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It’s almost July, and for college basketball coaches and their assistants, that means a series of trips that makes the conference road schedule look like a drive to the gym.

There are more than 230 NCAA-approved events coming up around the country featuring high school stars _ and potential recruits _ from the Nike Peach Jam in South Carolina to LeBron James’ skills academy in his hometown of Akron, Ohio, to any of the five youth tournaments slated for Las Vegas over a single summer weekend.

Even as it acts as a gatekeeper for the summer circuit, the NCAA is working to rewrite its men’s basketball recruiting rules to try and slim down the season, avoiding potentially unsavory influences of AAU coaches, event operators and other hangers-on who may be looking to ride the coattails of the next superstar.

The latest effort comes after conference commissioners asked the NCAA to entirely scrap the July recruiting period. An NCAA panel is instead expected to recommend a reduction in July recruiting, but not its outright elimination.

DePaul assistant coach Billy Garrett knows the nuances of summer travel ball better than most: along with his job as a recruiter, his son Billy Jr. is a top prep prospect.

The younger Garrett, a 6-foot-3 inch point guard entering his junior year, has verbally committed to stay in Chicago and play for his father’s school. Yet he’ll continue to crisscross the country over the next few months, attending events such as the recent Nike Elite 100 camp for top high school freshmen and sophomores.

“Anybody that’s good wants to play the best,” said the elder Garrett, a former college football player whose previous coaching stops include Iowa, Seton Hall and Siena.

Current NCAA rules provide two 10-day windows for coaches to evaluate prospects: July 6-15 and July 22-31. That means a midsummer schedule packed with events ranging from the Battle of The Ballerz in Tulsa to the L.A. LAST CHANCE College Coach View in Anaheim, Calif.

The Division I Leadership Council plans to offer a series of suggested changes for consideration by NCAA members later this year or in early 2012, said Purdue athletic director Morgan Burke, who heads the effort. While Burke said the proposals aren’t “revolutionary,” they’re not insignificant. Among the group’s expected recommendations, in addition to a reduction in the July recruiting period:

_ lifting the ban on off-campus contacts between coaches and recruits during their junior year;

_ requiring recruits to meet minimum academic standards before they can visit a college campus as a recruit;

_ further restrictions on unofficial visits, with closer scrutiny of how such visits are paid for.

College basketball has had an uneasy relationship with non-scholastic travel teams _ many of which play under the AAU moniker _ for years. The concern is for potential recruiting violations and improper benefits that result in scandals and hurt the sport. The investment of major equipment and apparrel sponsors in youth teams, Nike, adidas and other shoe companies, has only made things more complicated.

Coaches, meanwhile, know their relationships with an AAU contact can help land a recruit for their team, sometimes even going so far as to hire inexperienced assistants with strong grass roots ties.

That was the case at Indiana in 2007, where former coach Kelvin Sampson hired AAU coach Travis Steele as the team’s video coordinator to help land Eric Gordon. More recently, UCLA coach Ben Howland hired as an assistant 32-year-old Korey McCray, coach of an Atlanta AAU team whose alumni include NBA stars Dwight Howard, Josh Smith and Amare Stoudamire.

Yet they’re also aware that rule-breakers in that crowd can bring down a program. In 2004, the NCAA sanctioned Auburn after concluding that summer team coach Mark Komara was essentially a school booster who provided two of his players recruited by Auburn with extra benefits.

And a decade ago, Kansas City AAU coach Myron Piggie was convicted of federal fraud and tax evasion charges after he admitted paying five high school stars, often hiding the money in shoe boxes.

Both instances led to incremental changes in summer basketball recruiting rules _ along with calls for more forceful action.

“I don’t know that you’re necessarily going to be able to walk away from the summer,” Burke said. “The third-party influences aren’t going to go away.”

And even before the two July recruiting periods, top players do like to play together. At the Nike camp, college basketball’s next generation were paired with Nike instructors and well-regarded high school coaches at a Saint Louis University rec center.

Campers worked on fundamentals but also spent much of the four-day session in 3-on-3 games as well as daily 5-on-5 contests, culminating with a championship.

