Mike sent us this note on UC's graduation
rate. As we said the formula has to count in transfers and the like. This
is a better representation, but still not ideal, needless to say.
Well, since you guys have brought up the
Bearcats graduation issue a couple times in the last 10 days, I thought I'd send
you some info. But first, just to clarify, as a graduate of both Duke
(undergrad) and UC (law school), the published grad rate for UC makes me sick.
0% is 0% if that's what everybody is looking at. It was excusable, to a degree,
at the beginning of Huggins' tenure, as he was trying to build a program quickly
with juco players. However, now that Huggins has established himself as a
quality coach (if not an even better babysitter), one would think he would be
able to tap into the blue-chippers a little better than he has. The last two
recruiting classes show signs of him turning things around, but until he starts
taking quality kids, those grad rates will be abysmal. For the record, according
to University of Cincinnati Horizons (one of their alumni publications), "of
the 30 UC basketball players who have completed their eligibility since Coach
Bob Huggins started at UC a decade ago, 13 have graduated." By my
math, that's about 43%. This still isn't very good, and I'm unsure what
"completed their eligibility" means (sorry for the Gibbonsism there).
If that means kids who have stayed four years, why the hell isn't that rate
higher? One would think that the hard part is getting them to stay (or in
Huggins' case, actually bringing guys in with four years of run to begin with),
and if they're going to play, they have to be eligible, so graduation would seem
like the natural progression. I don't know. The last thing I want to do is
defend Huggins. Great coach who everybody says cares about his kids, but you've
got to wonder how much he really "cares" (did it again - you're right,
it is contagious.note -he's referring to the
Gibbonesque habit of "quoting" everything of importance - dbr )
if he doesn't understand the value an education would be to some of these kids.
Anyway, just thought you guys would like the above stat. Keep up the great work
on the site.