Diploma Mills

[Zaggy]

An interesting article in the Washington Post:

Link to article

The article mentions the fact that Gonzaga has a player (Theo Davis) from one of these "diploma mills." I was interested to get other people's opinions about Gonzaga 's involvement in recruiting from these schools. Any thoughts?

[brasszag]

This story was beaten to death when we signed Theo.

He's clearly got some decision-making growth to make, since from what I recall his academic record in Canada was fine, but his family (and himself) made a poor choice of school when he came to the US (and other decisions he made post signing were not so good)

The bulk of the "students" at some of these schools have academic and other issues far beyond Theo. You've got to know that the coaching staff probably spent a lot of time discussing his specific situation.

[former1dog]

Zaggy,

All due respect, but this is a topic that has been hashed and rehashed on the board preceding this to the nth degree.

Theo, despite his current problems, was a good kid who had some unfortunate personal circumstances arise that were beyond his control that made it necessary for him to go to a prep school. He picked one that was questionable, but he was not an academic underachiever.

[CDC84]

Been there, done that

This has been beaten to death. We're closing it. Sorry.

I don't know of Gonzaga recruiting anyone right now that's in a diploma mill prep school, and I doubt the GU staff (or any smart coaching staff at any school) would take a chance in doing so. The NCAA is cracking down on these schools and identifying them on weekly basis. Coaches won't touch them once the NCAA brands them.

And as some of the previous posts pointed out...Theo's past issues have very little to do with the reason why the NCAA is cracking down on these prep schools.

[LongIslandZagFan]

I'll never forget the HBO documentary on Amare's road to the NBA (may have been on REAL Sports, not sure)... but you really get a sense of what some of these schools really are.

Listen, every kid is different. When you look at kids that end up at these places, they are there for varying reasons. Theo's was not a bad student, just lacking classes that didn't transfer out of his Canadian school.

I have no problems with them getting kids like Theo... so long as they out stipulations on what is expected of them academically... if they can't cut it, they get cut. We did this with that kid out of Georgetown. He didn't flunk out over the summer, but he didn't meet the GPA that GU wanted. He ended up at College of Charleston.