SO	JR	18-30
Andre Ingram					JR	SR		19-31
Oto Osenieks					FR	SO	JR	20-32
Kendal Shell					FR	SO	JR	21-33
Julian Welch					JR	SR		22-34
Added 2012-13
Wally Ellenson						FR	SO

Here's Coach Thompson's record at Georgetown:

	08	09	10	11	12	13	14
Jason Clark	FR	SO		SR				1/1
Austin Freeman	SO	JR	SR					2/2
Bryon Jansen	SR							3/3
Nikita Mescheriakov	SO	JR						3/4
Greg Monroe	FR	SO						3/5
Jessie Sapp	SR							4/6
Henry Sims	FR	SO	JR	SR				5/7
DaJuan Summers	JR							5/8
Julian Vaughn	SO	JR	SR					6/9
Omar Wattad	SO							6/10
Chris Wright	SO	JR	SR					7/11
Added 2009-10
Jerelle Beniomon		FR	SO					7/12
Ryan Dougherty		JR	SR					8/13
Vee Sanford		FR	SO					8/14
Stephen Stepka		FR						8/15
Hollis Thompson		FR	SO	JR				8/16
Added 2010-11
Moses Ayeqba			FR	SO	JR	SR		9/17
Aaron Bowen			FR	FR	SO	SR	SR	10/18
John Caprio			FR	SO	JR	SR		11/19
Nate Lubick			FR	SO	JR	SR		12/20
Markel Starks			FR	SO	JR	SR		13/21
Added 2011-12
Tyler Adams				FR	Gone			13/22
Mikael Hopkins				FR	SO	JR	SR	14/23
Otto Porter				FR	SO			14/24
Jabril Trawick				FR	SO	JR	SR	15/25
Greg Whittington				FR	SO			15/26
Added 2012-13
David Allen					FR	SO	JR	16/27
Brandon Bolden					FR			16/28
Stephen Domingo					FR	SO		16/29
Bradley Hayes					FR	SO	JR	17/30
D'vauntes Smith-Rivera (Declared)					FR	SO	JR	17/31
Added 2013-14
Reggie Cameron						FR	SO
Josh Smith						JR	SR	18-32
Riyan Williams						SO	JR
Added 2014-15
OJ Peak							FR
Tre Campbell							FR
Isaac Copeland							FR
Paul White							FR
Trey Mourning							FR

It looks like Coach Smith had 22 out of 34 players play as seniors. That doesn't necessarily mean they graduated - there are no stats that I can find which show how many NCAA athletes actually graduate. (I'm not saying those stats aren't available, just that I can't find them.) Coach Thompson was a little worse - he had 18 out of 32 (56%) players on his teams play in their senior seasons. (As an aside, UCLA had a much worse record than either Coach Thompson or Coach Smith over the past six years.)

What neither Coach Thompson nor Coach Smith nor anyone at the NCAA talks about is the kids who got the scholarship but didn't graduate. Are these guys just really really late bloomers?

Maybe it's more accurate to say that the actual graduation statistics don't matter as much to Coach Thompson or Coach Smith as does the ability of the guys who are there to produce wins. After all, the NCAA doesn't measure graduation - just academic progress. Academic progress without graduation sounds a lot like Zeno's Paradox. And that sounds a lot like hypocrisy. In my opinion, the standard for the zenith of hypocrisy has always been NCAA's position on the issue of graduation versus academic progress. Then Coach Thompson and Coach Smith gave their statements about how much the NCAA rules hurt those "late bloomers." You know what, Coach Thompson and Coach Smith? You can demonstrate very easily If you mean what you say. How about trying to make ends meet on a measly $1,000,000 per year, and endowing "late bloomer" scholarships with the excess? You could take yourselves off the hypocrisy list if you made those scholarships specifically for the non-athletic late-bloomers.

It's up to you, Coach Thompson and Coach Smith. Will you take some of your vast wealth and endow some scholarships? Or will you two supplant Mark Emmert as the World's Biggest Hypocrite by continuing to pretend that you actually give a crap about anything other than getting great basketball players into your programs? It's your call, fellas.