Time to change our way of doing things

It is often said: To those whom much is given, much is expected.\nSuch is the case with college athletes given scholarships – and often a fair bit more – based purely on athletic ability. And, as the above phrase would suggest, the more high-profile the sport, the more is given and expected of such athletes. \nMaybe that’s why we’re so mad at Eli Holman, DeAndre Thomas, Jamarcus Ellis and Armon Bassett. Maybe we just can’t handle the fact that they had so much laid at their feet for their skill with a round orange ball and yet chose to throw all of that away.\nLet me preface what I am about to say by stating the following: I do not condone skipping class, skipping practice, back-talking a coach or anything else any of these players may have done that led to their parting of ways from IU basketball. \nBut we as a sports-watching society have come to an alarming point in history when athletes like Ellis, Holman, Bassett and Thomas are far too dispensable. It occurs to me that in all I’ve read I haven’t seen a word written for concern of the futures of these young men – only the IU basketball program. \nWhat’s gotten lost in the exodus of Kelvin Sampson and the subsequent whitewashing that has been Tom Crean’s short tenure at IU is the fact that these kids are still just that: kids. \nThey were never given the kind of discipline necessary to teach them personal responsibility, so it is natural to conclude that they failed to exercise that responsibility on or off the court – obviously a product of Kelvin Sampson’s rather loose grip on his program. \nAgain, I’m not saying they deserve a second chance, and I’m not advocating the idea that IU should do something for these young men. But the fact remains that many people – I’ll shamefully include myself at times – see college athletes as only tools for entertainment and athletic success. Once they’re gone, they’re gone forever, never mind the fact that we have condoned years of cheating the system. Five-star recruits deserve a new Chevy Suburban every year, right? \nIf you believe that, I’ll bet you’ve never heard of Kevin Ross. Ross, a 6-foot-9-inch basketball star at Kansas City’s Wyandotte High School, played four years at Creighton in the late 1970s and early 1980s. But that’s not what made Kevin Ross so special. \nAfter four years of college, Kevin Ross left Creighton unable to read. Kevin Ross was told if he attended Creighton he would be helped in remedial reading classes. I guess they never got around to that. \nRoss has since spoken out about his past, hoping to help others avoid what happened to him. When ESPN’s “Outside the Lines” did a piece on Ross in 2002, the network reported that “over 10 percent of the schools in Division I have a graduation rate of zero percent for five straight classes of African American male basketball players.”\nSomething tells me that hasn’t changed much in six years, at least not judging by IU’s recent APR performance – the basketball team scored an 899, 26 points below the required 925 and good for No. 268 out of 339 Division One programs. \nSo what, you ask, am I getting at?\nWell, it occurs to me that if you teach someone to be more responsible for their own actions, they will likely start taking more responsibility in turn. Maybe it’s time we stopped giving these kids a free ride because they can play basketball, and maybe it’s time we stopped acting so shocked and appalled when they falter after being given everything and working for nothing. \nBut that’s going to require a new attitude, one that actually puts the “student” in “student-athlete” first, instead of giving them everything when they’re skills are of use to us and then disposing of them once that usefulness has come to an end. \nIn the meantime, perhaps we should stop publicly tearing down the characters of four young men whose lives right now are likely pretty much in tatters already. I think we helped them enough already, maybe it’s time to leave them alone.