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Wednesday, January 25, 2006
Another apologist
The mainstream media down in the Lehigh Valley has been working overtime this week in their role as apologist for Lehigh in the Joe Knight fiasco.

Today it is Paul Sokoloski's turn. Writing in a column in the Express-Times.

The problem with this one is that Sokoloski simply does not even understand the facts behind the case. For example, he writes:
Knight maintained a near-3.0 grade-point average at High Point University and Tarrant Community College -- where he left with Dean's List honors.
The facts, as we reported back while Sokoloski and the rest of the Lehigh Valley media were giving Lehigh a free pass on the whole mess:
"(Knight) was in good standing at High Point, though he did have a GPA that was less than ideal," Sterrett said. Sterrett said Knight’s GPA at High Point was around a 2.0.
Sokoloski said Lehigh officials figured most of the 93 credits Knight brought with him to Lehigh would transfer, thus no eligibility questions.

But that is pure B.S. For starters, they expressed concerns about a lot of his work at High Point before Knight was even admitted to Lehigh. That is why he had to spend a year at a community college. And certainly any student transferring to a new school knows where he or she stands once they get there.

Then Sokoloski goes on to give Sterrett a platform for his usual defense: The NCAA rules are confusing:
"There are 495 pages of rules and regulations," Sterrett said. "Most of this stuff is pretty clear. Some of it is left to interpretation. The (NCAA) interpretation is different from what we had determined."
Once again, since nobody in the Lehigh Valley has bothered to share it with their readers, here is the NCAA rule that caused Knight's problems:
The calculation of credit hours to meet this requirement [the cumulative credits required under the progress toward degree bylaw] shall be based upon hours earned or accepted for degree credit.
Remember, this rule was enacted to make sure kids don't spend four years taking basket weaving and pencil sharpening classes, keeping their GPA high enough to be eligible without actually progressing towards a real degree.

The bottom line is pretty simple: Lehigh tried to find a way to let Knight play. It got caught and Knight paid the price for the mistakes made by his school.

Knight sat out 16 games and his league-record 45-point game in last year's tournament will be wiped from the record books.

Lehigh, it appears, will forfeit a few games from last year, a penalty that is next to meaningless since it won't cost the school any money or trophies.
Published at 8:01 AM by Hoop Time.
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