PG Smith to St John’s
- Thread starter wccat2969
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Funny how they made his transcripts work.
Once again UK loses a player due to academic red tape while our peers are out there cheating their asses off. Hope the next prez we get cares more about bball than Eli.
One thing you can count on, our admittance folks will make players jump through unnecessary academic hoops to play basketball here. We learned that during the Big Z fiasco.
Has UK's admission standards risen to a high similar to a Vandy or Harvard for instance? If I could get in 100 years ago it must have changed a lot since then.
Funny how we don’t. What kind of academic handicap are we working with here? That’s two guys I know of
No. We learned even more that Cal didn't know Jack squat was going on and too many of you believed everything he said. Z had troubles getting in to UK and past NCAA. That staff didn't know how to get anything done and you'd rather blame admissions instead of the gang that can't shot straight.
It wasn’t about transcripts for UM as much as it was about credits transferring. UM and UVA have wonky admission standards with what can and can’t be transferred.
There is a nice thread on Reddit about his situation.
Can we stop pretending like UK is a hard school to get into. If he couldn’t make the grades to get into UK, the fault is not in UK.
What’s rather competitive, with grades at least, is getting a high enough GPA to qualify for an academic scholarship.
I just googled it. All he needed was a 2.0 gpa. I kinda understand why everyone wants to get mad at UK… but come on…
What’s rather competitive, with grades at least, is getting a high enough GPA to qualify for an academic scholarship.
I just googled it. All he needed was a 2.0 gpa. I kinda understand why everyone wants to get mad at UK… but come on…
It isn't about grades necessarily. It is about the credits transferring to allow him to maintain the same grade level necessary for clearance to play. UK is notoriously strict with credits transferring. I tried to transfer some credit hours from some summer classes I took at a community college in the BCTC system the summer between HS graduation and freshman year. These were core classes and it was like pulling teeth to get them to transfer. I don't know why UK is like that but they make transferring much harder than it needs to be.
I believe so. He tried to follow his coach to Michigan but couldn't get admitted. Iirc
His grades could be fine lmao its all about being able to transfer enough credits to be in good standing. He might have majored in something uk doesnt offer meaning uk doesnt have a-lot of classes he took therefore they cant transfer those credits
Is UK notorious for that? It’s the first I’m hearing of it. I’m 32 and have a cat fan since birth and have NEVER heard of a player transferring in having an issue with this sort of thing. I’m sorry to hear about your experience. I had no issues transferring my credits that were C’s and above to Lexington from the Air Force academy.
So you want UK to commit academic fraud and he like UNC and make up a major they don’t have to get one player? I hardly think that’s consistent with how hard we are on UNC… I don’t really understand what you want UK to do. When I was in Lexington a decade ago a lack of academic diversity was not one of their problems. Like I said to the other fella, I’ve never heard of UK being hard headed before Big Z and Smith. And with Smith didn’t he also have issues with Michigan?
I think it’s telling the only school he didn’t have issues with (at least that he had serious interest in) is coached by a guy with a laundry list of recruiting violations on his resume. But if either of you have proof of your claims I would certainly be open to changing my mind on these things, and I mean that quite sincerely.
No i dont i was explaining why he could have straight As and not be able to transfer here
Really good get for Pitino. He’s going to help this guy a lot I believe. He’s close right now. Good pickup for the Johnnys.
Certainly possible but not at all likely. His listed major, according to the university of Utah’s official website, is “communications and psychology.”
UK offers both of those majors. Neither one of them is known for being difficult. I know everyone wants to paint UK as the bad guy here, for whatever reason, but there isn’t any hard supporting evidence for this argument. But, to be fair, I haven’t researched the evidence for that argument very extensively. So again, if there is evidence to the contrary I am wide open to having my mind changed. I’m very sincere in that, if someone offers conclusive evidence that UK and Michigan screwed this guy I’ll tag along. I just haven’t seen it.
And as I said before, I do think it’s telling that the only program he looked at seriously that didn’t have an issue has a head coach with a LONG list of recruiting violations.