Mindful of the summer circuit critics, Nike has formed an “Elite Youth Basketball League” for 40 spring and summer 17-and-under travel teams that includes a regular season and concludes with a 24-team championship at the mid-July Peach Jam in North Augusta, S.C.

“We’ve definitely put more of an emphasis on skills development,” said Vince Baldwin, Nike’s elite youth director of scouting. “Kids were playing way too many meaningless games.”

Like Garrett, who attended the St. Louis event as a parent, Baldwin said the summer circuit has a valuable, if misunderstood, role, especially for college programs with smaller recruiting budgets.

“It hurts the universities and it hurts the kids,” he said, referring to the likely reduction in the July evaluation period. “Colleges will make more mistakes about who they recruit. And kids will get overlooked.”

Similar to members of select soccer programs or summer baseball all-star teams, the basketball players at summer all-star camps are there to match their skills against other top talent, Baldwin said. Most high school games can’t provide that sort of environment.

“It’s about the competition,” he said. “You can watch them compete against other Division I athletes. If you watch a kid at his high school, he might be the only Division I athlete on the court.”

Burke acknowledged that “there are some good things to come out of the camps.” But he also stands firmly behind the NCAA’s effort to keep those influences in check.

“There are way too many people out there … selling a vision that only a few will realize,” he said.

Education Week has a new high school graduation study that shows women significantly exceed men in finishing high school. But the gender gap grows even larger for 4 year college graduation- 58% femele versus 42% men. This college  grduation gap continues to grow , and for african american and latino males it is much worse. I cannot find any research that has a well designed basis for explaing the reasons for this gap. There are a lot of opinions supported by partial studies , but they are not experimental or include random sampling and statistical controls that are  used in high quality  medical research. There seems to be no organized research program to understand what is going on. Why is the graduation gap larger in college than high school? How can we find out more?

One Response to Women Continue To Outperform Men In School And College

1. Rob Says: June 17th, 2011 at 1:42 pm

   There is no mystery here. The US education system is geared toward women. Take for example the latest new guidelines on sexual violence. They arent aimed at keeping campuses safe but rather harassing men. The guidelines are based largely on an online study which was predicated on sexists double standards. And guess who has major influence on writing American educational guidelines the American Association of University Women.

This post is late this week. Why? Totally wrapped up in ISTE. OK I did spend some of Sunday visiting the Mummies of the World exhibit at the Franklin institute and then a trip to Betsy Ross’ House. Hey if you are in Philadelphia you might as well take advantage of it. Since then I have been meeting with friends at the SIGCT open house, a couple of dinner meetings, booth duty in the mornings, and sessions in the afternoon. I’m actually writing this post from a session that is not as interesting as it could or should be. I’m too too tired to move though. I will go find food once this is done.

The Microsoft student team announced the: June Microsoft Tech Student of the Month – Andrew Zurek

During the week I found this web site by a high school computer teacher called F# in High School Computer Science  this bears more looking into. BTW  I am always on the look out for more computer science teachers who blog or Tweet on Twitter so if you know of any please leave their links in the comments. I am on Twitter @AlfredTwo and I hope you will follow me if you are a Twitter user.

The Microsoft Tech Student Twitter account () asks “Wondering what past Imagine Cup participants are doing now? Find their stories here”

Need an excuse to try Azure? Announcing the Rock Paper Azure Challenge Grand Tournament, winner takes home $5,000!

Nice post by Hélène Martin () on the If you have ever wondered what it would be like to grade the Advanced Placement Computer Science exam this is a must read.

Patrick Godwin () who is a Microsoft Student Insider has been trying out the new Kinect SDK. His first post on the results are at Intro to the Kinect SDK–Drawing Joints in XNA. He has a video of his Kinect code it in action:

Well, that’s it for now. I have been tweeting links already this week and so I should have a good list next week.

I don’t care if Texas is 4-3, 7-0, 0-7 or anywhere in between: Texas is Texas, is always Texas, and Baylor is always, always Baylor. Meaning that the U.T. fan base is supposed to look at its upcoming schedule, circle Oklahoma in red ink and then, with the same pen, put a large W alongside Baylor, telling friends and family that hey, if you’re going to schedule a wedding between September and December, that’s the time. Not anymore – or at least not for the foreseeable future, because Art Briles is in town, and what’s up is down, left is right, and what were once clear wins are now games very much up for grabs. Because Baylor is winning football games, and the Bears might just be getting warmed up.

