NCAA math

I was a little nebulous before in using "graduation rate" in relation to the Academic Progress Report, so here's some more information:

"An APR of 925 projects to an NCAA Graduation Success Rate of approximately 60%." —NCAA

"An APR score of 925 correlates to an expected graduation rate of approximately 50%, using the federal graduation rate methodology."  —NCAA

Turns out there are two different commonly used formulas. Unlike the federal rate, the Graduation Success Rate accounts for transfers into an institution or those who leave in good academic standing (including those who leave for the pros but are academically eligible to return).

The NCAA contends that the GSR is more accurate, and that seems like a fair assessment. Even the best student would be pretty dumb to turn down an NBA lottery selection.

Of course, not everybody thinks the APR is perfect. Spencer Hall of the Sporting News calls it "the NCAA's own road to hell, paved with good intentions."

BoBo and you

It can be hard to have a meaningful impact on college athletics, but one Bruin fan is waging a campaign to get Louisiana State University to let J'Mison Morgan out of his letter of intent. It's no DumpDorrell, but it is ... ReleaseMorgan.com

In related news, the Shreveport Times has an article with lots of news about LSU hoops, including the following bits on Morgan (a.k.a. BoBo):

• LSU Coach Trent Johnson still thinks he can keep Morgan, but he's not "going to beg."
• Johnson denies Morgan's mother's claim that the coach hasn't called BoBo enough.
• "He's a very good young man, but is he by any means Shaquille O'Neal? No, he's not," Johnson said.

The 6-foot-10 center may wind up in Westwood if things fall UCLA's way.

Off-track

The UCLA-USC track and field dual meet used to be one of the hottest tickets in town. The two programs have won 42 combined national championships. From what I gather, fans used to be hanging onto fences to watch the sold-out event. Nowadays, the most expensive ticket is less than two gallons of gas. The meet is obviously a better deal.

Last week, I mentioned that the UCLA-USC meet was coming up, but even after it ended Saturday it took me several days to realize what a great event it was for purists.

Sports is as entertaining as ever — if not more so — but it certainly isn't pure. Drug scandals have torn the heart out of baseball, track and field, and cycling. The Olympics, once an adequate reason to halt wars and ignore all differences, are being hijacked by special interests. Even sports journalism is getting uglier with Luddite buffoonery (see: Bissinger, Buzz).

Ranking UCLA teams — by academics

Stat geeks have had plenty of fun since the NCAA issued an Academic Progress Report this week. Check out this list of UCLA sports in order of APR (based on an average of the last four years). Remember that a perfect score is 1000 and a 50% graduation rate equates to a 925. It's notable that although men's basketball is the worst-performing sport nationwide, at UCLA it ranks toward the middle of the pack.

J'watch

Prep center J'Mison Morgan may want out of his agreement with Louisiana State University, but that doesn't mean the Tigers aren't putting up a fight:

[New LSU coach Trent] Johnson, speaking before the kickoff Tiger Tour event at the Alexandria Riverfront Center, said he planned to talk late Wednesday night or this morning to 6-foot-10 center J'Mison Morgan of Dallas in the wake of Wednesday's report that his mother is seeking a release from the letter of intent and scholarship agreement her son signed last November.

The article is in Thursday's edition of the Daily Advertiser in Lafayette, La.

GuttyLittleBruins.com points out:

UCLA cannot contact J’Mison Morgan until LSU officially releases him. Johnson will be able to talk his ear off and Howland won’t be able to retort.

Jason Kidd loves Kevin Love

Nobody knows where Kevin Love will play next year, but the presumptive NBA first-rounder already has a huge fan in Dallas.

A friend of Jason Kidd tells us that while sitting at the premier of "Gunnin' For That #1 Spot" at the Tribeca Film Festival, Kidd "was waxing poetic about Kevin’s outlet passing, saying that he is easily the greatest outlet passer in the history of the game ... and that he’d love to play with K-Love."

Kidd is also a big fan of Michael Beasley and Brandon Jennings. The soon-to-be NBA players all star in "Gunnin' For That #1 Spot," a documentary set to be released June 27. We'll have a full review before the opening.

Photo by Bill Feinberg / Photosport

Men's basketball struggling nationwide

The NCAA has used the Academic Progress Rate to measure the academic success of athletic teams for four years. Although that is a relatively small amount of data, there's one thing that seems a little disturbing — based on its own standards.

A perfect score is 1000, and teams that fall below 925 start to face sanctions. That score equates to a 50% graduation rate. The national average for basketball over the last four years has been a whopping 928. It's the worst performing sport by a country mile. UCLA averaged a 968 in men's basketball, which is in the 80th-90th percentile in the sport.

The worst-performing women's sport over this period has been bowling (seriously, stop snickering) with a score of 941. Nationally, the "big three" men's sports have all done worse, but as you can see (in the chart above) football and baseball have at least started to make some progress. Basketball hasn't gone up by very much.

Don't believe anybody who tells you basketball is different because players leave early for the NBA ... there are only 60 draft picks, but many schools are left out of the NCAA's 65-team tournament. And no sport has more mid-week time commitments (and potential missed classes) than baseball and golf.

I'm not sure what's going on. Neither is the NCAA, which said it would address academic issues in men's basketball by creating a panel (expected to complete its work in October).

For more from the NCAA, click here.

To see a PDF breakdown of how UCLA sports performed in the latest report, click here.

Chart from NCAA

Wednesday hot links

Basketball:

• J'Mison Morgan's mother has submitted paperwork asking for his release from LSU (another reminder that we put a lot of pressure on kids these days). [Baton Rouge Advocate]

Football:

• Ivan Maisel wrote a feature about Norm Chow guiding the quarterbacks. [ESPN]
• Jon Wilner broke down the Pac-10 quarterback situations. [San Jose Mercury News]

Elsewhere:

• Apparently Nick Saban found a way to beat the Nick Saban rule. [Da Wiz]

Another successful year in the books

UCLA athletes got some great news in the classroom. Per Morgan Center:

The NCAA has released the latest edition of its Academic Progress Rates and UCLA continues to perform well. The APR report, which is based on the eligibility, retention and graduation of scholarship student-athletes, is now based on four years of data (2003-04 through 2006-07). An APR of 925 projects to an NCAA Graduation Success Rate of approximately 60%. Schools that fall below the 925 mark in a sport are subject to immediate and/or historical penalties which include loss of scholarships. All of UCLA’s 24 sports have a four-year APR above the 925 cutoff. Twenty-one of the programs have APRs over 950. Eighteen of UCLA’s 24 programs ranked in the top 50% of their respective sports. Softball ranked in the top 10%.

This might be the most impressive stat of all:

Twenty of UCLA’s 24 programs had a higher APR than the average of all Division I public institutions (a 21^st was tied) in their respective sports.

For some national perspective on the APR results, check out the AP story.

For your day's fix of schadenfreude, check out what happened across town.

Football surgery updates

As expected, senior quarterback Ben Olson today had a screw placed in his fifth metatarsal. The surgery was successful and the anticipated recovery time is six to eight weeks.

UCLA also announced today that junior tailback Craig Sheppard had reconstructive surgery on the AC joint of his left shoulder late last week. He will be sidelined four to six months.