No supporting evidence? Other than a star basketball player not being able to transfer his psychology courses to a large university? St johns didn't have a problem.
Or how about the 7'2" unicorn that could speak perfect English they wouldn't let in because his country wasn't on the magical exception list? Arkansas didn't have a problem.
So ya...there is supporting evidence. The whole thing is ridiculous.
The situations themselves aren’t evidence… Your tone suggests you think I’m trying to be combative. I’m not. I’m interested in an intelligent conversation on this topic but I have zero evidence that these two events are the fault of the university. And I mentioned Big Z specifically.
I’m asking for evidence that the university broke its own standards to not allow either of these guys fair passage. And I have yet to see any. Just circular arguments of UK being the bad guy because of these two events. If his psych and communications credits didn’t transfer, the fault isn’t on the university when they only require a 2.0 gpa for credits to transfer from another 4 year school. He likely made less than straight Cs in programs that are arguably the easiest majors in all of post HS academia.
As for Big Z I just don’t see WHY the university of KENTUCKY would go against their own policies to keep a 7’2 basketball player off their team. That goes so against their own personal interests that I need evidence to confirm that happened.
If you want to blindly believe everything on the internet, go for it. I’m much harder to convince but so difficult that I’m unwilling to change my mind when provided conclusive evidence of malpractice. Wouldn’t you want others to treat you the same way if you were accused of corruption and malpractice? Would you want to be innocent until PROVEN guilty? I realize this is the court of public opinion and not a court of law but you should always treat others the way you’d like to be treated regardless of the environment, imo.
I'm not saying they should break their own standards. I'm saying their standards are archaic and stupid.
But let's look at those standards they arguably wouldn't break. The school, like most others these days, admits almost anyone that will pay. If your credentials don't warrant it, they'll put you in remedial classes. Failing out? Thing of the past.
So if John q student can transfer credits or be accepted with ease, athletes should too.
On the English proficiency, why should some countries be on an exception list and not others? Look at the list. Hardly English speaking countries. Then imagine the archaic quality of exam it must be to say z isn't English proficient. He's extremely fluent. So much so it's hard to believe it isn't his native language.
But let's look at those standards they arguably wouldn't break. The school, like most others these days, admits almost anyone that will pay. If your credentials don't warrant it, they'll put you in remedial classes. Failing out? Thing of the past.
So if John q student can transfer credits or be accepted with ease, athletes should too.
On the English proficiency, why should some countries be on an exception list and not others? Look at the list. Hardly English speaking countries. Then imagine the archaic quality of exam it must be to say z isn't English proficient. He's extremely fluent. So much so it's hard to believe it isn't his native language.
Agreed. I went to NKU my first year in college (because my GF was a SR in HS up there- stupid, I know)...I lost like 12 hours IIRC in 101 courses and it had nothing to do with grades. They just didn't qualify. Because of this I graduated in Fall and walked in Spring.
I cant speak to his but mine was in the mid 90's back when the community college system was even part of UK as KCTCS. Transferring credits has been an issue for as far back as then. Many of my friends had the same issues as well.
Exactly. The 90s. We're in the age of remote learning and everyone gets in. The notion of classes not transferring from one respected institution to another is archaic.
For the vast majority of transfer athletes, the issue isn’t admission. The issue is satisfying progress towards degree requirements to be eligible to play.
Even if a school grants credit for all of a student’s prior work, if the courses don’t closely align with the new school’s degree requirements for a given major, then the student runs the risk of not meeting the progress towards degree requirement.
In other words, the student athlete could get admitted to the school but wouldn’t be eligible for athletic competition.
As to the exemption list, from scanning the countries, that appears to be a list of countries where English is an official language. The list doesn’t seem that surprising to me.
Which is archaic.
On the English proficiency - did z not sound English proficient? Whatever test they used that he failed needs totally revamped..
I went to law school with someone who couldn't speak any English. Not a word. They were not only accepted but graduated. That wasn't UK, but I would be very suspicious of any representation that everyone on UKs campus was English proficient.
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