Conference
Big 12

Location
Waco, Tex.

Nickname
Bears

Returning starters
13 (8 offense, 5 defense)

Last year’s ranking
No. 78

2010 record
(7-6, 4-4)

Last years
re-ranking
No. 58

2011 schedule

• Sept. 3
  T.C.U.
• Sept. 17
  Stephen F. Austin
• Sept. 24
  Rice
• Oct. 1
  at Kansas St.
• Oct. 8
  Iowa St.
• Oct. 15
  at Texas A&M
• Oct. 29
  at Oklahoma St.
• Nov. 5
  Missouri
• Oct. 12
  at Kansas
• Nov. 19
  Oklahoma
• Nov. 26
  Texas Tech (in Arlington, Tex.)
• Dec. 3
  Texas

Last years prediction

I see only two games in its first eight where Baylor will be outclassed: T.C.U. — clearly — and Texas Tech, with the latter team potentially entering a down season following a coaching change. Obviously, the Bears have a shot at heading to Austin on the final weekend of October with a 6-2 mark. I don’t know if I have the confidence to predict Baylor to have such a start, however. In order to so, these Bears would have to start 3-1 in conference play; Baylor has won three games in Big 12 action only once since the formation of the conference. Yet it’s foolish — nonsensical — to predict Baylor’s season based on its woeful history: this a different team, with speed and athleticism to burn, and with a coaching staff absolutely capable of leading this team to bowl play. Having said that, I’m not willing to take that leap — yet.

2010 recap

In a nutshell I find nothing whatsoever to nitpick over Baylor’s 2010 season, which found the Bears back in bowl play after a 16-year absence. For the first time in the history of the Big 12, Baylor wasn’t bad, wasn’t just competitive – the Bears were actually good, believe it or not. Very good at times, in fact. They got it done with the finest offense in school history, one that set or tied 55 school records, including the big ones: total offense (6,179 yards), passing yards (3,649), yards per carry (5.4) and scoring (405 points). It was the offense that propelled Baylor to a 7-2 start, which included a 4-1 Big 12 mark highlighted by that win over Texas. But it was the offense that disappeared down the stretch, averaging only 24 points per game as Baylor ended the year with an 0-4 slide. Not the defense did any favors then, nor did it do much even when the Bears were winning games.

High point The win over Texas, Baylor’s first in Austin since 1991, and only its third in Austin since 1952. The Saturday before, the Bears knocked off then-No. 22 Kansas State, 47-22, at home. It was the program’s finest stretch of conference play since the formation of the Big 12 in 1996.

Low point The 0-4 finish: 55-28 to Oklahoma State, 42-30 to Texas A&M, 53-24 to Oklahoma and, most disappointing of all, 38-14 to Illinois in the Texas Bowl. That Baylor was in bowl play at all was a major highlight, but the showing against Illinois was probably Baylor’s worst of the season. The other two losses came to T.C.U. and, once again, Texas Tech.

Tidbit From the birth of the Big 12 in 1996 until the dissolution of the two divisions following last season, Baylor went a combined 5-70 against its South division brethren. The program went 0-16 against Oklahoma and Texas Tech, 2-14 against Oklahoma State and Texas and 2-13 against Texas A&M. Baylor fared better against the North division: a combined 12-33, though a combined 1-15 against Nebraska and Missouri.

Tidbit (scoring edition) Baylor continues to live or die on offense, as indicated during that late-season lull. The Bears are 0-12 under Briles when scoring less than 20 points, 2-15 when gaining less than 20 first downs, 1-10 when rushing for less than 100 yards and 2-9 when passing for less than 200 yards. Baylor was averaging 31.3 points per game during its 7-2 start; as listed above, the Bears averaged 24 points per game when closing 0-4.

Former players in the N.F.L.

