So at what point does someone start taking heat for this

[dasher]

Southerland didn't pass, or whatever the infraction is, and JB and the school (not the NCAA) are punishing him for it by not allowing him to play. It seems to me that the program is doing the right thing. Just like with Fab Melo's suspensions, the school and JB suspended him both times. It's not like they waited for the NCAA to get involved before disciplining him.

LOL How long have you been a fan? JB isn't suspending him. The school is. JB would set Nolan Hart on fire if he thought it would help him get James back.

 

[OttoMets]

Southerland didn't pass, or whatever the infraction is, and JB and the school (not the NCAA) are punishing him for it by not allowing him to play. It seems to me that the program is doing the right thing. Just like with Fab Melo's suspensions, the school and JB suspended him both times. It's not like they waited for the NCAA to get involved before disciplining him.

Important distinction: in Fab's case, the school suspended him because it feared he was ineligible and did not want to put itself in the position of having to forfeit games at some later date. Big difference from proactively suspending the kid in order to change his aberrant behavior.

No idea what South has gotten himself into; can't speculate on that.

 

[Brooky03]

LOL How long have you been a fan? JB isn't suspending him. The school is. JB would set Nolan Hart on fire if he thought it would help him get James back.

I was born in '91 and I've been a fan since birth, as if that has any bearing on the validity of my opinions.

Back to the issue, the players are being suspended at the appropriate times for their academic problems. There is absolutely no sense in Jim B suspending a player before it is necessary. If he suspended him when the grades came out, sometime in mid-December, there would be no benefit. The only result would be that Southerland would still be suspended right now but he would have missed more games. Missing those games wouldn't have taught him a lesson any more than missing the games now is going to teach him. The proper safeguards are in place to make sure these adults pass their classes. The fact that two players have failed despite the idiot-proof system in place, reflects poorly on them a lot more than on anybody else. To be blunt, you have to be borderline ed and incredibly selfish to fail your classes as a DI college athlete.

 

[stuckinbig11]

2nd year in a row a major player has had eligibility issues, when does this ever happen at Duke, Unc, Kentucky Indiana etc. I love Coach but someone needs to be held accountable this is getting ridiculous.

Considering that we don't know what the problem is, perhaps your response was a bit premature (and nothing premature is good).

 

[dasher]

I was born in '91 and I've been a fan since birth, as if that has any bearing on the validity of my opinions.

Back to the issue, the players are being suspended at the appropriate times for their academic problems. There is absolutely no sense in Jim B suspending a player before it is necessary. If he suspended him when the grades came out, sometime in mid-December, there would be no benefit. The only result would be that Southerland would still be suspended right now but he would have missed more games. Missing those games wouldn't have taught him a lesson any more than missing the games now is going to teach him. The proper safeguards are in place to make sure these adults pass their classes. The fact that two players have failed despite the idiot-proof system in place, reflects poorly on them a lot more than on anybody else. To be blunt, you have to be borderline Tristaned and incredibly selfish to fail your classes as a DI college athlete.

It actually does have a bearing. You said that JB suspended JS. I was at JB's first game against Harvard. I love his coaching. But we have never had discipline in the program. Not from day 1. And it has hurt us. JB is the boss. If he doesn't put his foot down with these kids on their academics, it takes the sting out of what an academic advisor can do. If you were born in '91 (I'm envious) you have really followed them for about 11 years. For those of us that have follwed the team for over 40 years, we have seen it for far too long. Fab should never have been allowed to happen last year. Same as JS this year. Foot to @ss.

 

[tbonezone]

just to be clear here they're adults when they skip classes and kids when they break the law.

 

[Francis03]

I dont disagree but at a program like Syracuse its simply cant happen less two years in a row. There are supposed to be safeguards in place, again this doesnt happen at UNC, Kansas, Kentucky, Duke, Indiana, Lville, etc

I don't think UNC is a great example when mentioning academics

 

[JeremyCuse]

I don't think UNC is a great example when mentioning academics

LOL true Francis, but there two recent titles kind of cushion the blow and when was the last time they had a player academically ineligible?

 

[Brooky03]

It actually does have a bearing. You said that JB suspended JS. I was at JB's first game against Harvard. I love his coaching. But we have never had discipline in the program. Not from day 1. And it has hurt us. JB is the boss. If he doesn't put his foot down with these kids on their academics, it takes the sting out of what an academic advisor can do. If you were born in '91 (I'm envious) you have really followed them for about 11 years. For those of us that have follwed the team for over 40 years, we have seen it for far too long. Fab should never have been allowed to happen last year. Same as JS this year. Foot to @ss.

14 years; but you were close.

I'm well aware that discipline isn't a priority for Boeheim. Having said that, all the discipline necessary to make these players do their work is in place. A lot of fans are saying the players don't have an incentive to get their schoolwork done because there's no punishment and that's simply not the case. Fab Melo and possibly Southerland were/will be forced to miss most of the second half of their final season and all of the postseason. The message is that not doing your schoolwork will result in a serious suspension and the inability to perform in your teams most important games. If that's not incentive enough to get your work done, I don't know what is.

There is the mistaken belief that our bball program has many more discipline/academic issues than other top programs and that's also inaccurate. Most, if not all, of us aren't 100% up to speed on the happenings at other schools. SU and Jim Boeheim are not the poster children for a program out of control.

 

[Brooky03]

LOL true Francis, but there two recent titles kind of cushion the blow and when was the last time they had a player academically ineligible?

