[Wahoo757Participant]

According to ESPN, the University of Connecticut has lost its final appeal to play in the NCAA Tournament in 2013. http://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/story/_/id/7779554/uconn-loses-final-appeal-play-2013-ncaa-tournament

STORRS, Conn. — The NCAA has turned down what the University of Connecticut says is its final appeal for a waiver of academic requirements that would allow the Huskies to play in next season’s postseason tournament.

UConn doesn’t qualify for the tournament because of below-standard academic results, but it requested a waiver earlier this year after saying it instituted changes that improved scores.

The school proposed alternate penalties, including playing a shorter schedule next season, forfeiting the revenue awarded to the Big East for participating in the 2013 tournament and barring coach Jim Calhoun from meeting off-campus with prospective recruits during the fall 2012 contact period.

NCAA staff rejected the appeal in February, and its Committee of Academic Performance followed suit on Thursday.

UConn failed to meet the NCAA’s academic standards from 2009 to 2011. Under the NCAA’s new rules, a school must have a two-year average score of 930 or a four-year average of 900 on the NCAA’s annual APR, which measures the academic performance of student-athletes.

Connecticut men’s basketball scored 826 on the APR for 2009-10. School officials have said it will come in at just above 975 for 2010-11. The scores are expected to be higher in 2011-12. It is unclear when the final numbers will be determined.

UConn had asked the NCAA to use data from 2010-11 and 2011-12 to determine eligibility for all NCAA teams in the future.

“I want to be clear that everyone at UConn is and will always be committed to academic excellence for all of our student-athletes and in particular our men’s basketball players,” said UConn athletic director Warde Manuel. “Before we even began this appeal process, the University and its Division of Athletics began to implement changes that were designed to positively impact the academic performance of our men’s basketball student-athletes. We have and will continue to make adjustments designed to help these young men succeed.”

UConn is the first high-profile school to receive the harshest penalty of a postseason ban due to a poor academic performance.

The Huskies will also be banned from the Big East Conference tournament.

Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.

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How do you think this impacts the decisions of their players in terms of transferring or declaring for the NBA? Andre Drummond was iffy in terms of declaring for the NBA, and I think something like this will push him to declare. Do you think that players like Shabazz Napier or Ryan Boatright will transfer because of this?

[So raspyParticipant]

 Oriahki already did transfer. If they could play this coming year it would be a good idea to transfer. If not, declaring for the draft might not be such a bad option, for Napier anyways. I don’t like the idea of playing for a team that can’t go to the dance no matter how well they play. I think UCONNS in for a long year again.

[Johnny Chill]

With all the one and dones at UK, I wonder what their academic progress is like. Are these one and done players finishing their 2nd sememster at school?

Eric Bledsoe, Demarcus Cousins had academic problems in high school, easy targets for slipping up in college.

During the NCAA championship game I saw a lot of walkons on the bench for UK….helping out with the team GPA?

[Author]

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