UNLV’s APR is A-OK in many sports
Three cryptic letters, lots of furrowed brows and quizzical expressions.
The NCAA’s Academic Progress Rate — APR — sure has been in the news lately.
The University of Nevada Board of Regents discussed it at length — and I do mean length — a couple of weeks ago when it finally agreed Chris Beard should be UNLV’s basketball coach, but only by a 9-4 vote. Then Beard sort of blamed it for bolting UNLV after one week to head for a greener (at least in salary terms) and more familiar pasture at Texas Tech.
Apparently Beard was concerned UNLV’s APR, which probably is going to bottom out with all these guys declaring for the NBA Draft or transferring to other schools (though it was a perfect 1,000 for this reporting period), might hamper the Rebels’ chances to sneak into the NCAA Tournament as a No. 11 seed.
When the APR dips to “Animal House” level, the NCAA can take away scholarships.
So UNLV issued a news release that said its APR — which I believe is sort of like WAR in baseball, but even more convoluted — was pretty good this year, especially in sports such as women’s golf and tennis.
“Seeing our student-athletes progress academically and earn their degrees is a priority for us,” UNLV athletic director Tina Kunzer-Murphy said in a statement.
There was no statement from the average fan, who doesn’t give a rat’s backside about APR.
So what is APR, considering it has been in the news so much recently, along with templates for hiring basketball coaches?
According to the news release:
APR provides a real-time look at a team’s academic success each semester by tracking the academic progress of each student-athlete. The APR includes eligibility, retention and graduation in the calculation, and its goal is to provide a clear picture of the academic culture in each sport.
A score of 1,000 means that the institution has met the goals of retention and satisfactory degree progress for 100 percent of each of its student-athletes in a given time period. A score of 900 equates to 90 percent, 800 equals 80 percent, and so forth.
In a related note, there are 15 ways for a pitcher to commit a balk, according to the official rules of baseball.
BRING ON OLD DOMINION
Players and coaches were enamored of the concept of the Vegas 16 postseason college basketball tournament won by Old Dominion. But only eight teams signed up, and attendance at Mandalay Bay for the inaugural event was virtually nonexistent.
So why not invite the Harlem Globetrotters as a No. 3 or 4 seed?
The ’Trotters were at T-Mobile Arena on Tuesday night, and a goodly amount of kids and their parents turned out. You might think the NCAA would never allow the Globetrotters to try the confetti-in-the-water-pail-routine against the likes of Oakland or Louisiana Tech. But in 2000, the NCAA — showing a bit of heart and whimsy for once — said it was OK for the ’Trotters to play Michigan State, the defending NCAA champions, in an exhibition game.
The ’Trotters nearly won, losing 72-68.
Two years later, the Globetrotters exacted revenge on the Spartans. They also beat Syracuse, which was coming off its national championship season. The basketball troubadours in the striped shorts went 7-1 on their NCAA tour, losing only to Texas-El Paso.
So there’s precedent for this. I say cue the “Sweet Georgia Brown” music, and let’s see how the ’Trotters match up against Northern Illinois and Towson.
MILT PAPPAS, 1939-2016
I don’t have a Prince anecdote to share; the closest I ever got was Mrs. K. dragging me to see Morris Day and The Time at one of the Station Casinos many moons ago. But Milt Pappas, who won 209 games in the major leagues and threw a no-hitter that should have been a perfect game, once sent me an autographed baseball.
It was after I dragged Mrs. K. to the World Famous Billy Goat Tavern — the “Cheeseburger, Cheeseburger” place from “Saturday Night Live” — under Michigan Avenue in Chicago. I had mentioned in the newspaper that of all the pictures of ex-Cubs hanging on the wall, his still was the biggest — the Billy Goat was founded by Billy Sianis, a Greek immigrant, in 1934; Milt Pappas’ birth name was Milt Pappastediodis.
He left a message on my voice mail. I called him back. We talked about Bruce Froemming robbing him of a perfect game against the yellow-shirted Padres in 1972, and shoveling one’s backside out of snowdrifts in the Chicago suburbs, and a bunch of other stuff.
His obituary said he was 76 when he died Tuesday, and that when Jake Arrieta won eight straight starts last season, it was the most by a Cubs pitcher since Milt Pappas won 11 in a row in 1972.
On Thursday night, Jake Arrieta outdid Milt Pappas by throwing a second no-hitter. One had nothing to do with the other, though some of us old Cubs fans might tend to disagree.
KRIS BRYANT, CLOTHES HORSE
Kris Bryant, who went 4-for-6 with two homers, including a grand slam, and drove in six runs to support Jake Arrieta’s second no-hitter Thursday, has became a fashion model for Express Runway.
I’m told Express Inc. is an American fashion retailer that caters to young men and women. So they probably sell those sports jackets that look much too tight when they are buttoned, and jeans that are much too snug.
To tease the deal with Bryant before it was official, Express put out a photo of a certain Las Vegas slugger that showed him from the nose down. It did not mention his name. In the manner of the Cincinnati pitchers who tried to get him out Thursday, they weren’t fooling anybody.
A video posted by EXPRESS (@expressrunway) on
PINS KEEP FALLING
They’re about to start Week 2 of the United States Bowling Congress Women’s Championships at South Point. And here you thought Board of Regents meetings went on unabated.
The latest news release was dated April 17. It said Teresa Person of Tigard, Oregon, had rolled games of 228, 230 and 172 to wrest the lead from Diana Brown of Georgetown, Texas. And that the tournament doesn’t end until July 11, or until Porky Pig crashes into the giant video boards above the lanes.
The Women’s Championships also are indirectly responsible for the email of the week.
(Disclaimer: I actually received the email about 10 days ago, but one can’t write about bowling every week — except, perhaps, if one resides in St. Louis or Milwaukee. )
Wrote reader Dino 7144:
“It was 1959 at the Burbank airport. I was watching my dad board a DC-3 bound for St. Louis to live his dream — to bowl in the (men’s) American Bowling Congress Tournament. You couldn’t wipe the smile off his face!
I had slipped a note in his bowling bag that said a 300 is on the way. There was no 300, but I still have the note …”
This is proof that bowling isn’t always about the size of the Lebowski, or the plaid pants, or about rolling a strike on the Brooklyn side, and then acting as if that’s what one intended.
Las Vegas Review-Journal sports columnist Ron Kantowski can be reached at rkantowski@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0352. Follow him on Twitter: @ronkantowski.