Denial, to university officials, seems to be a modus operandi, a standby response and a default device by which maneuvering around negative attention becomes possible. Essentially, university officials treat public relations as a game of Pong: they try to deflect negative publicity back at its source before it passes through their defenses.
Officials recently played this game when they dealt with low-wage employee complaints by denying voiced concerns and claiming ignorance on the part of the employees.
Such administrative maneuvering can be expected, and has, in fact, become predictable. But now, the university’s beloved basketball coach Gary Williams is playing the same game.
As The Diamondback’s Aaron Kraut reported Friday, the men’s basketball team received a zero on the NCAA’s recent Graduation Success Rate Report (GSR) – a score that reflects the fact that no scholarship men’s basketball player between 1997 and 2000 graduated from the university within six years. This university’s program was the only one – out of all NCAA Division I men’s basketball programs – to score a zero.
Why was this the case? Well, the answer to that question wasn’t forthcoming. Rather, Williams responded by questioning the legitimacy of the NCAA’s report, saying it wasn’t an accurate portrayal of his players’ level of success after leaving the university.
“I feel that these players have succeeded,” Williams said. “Their skill is basketball; you go to college to maximize whatever you’re good at.”
Oh, right. Our program isn’t the problem; the subjectivity of the NCAA’s report is. Our players are leaving the university with a great set of skills – namely passing, shooting and dribbling. What a resumé.
Williams also said the six-year window the NCAA allows for graduation is unfair. Former player Tahj Holden, for example, has graduated, but because he did so after more than six years, his graduation was not taken into consideration in the report.
But according to an Athletics Department press release, only two of the ten scholarship players between 1997 and 2000, one being Holden, have graduated. What about the other eight?
Williams’ entire response is laughable. Regardless of whether there are flaws in the NCAA’s report, this university being the only one to receive a zero says a lot. It says every other men’s basketball program is doing a better job graduating its players. It says our university does a lousy job of getting its male basketball players degrees. It says our Athletics Department doesn’t care about players’ academic success, and allows them to disregard their studies in light of their athletic endeavors.
Brushing the entire report aside as being flawed to the point of irrelevance does only one thing: It misses an opportunity for Williams and others involved with the program to reevaluate their efforts to have their players graduate.
Instead of saying, “This report is indicative of some underlying problems within our program, and we are going to look into how we support our players’ dual roles as athletes and students,” Williams basically just said, “Nah, it’s all good. They still got skills.”
It’s all a bunch of Pong balls. Deflect. Deflect. Deflect.
