Wondering about the Success of Kentucky Basketball, Race, and What Ifs. . .

It is that time of year again: March Madness is back.  Tonight, Kansas plays Kentucky for the national championship.  Yet something about the game makes me uneasy.  The feeling of unease began during the Kentucky-Louisville game last Saturday night.  There were many possible reasons.  For example: seeing Coach Calipari on the sidelines, he of the vacated records at UMass and Memphis; associating the University of Kentucky with the new one-and-done trend in college basketball; the hypocrisy of keeping student-athletes out of class for as long as they do during March in search of glory and money.  But it wasn't any of that.

Instead, it had something to do with race.

There is something jarring about Kentucky basketball.  Watching the game Saturday night, one could not help but admire the skills and athleticism of the players on the court.  I loved watching Marquis Teague, whom I saw playing in high school and who has grown immeasurably since January; Anthony Davis, who happens to be the second freshman to ever win the Naismith award as college player of the year; and Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, slated by some experts as a top-five pick in the upcoming NBA draft. These are three of the four freshmen who joined the team this past year.  The sophomore class includes Terrence Jones and Doron Lamb, also expected to be drafted in the first round.  Incidentally, these players all happen to be black.

Here's what bothered me: quite often, CBS would turn to the crowd after a great play, perhaps after a time out.  And not once did I see one Black face in the stands rooting for Kentucky.  This is not to say that Kentucky basketball does not have any Black fans; I am sure it does.  Rather, the point is that Kentucky's fan base is overwhelmingly white, while its basketball players are overwhelmingly Black.  Hence my unease.

Without question, Kentucky basketball has now become the sexy destination for elite basketball players.  Yet I cannot help but wonder about the politics -- racial or otherwise -- of the fans as compared to the politics of the players.  I also wonder about college admissions and whether these players would be accepted at institutions such as the University of Kentucky without their basketball skills.  I wonder where these fans stand on affirmative action and the upcoming Fischer case.  For those then alive, I wonder about their thoughts about Black players before 1969, the year when Kentucky basketball first integrated.  I just wonder.

And here's what I really wonder about: what if all these one-and-done players, the Anthony Davis' and the Kidd-Gilchrist's, decided to play together not at the white University of Kentucky, but at a historically black college, or even at the University of Detroit or Wayne State University? What would such a decision do for the city of Detroit, or for historically-Black colleges in general?

That is my dream.

Race and College Basketball

Anyone watching the Kentucky - West Virginia basketball game will come away admiring the skill and athleticism of the players on the floor. These players are terrific talents, no question about it.

I just can't help but notice a far more interesting phenomenon. For long stretches during the first half, all ten players on the floor were black players. In contrast, when the cameras turned to the crowd, it was predominantly white, as were the bands for both teams, the announcers and the coaches.

Finally, around the 10:47 mark, what appeared to be the first white player stepped on the floor for West Virginia: Deniz Kilicli, a freshman forward from Istanbul, Turkey.

I kid you not.

This is embarrassing in so many ways that I don't even know where to begin.

Above all, I wonder whether the people of Kentucky and West Virginia are as welcoming of students who apply to their university as they are of their basketball stars.

I also wonder whether admission officials at both schools are similarly welcoming of applicants of color as they are of basketball players, black or white.

Same for residents of both states: I wonder about their views on race and affirmative action.

Back in January, I wrote about the blatant the hypocrisy in the affirmative action debate, written in the context of the hiring of two white coaches whose credentials were questionable at best. I wondered then whether we could only "find Ward Connerly when we needed him."

I am still waiting for the outrage. After all, aren't these players taking seats on college campuses -- and college teams -- away from deserving whites?

Maybe the tea partiers could add this issue to their cause.

There They Go Again: College Sports

Binghamton University is the "academic jewel" of the SUNY system. According to the New York Times, Binghamton was also the site of gross academic misconduct, including the lowering of admission standards and the changing of grades, in the name of "athletic glory."

This was in the sports section of the paper, though it really should have been front page news.

This story epitomizes the vacuity of college athletics.

Somehow, the Times missed the larger import of the story. As you turn to the rest of the story, you find out about the lengths to which university administrators went to improve the men's basketball program. It is all pretty sickening. Yet it also made me wonder: surely, if small Binghamton University goes to these lengths, what else is everybody else doing to either achieve athletic excellence or to remain there?

Perhaps coincidentally, perhaps not, the Times included an AP story on the next page about how the "Longhorns are Preparing for Life After McCoy." This is a story about the University of Texas' football program and the upcoming season. This is the same program whose coach will be paid in excess of 5 million dollars a year, and whose budget is around 127 million dollars.

To pose the obvious question: if it happens at Binghamton University, what are the chances that it does not happen at the University of Texas? or put a different way: to what lengths would administrators at the top revenue producing programs go in order to reel in top recruiting classes while ensuring that their players remain academically eligible?

We can only wonder.

However, it is hard to be optimistic.