USF Not Right Fit For Akol

[Bullpride08]

Five schools? Akol went to Our Savior New American in Centerreach, N.Y., then went to IMG Academies in Bradenton. Where else did he attend?

I thought he attended another prep school before Savior New American, and then committed to another one before deciding on IMG.   Maybe I got him mixed up with someone else.  I know the Savior New American coach was disappointed with losing him, but this situation appears to be academic related so perhaps not pertinent anyway.  Odd that we allowed him to enroll then rejected him.

[Matt]

id rather have the committee in place and not allow a player in who would just be ineligible during the year anyways (thats obviously what they felt would of happened)  but i do agree, they should of made that decision before he started taking classes

kudos to Brett for getting the other side of the story.

http://sports.tboblogs.com/index.php/sports/related/C127/

[Triple B]

kudos to Brett for getting the other side of the story.

While it is Brett's job to report the whole story if he has it, I sure wouldn't give him "kudos" for it, especially if you're a USF fan. It reflects negatively on our hoops program and administration in the way that it was handled, IF we have all the facts, and we sure as hell don't need any of that at this point in time...

[CyberBull]

you guys are missing the point: Akol was admitted to USF with a provisional admission. That is, he had to meet some requirements, usually a GPA and specific number of credit hours, in order to gain full admission as a regular student. When he dropped his sole class this summer, based on Greg's report, he very likely killed any chance of turning his PROVISIONAL admission into regular status. My guess is if he would have not dropped this class and passed it with an A or a 'B' we would not be having this discussion.

BTW, think about it for a minute....the drop date for summer classes is much earlier than the end of the 4th week of a 6 week semester. That suggests that he wasn't doing well in that class. I don't know how tough 2-hr classes are today....but they are typically not very hard.

Akol seemingly has nobody to blame but himself. BTW....USF is already skating on thin ice when it comes to the APR. The last thing it needs is a student athlete who has trouble completing his initial requirements to get into the University. This should have not been so hard....Akol was apparently just not up to the task.

[USF_Grouper]

I think the academic review committee is a GREAT idea, but you cant throw someone out in the middle of his first college class. If he flunks out academically after one year, kick him out, but this just seems ridiculous.  

I agree the timing seems poor, but I think if we had the whole story it would make a bit more sense.  It sounds like the academic review committee gave him a provisional acceptance wtih the expectation that he meet certain milestones.  So the committee was really trying to work with him and give him a chance.  The problem with giving him a full year is at some point he starts to affect our APR.  I don't think he will have any impact since he never really joined the team.

[Who'sYourData?]

kudos to Brett for getting the other side of the story.

While it is Brett's job to report the whole story if he has it, I sure wouldn't give him "kudos" for it, especially if you're a USF fan. It reflects negatively on our hoops program and administration in the way that it was handled, IF we have all the facts, and we sure as hell don't need any of that at this point in time...

It isn't Brett's job to only report the rosy side of what happens at USF.  He didn't spin a good story into a bad one, he reported the facts.  He did a good job.

Let's not be like those UCF losers and whine if somethng is reported that we don't like.

[Vega]

Well on the court this hurts a lot for this season forthcoming.While some on here might debate if he was offensively ready to contribute big time this coming season, however he is 6-11 and could have made a difference defensively.I said our strength would be our front line defense with Akol, Sanchez, Ajayi, Espinosa, and Gilchrist.All good shot blockers and rebounders.I always believed that we would at times struggle in the half court, but be very solid  defensively, losing Akol weakens our interior defense.Essentially we replace a 6-11 athlete and match up problem in Akol with a 6-7 Teague(I was hoping he red shirts) that struggles badly with his conditioning.

If Gus gets his waiver he will probably be joining the team in December like Mercer.Meanwhile we have a non conference schedule that we have to dominate before Big East play begins.That won't be as easy at it once appeared before yesterday's shocking event.

Now the good news and possible silver lining is we have another scholarship available for the '09 class.If like someone said Akol wouldn't be able to contribute until the start of the '09 season then we need to bring in a guy that is ready to go as a freshmen much in the way Gus Gilchrist is.I see a guy like a Thomas Robinson out there and possibly a Mouphtaou Yarou who we are on as guys that we really need to apply our best recruiting tactics and try like heck to get 1 of these guys.We need 3 guys in this '09 class that can have an impact offensively as a freshman.We're in the mix with some really good players so we just have to get the right ones and can still be pretty good in the '09-2010 season.

BTW it will be very, very important that Coach Heath finishes his recruiting with the early signing period this November.While we could be a really decent team we also can have a very ugly season if things don't go our way with Gilchrist.We do not need anyone we are recruiting for the '09 class to see us that way. :-[

[AndytheBull]

you guys are missing the point: Akol was admitted to USF with a provisional admission. That is, he had to meet some requirements, usually a GPA and specific number of credit hours, in order to gain full admission as a regular student. When he dropped his sole class this summer, based on Greg's report, he very likely killed any chance of turning his PROVISIONAL admission into regular status. My guess is if he would have not dropped this class and passed it with an A or a 'B' we would not be having this discussion.

BTW, think about it for a minute....the drop date for summer classes is much earlier than the end of the 4th week of a 6 week semester. That suggests that he wasn't doing well in that class. I don't know how tough 2-hr classes are today....but they are typically not very hard.

Akol seemingly has nobody to blame but himself. BTW....USF is already skating on thin ice when it comes to the APR. The last thing it needs is a student athlete who has trouble completing his initial requirements to get into the University. This should have not been so hard....Akol was apparently just not up to the task.

Maybe I'm wrong, but the way I read it was that the committee forced him to withdraw from his class. And the drop date for Summer B is today(July 26). Heres the link from the Registrars website:

http://www.registrar.usf.edu/forms/91011Cal2008-07-22_12_47_40.pdf

[smazza]

akol wasnt abdul jabbar

[Held_AccountaBull]

Five schools? Akol went to Our Savior New American in Centerreach, N.Y., then went to IMG Academies in Bradenton. Where else did he attend?

I thought he attended another prep school before Savior New American, and then committed to another one before deciding on IMG.   Maybe I got him mixed up with someone else.  I know the Savior New American coach was disappointed with losing him, but this situation appears to be academic related so perhaps not pertinent anyway.  Odd that we allowed him to enroll then rejected him.

you thought wrong