Forum › Forum › Lehigh Sports › Lehigh Men’s Basketball › Patriot League Transfers
This topic contains 87 replies, has 13 voices, and was last updated by RichH 9 years, 8 months ago.
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April 17, 2015 at 3:52 pm #19462
Is it possible that as Lehigh and schools in the PL recruit better basketball players, who maybe were stretched academically to get in (i.e. would maybe not have gotten in except for basketball), kids arrive and don’t like the rigorous academics and want to go on to a bit of an easier college life, where they can mix sports with academics much more easily? For all I know, guys like SW, MS, CR and TS could have been carrying 4.0 averages, I have no idea. But, there doesn’t appear to be anywhere to hide academically at Lehigh (unlike UNC where they make up majors and grades for decades). I would think that has to be a factor, along with playing time. I know showing up when I did, the academics were a bit of a shock after high school, and I wasn’t concentrating on a sport as well. I would have barely been academically eligible early on, without a sport. I think a transfer elsewhere could reduce an academic load, particularly in season, when you have to travel to games, practice constantly and miss classes.
I also wonder about the culture of a school like Lehigh being a fit for a lot of student/athletes. Again, I am guessing totally on this, but I wonder about putting myself in the position of a typical 18 year old high school basketball player travelling to Lehigh. A lot of the time, you will have a young African American kid, travelling a great distance from home, coming to pretty much a lilywhite elite northeastern private school campus. The African American student body is relatively small (to my knowledge) and not a huge presence on campus. I think the non-academic social activities revolve around campus parties in private houses or fraternities, which again are overwhelmingly non-diverse. There may be economic issues as well. I would think that would be a very difficult transition. I think it takes a special, mature kid to be comfortable in that setting. Maybe that is different in a larger, more diverse university.
I’m not trying to make a big social commentary on race or any other social factor by posting this, but perhaps this gets overlooked. We think that this is a great opportunity to get a free education at a Top 40 National University, but there have to be a lot of other factors for these kids. It’s probably not so simple. I can only speak for myself, as a white, upper middle class kid from a suburban NJ town, that it wasn’t really hard to assimilate, as everybody around me was just like me. But, not that way for every kid.April 17, 2015 at 4:06 pm #19463All valid observations. How much any of these issues impact on individual players impossible to gauge. Agree tho,that it seems likely that athletes at LU have a challenging adjustment to LU both academically and sociall. Not discounting the higher level of athletic competition but that is a given going from HS to D 1. Probably is easier for middle class kids coming in regardless of race. No doubt race is an ongoing issue nationally and to a lesser extent at LU. Racial diversity at LU has improved markedly over the last 20 yrs. Now there are well over 300 black students at LU. Not enough perhaps but certainly not insignificant.
April 17, 2015 at 5:07 pm #19466Lehigh90,
No doubt the rigors of academics is probably a shock for some. MS and CR both where not having any trouble academically can’t speak about the other players you mentioned. However, recent players have had some struggles even some being placed on academic probation but seem to get by when necessary so I do not think it is a major factor IMHO.April 18, 2015 at 10:42 pm #19483Clearly Lehigh has been recruiting too many PGs and SGs the last few years. Sad these kids have to disrupt their careers to find better opportunities. I hope this was a case where coaches were upfront and honest with these kids about what their playing time was going to be like with an (other) strong class of guards coming in.
Or, perhaps they saw what happened to CS and SC; instead of developing into strong Senior leaders they saw limited roles and limited playing time.
Cannot say I blame them at all. But, I would fault our recruiters for the imbalance …April 27, 2015 at 2:37 am #19582Brown and White reporting that CR accepted a scholarship to play at Division II, Lock Haven.
No word yet on MS’s new location.
April 27, 2015 at 2:44 am #19583Good for him. Hope Cole finds what he wants there.
April 27, 2015 at 3:55 am #19584For the record, you all know I wrote that article right?
April 27, 2015 at 3:55 am #19585on miles
April 27, 2015 at 4:17 am #19586Yes,Alex. Those that didn’t now do
Now find out if and where Miles is headed. :):)
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This reply was modified 9 years, 9 months ago by
RichH.
April 27, 2015 at 4:36 pm #19592QUOTE: I just noticed that Mitchell Hahn is leaving Holy Cross and McLeay and Azzinaro are leaving Bucknell.
Both Azzinaro and MacLeay reversed course and decided to stay after Paulsen decided to leave.
April 27, 2015 at 5:33 pm #19593Interesting! Had heard that Azzinaro decided to stay, but didn’t know about MacLeay. Congrats!!
May 1, 2015 at 4:57 pm #19662Latest updates: Show is leaving Bucknell, and learned today that Michael Hoffman is leaving the pards. Don’t remember much about his game or contribution, but the loss of Hoffman seems non-trivial; roster looks thin up front.
May 1, 2015 at 5:01 pm #19663From patd Board,seems they just offered a ’15 big. Also,Dunkum coming in. Looks to be fairly standard Pard team. Bevy of tall thin guys and 3 pt shooters.
June 12, 2015 at 3:11 am #20247MS to Lewis University, in IL. Close to home; I hope he does great there.
June 12, 2015 at 3:26 am #20248 -
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