16 LB Colin Allred (Tennessee), CB Mikail Baker (St. Louis), CB Josh Bell (Green Bay), K Matt Bryant (Atlanta), RB Jay Finley (Cincinnati), WR David Gettis (Carolina), LB Joe Pawelek (Seattle), P Daniel Sepulveda (Pittsburgh), OT Jason Smith (St. Louis Rams), LS Justin Snow (Indianapolis), DT Phillip Taylor (Cleveland),  C J.D. Walton (Denver), OG Danny Watkins (Philadelphia), LS Jonathan Weeks (Houston), CB C.J. Wilson (Carolina), WR Dominique Zeigler (San Francisco).

Arbitrary top five list

Players in Tampa Bay Rays history
1. OF Carl Crawford (2002-10).
2. 3B Evan Longoria (2008-present).
3. 1B Aubrey Huff (2000-6).
4. SP James Shields (2006-present).
5. 1B Carlos Pena (2007-10).

Coaching

Art Briles (Texas Tech ’79), 15-22 after three seasons with the Bears. After a pair of four-win seasons, Briles got the Bears back into bowl play last fall after a 16-year absence. Sound easy? Not quite: Baylor has so long been a Big 12 afterthought that this Briles-led transition entailed not only rehabbing an entire roster but also the psyche of an entire program. His debut season, 2008, was a good start. The Bears scored 336 points (28 points per game), their most since scoring 362 in 1994, and made great strides as a team despite playing a schedule that featured six ranked opponents, three of whom were in the top 10. The program’s overall improvement has already been felt on the recruiting trail, as Briles has hauled in four of the most impressive Baylor recruiting classes in recent memory. While at Houston, Briles inherited a program two years removed from an 0-11 campaign and went 34-28 over five seasons (2003-7), making four bowl appearances. In 2003, Briles led the team to a 7-6 finish with a trip to the Hawaii Bowl, making him only the second coach in school history to reach postseason play in his first season with the program. After going a combined 9-14 from 2004-5, Briles went 10-4 in 2006 and 8-4 in 2007, again leading the Cougars to bowl play. Prior to being hired at Houston, Briles spent three seasons as the running backs coach at Texas Tech (2000-2) under Mike Leach. Briles also spent 12 highly successful seasons as the head coach at Stephenville High School in Texas (the alma mater of Kevin Kolb, his record-setting quarterback at Houston), where he won a pair of back-to-back Texas state championships in 1993-4 and 1998-99. His prep experience has paid enormous dividends in recruiting, as Briles remains a popular and respected figure among the all-important Texas high school coaching ranks.

Tidbit (coaching edition) Talk about a coaching coup: Briles corralled former Pittsburgh, L.S.U. and Kansas State defensive coordinator Phil Bennett, who was a very popular target for several B.C.S. conference programs once he hit the market in January. Bennett spent the last three years as the coordinator at Pittsburgh, taking on interim head coach duties for the Panthers’ bowl win over Kentucky following Dave Wannstedt’s dismissal. This is a huge get for Baylor, which has clearly found its grove offensively but has been searching for answers on defense.

Players to watch

Though only a junior, Robert Griffin III has been on campus for three full seasons and four springs, meaning he knows this offense forwards, backwards and all points in between. In short: Griffin is only going to get better and better, especially now that he’s nearly two full years removed from the knee injury that cut short his 2009 season. Griffin didn’t show much rust last fall, rushing for 635 yards and 8 scores while continuing to be one of the Big 12’s most efficient passers. Talk about a perfect fit for this offense: Griffin seems built to play under Briles, both as a runner and a passer. Last fall, he threw for 3,501 yards with 22 touchdowns while hitting on 67.0 percent of his attempts, with the latter nearly 10 percentage points higher than during his terrific freshman campaign.

What can Griffin do in 2011? He’ll continue to rewrite Baylor’s record books, most of which he already holds – passing yards, total offense, passing scores and completion percentage. Griffin is also a clear Heisman contender, if only for one major reason: no other quarterback, though Northwestern’s Dan Persa comes close, means as much to his team as does Griffin. Is he already the finest offensive player in school history? I don’t think it’s a stretch to say that even after two full years; when all is said and done, it’ll be Griffin in a landslide.

