by BY TOM MURPHY ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE , Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

Seven of the 12 SEC programs, including Arkansas with a league-low 888, scored lower than 925 in men's basketball in the APR results released in May by the NCAA .

The national average score in Division I men's basketball was 933, with the SEC having the lowest average among the BCS conferences at 930.

The NCAA refers to 925 as the "cut line" score, below which penalties can be given to a program. Auburn, South Carolina and Tennessee were each docked a scholarship in the sport based on their scores of 899, 909 and 924, respectively.

The APR measures how well university athletic programs retain athletes and keep them eligible. Schools are subject to scholarship losses only if an athlete leaves school while academically ineligible.

Slive has been selected to serve on an NCAA committee called the Basketball Academic Enhancement Group to study the issues in that sport.

"We'll look at the application of the APR in basketball and try to find a way to improve it, because it's a national issue," he said. "It's clearly not simply an SEC issue." Perhaps more than in any other sport, men's basketball players see the college game as a steppingstone toward a professional career, and issues regarding playing time cause roster turmoil across the nation.

"With basketball especially, there is just a focus on the kid and the talent he has," said Barry Booker, a former academic All-SEC player at Vanderbilt and a longtime SEC basketball analyst. "You so often find parents and guardians and people who you think would have a little objectivity just think their kid is the next Michael Jordan when it's obvious they're not.

"There's a focus on the basketball side of things to the detriment of the academic side of things." Jon Fagg, an Arkansas senior associate athletic director who handles compliance, said players who declare early for the draft and players who transfer hurt APR scores in basketball.

"You combine all those factors, which ... any one of them might not be that huge, and then you combine the fact that, whether we like it or not, there is a group of college basketball players, I wouldn't say how big or small it is ... who are relatively underprepared when they start college," Fagg said.

No matter the contributing factors, the result has been an overall subpar performance in men's basketball's APR scores, which are a leading indicator of graduation-rate success.

"Our overall APR for men's basketball has fluctuated each of the last five years, so it's been up and down, up and down and this past year it's down," Slive said. "I'm confident that this information will serve as a catalyst for improvement." There has been tweaking of APR guidelines in its five years of existence, such as a provision to not penalize schools for players who leave school early and sign professional contracts. Some observers feel the APR is still far from perfect.

"I know the intent of it is to help hold schools accountable and getting their kids to graduate," said Jimmy Dykes, a college basketball analyst for ESPN, 1995 graduate of Arkansas and former Razorbacks manager, walk-on and assistant. "But there are too many variables in there with guys leaving, guys getting injured, guys transferring for reasons that the head coach or the school can't control.

"I'm in favor of something like the APR, but I'm not in favor of the APR the way it's written right now." Arkansas' score of 888 in men's basketball was not subject to any penalties because the program had no players leave school who were academically ineligible. Still, the Razorbacks are working to stabilize their roster and improve their score in that sport.

"The APR is something that is here, it's not going anywhere," Coach John Pelphrey said.

"When I got the job, we started trying to prepare for a lot of these things and looking at big-picture stuff and where we could be and scenarios." Auburn, aware that it would fall below the cut line in men's basketball, self-imposed a scholarship loss for the current school year. Auburn lost at least a partial scholarship in four sports, the most among any SEC school, a situation Auburn Athletic Director Jay Jacobs termed unacceptable.

"While we are pleased that 18 of our 21 sports met the NCAA's benchmark for academic progress, we will not be satisfied until all of our sports reach this level," Jacobs said.

Auburn self-imposed scholarship losses in men's indoor (894) and outdoor (892) track and swimming (920).

South Carolina has lost a scholarship in men's basketball each of the past two seasons because of low APR scores, which are calculated on a rolling four-year basis.

Gamecocks officials seem confident their men's basketball APR, up to 909 from 899, would continue to rise under secondyear Coach Darrin Horn.

"He has a different attitude when it comes to disciplining and making sure they go to class and so on," South Carolina associate athletic director Val Sheley told The State newspaper in Columbia, S.C.

A report in the Knoxville (Tenn.) News-Sentinel said the dismissal of men's basketball players Duke Crews, Ramar Smith, Jemere Hendrix and Tony Passley counted as lost retention points for the Volunteers, but that Crews' departure was the costliest because he was ineligible.

The Volunteeers, according to the paper, are having to consider taking a scholarship from a current member of the team.

In football, Ole Miss was the only SEC school hit with contemporaneous penalties in May. The Rebels, under second-year Coach Houston Nutt, will be forced to lose three scholarships between now and the fall of 2010.

Officials at Ole Miss believe the transition from Ed Orgeron to Nutt will help their football program steady their APR score, which fell from 939 to 910.

"Any sort of coaching change is difficult," Ole Miss Athletic Director Pete Boone said.

"That's when you see a lot of the retention points lost." Three players who were ineligible left the Ole Miss program during the 2007-2008 academic year.

"The penalties being assessed occurred prior to the time of our arrival," Nutt said in a news release. "Our team's APR number for [the current year] is predicted to be over 925 and that shows our commitment and we look forward to continuing our academic success." Arkansas had a 927 score in football, the second-lowest in the league, possibly indicating that transitions in coaching staffs can impact APR scores.

Arkansas and Ole Miss were the only SEC programs to change head football coaches following the 2007 season.

"We'd like to be higher, obviously," Arkansas Athletic Director Jeff Long said of the Hogs' APR score in football. "If you look at the data across the country, coaching changes do have an impact. It has proven out to be the case." The SEC's overall APR score in football is on the rise.

"We had the highest APR score of 955, which is the product of two consecutive years of increased scores," Slive said. "So the eligibility and retention scores for football means that SEC football players are successfully completing their academic work and being retained as students at higher rates of success than in the past." When the APR was first instituted five years ago, it was a somewhat vague concept.

Now administrators, academic advisors and coaches have a better grip on the applications of APR policy.

Melissa Harwood-Rom, UA associate athletic director for academic support, said she uses a coaching technique on the Arkansas coaches when it comes to APR discussions.

"Sometimes I say to coaches, `I heard you say we have to do the little things right, well that's on the academic side, too,'" she said. "And it's really gotten them thinking along those lines: Is it helpful? Is it a good thing?

"If [the APR] makes us think about the little things, on and off the court, then I think it probably is helpful." Slive said he likes the APR figures much better than the old federal guidelines regarding graduation rates.

"I've always talked about the fact that intercollegiate athletics is part of the missions of our institutions and therefore there's an important academic component, and I think the APR as a concept - there are all these issues about it when the rubber meets the road - but as a concept it has, I think, done a great deal to improve the awareness and the importance of quality academic performance amongst our coaches and our players," Slive said.

This article was published 06/28/2009

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