CoHawk would be best fit at center and I believe he expressed that he likes that position.
If Kofi leaves, probably best for keeping CoHawk (ignoring Nye’s transfer impact).
Illinois Hoops Recruiting Thread
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If Kofi leaves, probably best for keeping CoHawk (ignoring Nye’s transfer impact).
altgeld88
- Arlington, Virginia
~ 25 years ago I was working on a project involving a chemical plant in Beaumont, TX. The senior chemicals guy there was probably the age I am now, a soft-spoken West Texan of few words. We were chatting over BBQ at lunch one day and I asked him where he studied chemical engineering. Turned out it was Texas Tech, and that he had grown up in Lubbock. I knew nothing about Lubbock except that it was up in the part near the OK panhandle, and that it was flat, dry and dusty.
"So what is there in Lubbock besides Texas Tech," I asked.
"The horizon," he replied without missing a beat or stopping to think about it. Still cracks me up all these years later.
Skyy looks very nice in O&B
Brady making a funny face looks like Matt Ryan's normal face. Poor Matt.
sacraig
- The desert
There are 56,000+ students at the a University of Illinois. Admitting a few or even a few dozen athletes who would struggle to get in otherwise will absolutely not lower the academic reputation.
To be fair, the few dozen that get admitted that struggle are also the ones talking to the media representing the school, so this 100% could impact it.
There are 56,000+ students at the a University of Illinois. Admitting a few or even a few dozen athletes who would struggle to get in otherwise will absolutely not lower the academic reputation.
Not sure what New Mexico State is like academically, but the guy that lead them to an upset did a post game interview and made me think their school is not strong academically. Just one man’s opinion though.
sacraig
- The desert
Exactly. If you have higher visibility you get more applications for the same number of spots, which increases selectivity. That tends to bolster academic programs, though it's not a perfect relationship.
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That wasn’t the implication of your post. You suggest getting more people to apply based on athletic success, right? That is what I responded too.
There are 56,000+ students at the a University of Illinois. Admitting a few or even a few dozen athletes who would struggle to get in otherwise will absolutely not lower the academic reputation.
On a similar thought, I agree we should let athletes in with exceptions. Unfortunately it would need to apply to the general population, which “could” negatively impact the reputation.
sacraig
- The desert
If more people apply for the same number of open slots, admissions become more selective and the average admitted student scores go up. That improves reputation. Selectivity is also a variable in the US News university rankings.
Clemson was a very good academic school when I was looking at colleges 10-15 years ago. Don’t know that it’s truly tightened - it’s also been a solid engineering and business school.
IlliniKat91
- Chicago, IL
Public speaking skills start in elementary school and are strongly influenced by culture and one's first language. There's also formal English, but no official "standard" for it. How someone speaks is not a good indication of how intelligent they are. (Nerves get in the way, etc.)
Just something to keep in mind.
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I might suspect it's the other way around
I agree. If this was the 80s or 90s NBA, kofi would be perfect to dominate the paint. The NBA is a perimeter game now
lstewart53x3
- Scottsdale, Arizona
Agree to disagree.
In my mind, institutions of higher learning exist to reward and cultivate excellence.
Academics are a major piece of that.
But human beings are so much more than that. They have the ability to create excellence in all sorts of different areas that are just as valuable as academics and deserve to be cultivated in the same way.
These basketball players commit their life to the game. Many aren’t afforded the same privileges growing up as some who are more gifted/nurtured academically. Basketball is their chance to give their family a better life and they’re amazing it + they provide hope & joy to many of alumni.
That’s *valuable*.
sacraig
- The desert
NMSU is actually a pretty strong school. They dona good job serving a large underserved population who weren't afforded lots of opportunities like public speaking. Yet their graduates are pretty high quality in general.
I 100% understand, but I was speaking to perception and what people watching see and how it might negatively influence the schools academic reputation to have someone who does not meet those standards as the face of the university.
altgeld88
- Arlington, Virginia
The ubiquity of sports media, and increasing wealth, has really driven this trend. When I was in school in the '80s you didn't see this sort of regional migration to football schools. The Univ of Florida, for instance, was fairly mediocre and didn't have a lot of out-of-state students. The exposure form football has helped it become academically fairly strong in recent years. And a school such as Wisconsin, always strong academically, has been able to attract even better-qualified out-of-staters over the years because of the consistent excellence and national profile of football and hoops since the '90s. As the article notes, that a lot of incremental $$ for the unis given the cost of out-of-state tuition.
When I was at UIUC out-of-state undergrads made up only 3% of the class. Anecdote: a guy down the hall was from South Florida. Smart guy. Literally chose Illinois because of Lou Henson's teams.
TheFameProtector
- Champaign
Unless that success comes in the way LSU or Arizona achieved their success.
Possibly, but possibly the way you attracted the applicants could be biased. That bias could be negative or positive.
Just saying, not speaking in absolutes.
sacraig
- The desert
It could also make the school appealing to prospective students who see people who talk and look like them representing the school. I seriously doubt it moves the needle on overall academic reputation.
My read on the situation is that athletics can help a school in a marketing kind of way. Gets the name out there in a big way. This helps get application numbers up. So the miniscule concession in academic standards to a handful of students is worth the gains, which are probably relatively minor for a school that serves as the flagship public institution of their state, like Illinois (for schools like Clemson, Gonzaga, Villanova I think the publicity can actually be a much bigger deal). So in summation, it has an effect, but not a huge one, in most cases. After all, Northwestern has the best academic reputation in the Big Ten, and they certainly don't have athletic success to thank for it.
IlliniKat91
- Chicago, IL
Then it goes back to what we were saying earlier. People don't think athletes need to get good grades and will attribute it to that, not the school.
For example, I was watching an interview Ayo gave with an older relative. He misspoke and the first joke they made was about the quality of CPS.
They never thought to comment on Illinois.sacraig
- The desert
This doesn't match the facts on the ground. Schools with sustained athletic success see influxes of applicants that tend to increase overall selectivity. Someone earlier posted a link to an article about it, actually. All of the extra out of state students bring more cash to academic programs as well, which let's the school invest in more faculty and new facilities, which have a direct positive impact on education.
26% graduation rate begs to challenge that, though it’s not HORRIBLE, ranked around 227 among national universities. It may be a very positive impact of a school, but pretty strong seems to be a tad much.
I’m not suggesting anyone graduating from there is not of high quality - to be fair, I’ve not actually met anyone that graduated from there, but from an academic reputation standpoint, I think they would fall more along the lines of “decent”.
For comparison purposes, Alabama is ranked 148th, so just shy of 80 spots ahead of NMSU.
Again, not saying it’s a bad school, just that it doesn’t exactly have the reputation academically of being a strong academic school.
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