Losing Danny Watkins hurts, but the Bears still return five linemen with pretty extensive starting experience. It’s a veteran group, led by juniors and seniors with one exception: sophomore Cyril Richardson takes over for Watkins at left tackle after making four starts at guard in 2010. The sky is the limit for Richardson, but you do wonder how quickly he’ll take to this all-important role – though he does not lack for talent. Senior center Philip Blake, a former JUCO transfer, really took to the center spot in 2010 after starting at right tackle as a sophomore. He’s probably the line’s best; Bears will flank him with guards Cameron Kaufhold Robert T. Griffin, as they did a year ago. Then there’s junior right tackle Ivory Wade, a first-year starter last fall.

Looking for the deepest position on the team? Try wide receiver: Baylor brings back five players who made at least 42 grabs a year ago, led by Kendall Wright (78 receptions for 952 yards and 7 scores) and Josh Gordon (42 for 714 with 7 scores). Both earned all-conference recognition a year ago; it was the second time on the all-Big 12 team for Wright. It doesn’t stop with that pair. Sophomore Tevin Reese (45 for 401) is a nice fit at inside receiver, joining Wright. Lanear Sampson (42 for 390) and Terrance Williams (43 for 484, 4 scores) line up at outside receiver along with Gordon. Five deep with proven talent, perhaps as much as eight or nine deep if you count several talented young receivers hungry to crack the rotation.

Look for Bennett to have an immediate impact on defense. He’s that good a coordinator: the Bears might not become stalwarts defensively overnight, but Bennett will have this team playing better football from day one. His first order of business was tweaking Baylor’s base alignment, dropping a linebacker and going with five starting defensive backs. The Bears have the speed along the back seven to make that change, though Bennett must rebuild the defense without the use of each of last season’s five leading tacklers.

I’m keeping close watch on two positions: nose guard and a hybrid linebacker-safety role that fits as the team’s fifth defensive back. It’s at nose guard that Baylor must replace all-Big 12 pick Phillip Taylor, whose impact will be very difficult to duplicate. Senior Nicolas Jean-Baptiste (31 tackles) will step into those shoes, and while Jean-Baptiste has good size he probably won’t have the same disruptive presence as his predecessor – though few would. He’ll be spelled on occasion by JUCO transfer Nick Johnson.

Outside of Taylor, the line returns intact: senior Tracy Robertson returns at tackle, while the Bears bring back several talented ends. There’s a nice blend of experience and blossoming young talent at end, with senior Zac Scotton and junior Gary Mason Jr. (21 tackles, 3 for loss) joined by three very intriguing sophomores. One is Tevin Elliott, who posted a team-best five sacks en route to honorable mention all-Big 12 honors. He’ll battle for snaps with Terrance Lloyd, who started four games as a freshman before suffering a knee injury, and converted linebacker Chris McAllister (42 tackles), who made a pair of starts in 2010.

That there will be only two starting linebackers does little to diminish the importance of the position; far from it, in fact. Baylor will still rely on senior middle linebacker Elliot Coffey (61 tackles, most of any returning defender) to be the brains of the defense while sticking his nose into the mix against the run. And the Bears are very hopeful that converted defensive back Prince Kent (team-best two interceptions) can be a difference-maker on the weak side, thanks to his speed and athleticism. But his road to a starting job is currently blocked by former quarterback Brody Trahan, a sophomore, who vaulted to the top of the depth chart with a solid spring.

Back to that hybrid defensive back spot: Baylor has laid out the red carpet for sophomore Ahmad Dixon, a highly-touted recruit who made 16 stops in a reserve role last fall. If there’s going to be a breakout star on this defense – someone who benefits greatly from Bennett’s tutelage – it’s going to be Dixon. The Bears have identified their starting cornerbacks in junior Chance Casey (48 tackles, 1 interception) and sophomore Tyler Stephenson but must find two new starting safeties. One will be junior Mike Hicks (28 tackles, 1 pick), who takes over at cover safety; the other might be sophomore deep safety Sam Holl, who had a nice spring after playing primarily on special teams as a freshman.

