Well, I decided that my questioning the standards set academically behind closed doors possibly wasn’t completely insane. So, I went to the UTEP Basketball website, looked at the biographies of the players on the roster. Maybe I am crazy, but I think we happen to have a pretty damned smart basketball team.
The team lists 13 players. Of the 13 players, three of them already hold degrees. Matt Wilms and Keith Frazier are grad students and Jake Flaggert earned a degree in marketing and is working on a second degree in General Management.
Juniors Paul Thomas and Isaiah Rhyanis are shown as Honor Roll student as a prep and National Honor Society student, respectively. Fellow Junior Trey Touchet ,”…maintained a 4.0 prep grade point average” and is working on his degree in Kinesiology.
Sophomore Isiah Osborne transferred from Windsor University, and the biography tells us “…honor roll student”. Then there is the Freshman Deshaun Highler is an “…Honor Roll student and recipient of Scholar Athlete Award”.
How we doing, so far. Eight of the 13 are above average I would say. Perhaps way above average is not a stretch. Omega Harris did have to sit out one session, if I remember correctly. Freshman Trey Wade sat out last season to concentrate on grades. That leaves three other freshmen, Evan Gilyard, Tirus Smith, and Kobe Magee that no comment was made about academics.
Now, those are the facts as best I can see. You can look at them the same as I can look at them. Ask the questions! When Wilms, Flaggert, Touchet, Thomas, and Frazier are on the floor there are three college graduates and two honor roll students on the floor! I swear to God, if we were Harvard or Stanford or something that would be Hellaciously impressive. We are UTEP! Geezus corn sake! Why make it a secret? Man! Someone at UTEP media relations has sat and watched the Titanic sink without saying a word! This should be national news, not that Tim quit. Shit! If people knew that he was winning the games he has won with the fricken’ Einsteins he should get academic athletics coach of the year something or another! Instead he was berated and driven from the job he loved! I may be as wrong as wrong can be, and if I am, I will happily admit it but from where I sit there is a story here that should be told. Next stop, a look at the football roster. Anyone want to bet on what I will find?