I get the fact that it’s easy to place 100% of the blame on Fab. It’s easy since he’s no longer here, and thus, it’s easier to blame a guy no longer with the program. But man, I’d be remiss if I didn’t get my true feelings out there on the subject, so here goes: If you’re a person responsible for maintaining a successful basketball team, or business, or charity, whatever…how do you not have a process in place to guard against such a scenario happening to threaten the success of the entire group? I just cannot understand how it got to that point, I truly don’t.
The Syracuse University basketball team is a high profile, historic organization, employing a million dollar plus coach, various other assistant coaches, various other administrative staffers in the Athletic Department, and various volunteer managers and tutors and such. Secondary people that profit from the program are many, including those who work at the Dome, local hotels, restaurants, bars, stores, ect. The budget for this organization is in the millions of dollars. The outcomes of games played and news made is reported world-wide, and can be a source of pride for the community. And the main “resources” of the organization, what makes all the wheels turn, is the talent… namely the players and coaching staff. Good coaching can elevate a team of average talent players and teach them to act as one to improve their play…but, as the saying goes, you can’t teach 7 feet tall. And as such, a 7 footer from Brazil is encouraged to move to the United States to begin playing basketball, since players with his height and athletic ability are rare, and thus, in demand. Knowing this, Syracuse targeted Fab, put major resources (time and money) in going to Florida to evaluate him, bring him to Syracuse for an official visit, ect. We battled Louisville and others for his commitment, and won.
Fast forward 2 years. All the talent is there to be as successful as any team in the country. The goal now is to coach the talent and ensure that everyone is available to help the team. Out of the many things that can cause a player to become unavailable to contribute to the team (injury, academics, drug use, behavior issues or arrest, ect) isn’t academic ineligibility the easiest to guard against? I mean, doesn’t everyone involved in the equation (coaches, player, professors, school administrators, tutors) desire for the player to do well in his classes, even if for different motivations? How are there not strict and clear processes and checks to ensure the player is doing the work and attending classes and monitoring the progress to ensure that, in even a “worst case scenario”, the player has done enough to simply pass? How do those in charge of the program not have weekly progress reports of class attendance, test results, work handed in, ect? How does it get to the point of no return? It blows my mind how there could exist a scenario where, if the player had failed the first test or two, at the very first sign of a potential problem, where there wouldn’t be a meeting between a coach, player and professor, where the professor provides an honest account of where the player is currently at and what work needs to be done for at least a passing grade. And if, at that point, the player needs to be micromanaged to the extent that he literally has a tutor move in with him and “sign off” that the player showed him all the coursework required to be completed that week or practice test results, ect, then so be it. But to allow something like academic standing (something so easily monitored, unlike what players may be up to on the weekends) to disrupt all the hard work put in by so many, is simply reckless in my mind. It would be like a bank not having a process or system of checks to make sure all their required paperwork is filed with the state or whatever to allow them to continue doing business. Could you ever see a big bank close their doors, and say “sorry, we missed a big deadline to get our applications in, and we got closed down.” No way! This stuff is too important. There are numerous processes involved, checks and balances that would raise a flag if even one required form was incomplete. And that’s how it should be.
I don’t know exactly what happened in this particular situation, but I also don’t see too many other players being held out at such a critical juncture of the season for similar reasons. Maybe other teams have better systems to ensure good academic standing? Or maybe other schools have relaxed standards? I don’t know, but I don’t care. Something failed us in this situation, and to assign 100% of the blame to Fab is to miss out on an opportunity to look at how Syracuse Basketball operates and see how we can better ensure that such a failure does not happen again. And that doesn’t mean that the player has no responsibility in this effort…doesn’t mean that at all. Of course, the main point should be that the player is wholly responsible for their academic standing…but just in case, you can sleep well at night knowing there are strict guidelines in place to monitor the situation and straighten-out any underperforming efforts to ensure the programs resources are fully available. Way too much time and money goes into getting the talent to just then leave the program’s outcome dependent on a player’s (lack of) motivation or (lack of) ability to put forth a good effort in the classroom. I know if I was responsible for the program’s well-being, and had the option to put in place guidelines or programs to force the players to do at least the minimum asked, I would bother me to no end if I did not enact such policies. There would be almost zero opportunity for some knucklehead kids to ruin all the hard work and dedication put forth by me and my staff, that’s for damn sure.
It all comes down to this: I don’t exactly count on the individual players to be 100% responsible adults, with the wisdom to fully realize what consequences come from various situations. In fact, with all the various NCAA rules and regulations, there is no chance in hell that a kid from Brazil, here on a basketball scholarship, knows the ins and outs of maintaining eligibility like a coaching staff should. Maybe it’s just me, but I’m not expecting guys like Dion, Fab, Rakeem, Mookie, ect to be as concerned with academics as the average student on campus. In my opinion, I’d want there to be complete oversight by staff members who are versed in the NCAA requirements. It’s not so much a neglect of personal responsibility…again, I’d make sure to project to the athletes how important academics are in maintaining eligibility, but to not have the staff monitoring every player’s situation and standing every other week as a backup, in case a player gets off track, is simply negligent. And I will always look to those who should know better in these situations to take some blame. I’m pretty sure that adults collecting paychecks (nice paychecks at that) should know better than some 20 year old basketball player from another country.