Position battle(s) to watch

Running back Though overshadowed by Griffin, running back Jay Finley broke Baylor’s single-season rushing record with 1,218 yards last fall, rushing for at least 82 yards – including 250 against Kansas State – in each of his last six Big 12 games. Griffin does his fair share of work on the ground, as touched on above, but the Bears are still in the market for a back who can help carry the load. It may be a by-committee approach, as Baylor has four backs in the mix for carries, but as of today, junior Jarred Salubi (215 yards, 8.7 yards per carry) currently heads the depth chart. Salubi did his work without getting a lot of touches, but showed late in the year – such as in his two-score performance against Oklahoma – that he may be more than just a change-of-pace option. Baylor also returns former Houston transfer Terrance Ganaway, now a senior, who rushed for 295 yards last fall. Ganaway is a bruiser, so he could provide a nice compliment to Salubi’s running style. This pair seems to be leading the way, but the Bears do have two other options: sophomore Glasco Martin and former JUCO transfer Isaac Williams. So Baylor has numbers, even if it’s hard to imagine any one of the four backs having quite the year Finley put together in 2010. But as a group, Baylor – thanks to Griffin’s passing and a fine offensive line – should continue to be successful running the football.

Game(s) to watch

Baylor should be 4-1 heading into a mid-October trip to Texas A&M. It’s actually vital that the Bears are 4-1, what with the Aggies and Oklahoma State, both on the road, coming in back-to-back weeks. The year ends with another date with Texas, with Baylor looking for two straight wins over the Longhorns for the first time since 1991-92.

Season breakdown & prediction

In a nutshell Baylor’s going back to bowl play in 2011. Could you have imagined that Briles would succeeded where so many others have tried and failed? Well, he has, putting the Bears into yearly bowl contention by rebuilding this offense, landing some very impressive talent and now, with Bennett’s arrival, doing his best to put forth a defense on an even level with a potent scoring attack. Bennett’s a great coach, but it does seem as if Baylor will again be carried by this offense. Griffin is in the Heisman mix, though his team’s record is probably going to prevent him from being too viable a national candidate. The offensive line looks very good, even without Watkins at left tackle, and the receiver corps features five targets with extensive experience. Baylor might be even more potent offensively than it was a year ago, in fact. But the defense is a question mark: replacing Taylor will be a chore, and Baylor needs several sophomores – those ends, Kent, Holl and Dixon, for example – to step up and produce in major roles. They have the talent do so, but the defense might be a year away. There’s also the schedule; count Baylor among those teams who don’t adore the new nine-game Big 12 slate. But there are only four true road games, even if the Bears do end the year with Oklahoma, Texas Tech and Texas. Still, it doesnt look like a schedule conducive to great success – three or four years ago, this is a schedule that would point towards a nine-loss season. But this isn’t the Baylor of 2006 or 2007; this is the Baylor of 2011, which has the talent and coaching to go toe-to-toe with the rest of the Big 12. There are some issues to address, but I’d be very surprised if Baylor doesn’t get to at least six wins and return to bowl play.

Dream season The Bears continue to climb up the Big 12 ladder: 8-4, 6-3 in conference play.

Nightmare season Baylor cant make it two straight bowl bids, sliding from seven wins down to 4-8, 3-6 in the Big 12.

In case you were wondering

Where do Baylor fans congregate? I have nothing but love for those smaller independent sites, so be sure to take a trip to Baylor Fans, where you can find chatter on Baylor football, basketball and baseball. For recruiting information, take a look at Sic Em Sports and Bears Illustrated.

Word Count

Through 57 teams 165,195.

Up Next

Who is No. 63? Tomorrows program has gone 7-11 against B.C.S. conference competition since 2005.

Rome Hartman in conversation with Justin Webb

Rome Hartman, the executive producer and creator of BBC World News America, is to take part in a CoJo lunchtime seminar looking at the BBC and its future role in the US media.

Rome, who is leaving the BBC for a senior role at the US network NBC, will be speaking to the BBC Radio 4 Today presenter and former BBC North America Editor Justin Webb.

When:

Thursday 30 June 2011

12pm – 1pm

Where:

Bridge Lounge

BBC Television Centre

London W12

The event is open to all BBC staff. If you’d like to attend, please email .