The question is, "when was the last time they SHOULD have had a player academically ineligible but covered it up?" Enrolling student-athletes in a non-existant Afro-American Studies class seems much more egregious than suspending them at the appropriate times for failing to meet their legitimate academic requirements.

 

[JeremyCuse]

The question is, "when was the last time they SHOULD have had a player academically ineligible but covered it up?" Enrolling student-athletes in a non-existant Afro-American Studies class seems much more egregious than suspending them at the appropriate times for failing to meet their legitimate academic requirements.

Welcome to Div 1 college basketball.

 

[dasher]

14 years; but you were close.

I'm well aware that discipline isn't a priority for Boeheim. Having said that, all the discipline necessary to make these players do their work is in place. A lot of fans are saying the players don't have an incentive to get their schoolwork done because there's no punishment and that's simply not the case. Fab Melo and possibly Southerland were/will be forced to miss most of the second half of their final season and all of the postseason. The message is that not doing your schoolwork will result in a serious suspension and the inability to perform in your teams most important games. If that's not incentive enough to get your work done, I don't know what is.

There is the mistaken belief that our bball program has many more discipline/academic issues than other top programs and that's also inaccurate. Most, if not all, of us aren't 100% up to speed on the happenings at other schools. SU and Jim Boeheim are not the poster children for a program out of control.

I follow college hoop very closely. I have espn game plan. I can't remember a top school losing their center, the d player of the year in their conference, before the NCAA tournament, can you? I can't remember a school losing their second leading scorer the very next year. I don't believe that it happens to the extent that it happens here.

 

[SBU72]

Syracuse provides every resource possible to help its student-athletes academically, team managers are assigned a player to make sure they go to class, people are available to help with homework and studying, and the players are punished in practice if they miss class or don't show up for studying/mentoring sessions. What more do you want JB or the program to do? Eventually, you have to blame these adult, student-athletes for being immature.

Even with all this help, it is not all that hard for a student to fail. If the student is taking a course where his final exam is a large portion of the grade and he screws up the final, he could fail and it's nobody's fault but his own.

 

[dasher]

Even with all this help, it is not all that hard for a student to fail. If the student is taking a course where his final exam is a large portion of the grade and he screws up the final, he could fail and it's nobody's fault but his own.

One fail shouldn't put you on the sidelines however.

 

[tbonezone]

we've got a coach pulling down give or take 1 cool million a season and who's success any season largely hinges on the GPA'S of roughly 5 top players and he can't get a handle on it. JB should have known about southerland 5 weeks ago.

 

[SBU72]

One fail shouldn't put you on the sidelines however.

I would have thought the same thing. However, how else does a senior have an academic eligibility problem? Or is it just an eligibilty problem? Waters says:
"Due to an eligibility matter, Senior James Southerland will not participate in competition until further notice. Given University policy and federal student privacy laws, we are unable to provide any further details at this time.'' Everybody is just assuming it's got to due with grades.

 

[MyMeloMyMan]

I know JB is more hands off than most coaches off the court, but man...i would think he would have someone making sure this doesnt happen year after year...

 

[SaltLakeOrange]

I would have thought the same thing. However, how else does a senior have an academic eligibility problem? Or is it just an eligibilty problem? Waters says:
"Due to an eligibility matter, Senior James Southerland will not participate in competition until further notice. Given University policy and federal student privacy laws, we are unable to provide any further details at this time.'' Everybody is just assuming it's got to due with grades.

It's not one fail. He's a senior. You have no idea how a GPA is calculated. To be where JS is means you have had 4 years of c's and just got an I or F.

 

[Capt. Tuttle]

Maybe the kid got an incomplete, needs to hand in a paper, pass the class and be back in business. Who knows?

 

[arbitragegls]

In defference to all of the comments...there are people, employed by the univeristy, to make sure all the team members are in academic good standing. This primarily falls on Southy's shoulders...but what of the tutors, mentors, and those supposedly checking with professors to make sure everything is moving ahead positively.
What bothers me is that this cannot be a one paper, one test failure to hand in or to pass...if it is a string of incidences of unfinished work and/or poor tests, than it falls on the bball's program of mentors and supervisors as well as Southy. Let's call it what it is...Southy's lack of doing what should have been done; but also a systemic failure of the bball program to monitor closely its student athletes...
...and the fact that this is second time in two years, whomever is in charge of these monitoring programs should be FIRED

 

[dinno28]

anyone in the know can't say why he was suspended and to speculate on the reason and try to point fingers is foolish ... lets just settle down and wait for things to take their course

 

[rrlbees]

Is this the reason our director of operations suddenly resigned a few weeks ago? Just guessing?

No

Sent from my DROIDX using Tapatalk 2

 

[BlueCurtain]

Because at the first stench of a loss or controversy you are like white on rice.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Right - because board traffic never increases when a player gets suspended.

 

[bozophobe]

I dont get why more people dont get this. They must not have kids


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There's no reason to make this a divisive parent/non-parent thing (I'm sorta in the middle; step father who wrote some checks). Any idiot can slip one past the goalie. There's nothing a parent knows that a non-parent doesn't.

That said, I agree it's all on James. There's something weirdly premature about indicting Boeheim over a second incident in 2 years that we don't even have the details on.

 

[44cuse]

I dont disagree but at a program like Syracuse its simply cant happen less two years in a row. There are supposed to be safeguards in place, again this doesnt happen at UNC, Kansas, Kentucky, Duke, Indiana, Lville, etc

I think we all know this: discipline is not at the core of the SU basketball program.

44cuse