Gaston Diedhiou Update

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WanderingGopher said:
OK, there could be various explanations. By far the simplest one (and per Occam's Razor the most likely) is that the U has a hyper-sensitive admissions dept when it comes to sports, in particular the men's basketball program. We have seen it before.

If you are alluding to the possibility that the staff just decided that maybe they don't want him...why don't you just say so? You hold yourself out as a reporter, so if you have the knowledge, then report. If you don't have the knowledge, then why don't you just say this is a possibility but you don't know?
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I second the simplest explanation. I was on campus at a celebration of the successful defense of a dissertation the day the scandal broke. The smear on the academic programs is felt personally. A prof said to me, "Stanford manages to have a good basketball team with great students, why can't we expect that?" Um, because we aren't Stanford, I said. Nonetheless, this is why kids like Andre Hollins are critical to the program (who turned Stanford down btw). Hope Pitino can continue to find the occasional star w/great academic skills like Andre.

The thing that is the most disturbing to me if the subjectivity of this decision. Plenty of room for bias against student athletes to emerge. No one test can be pointed to, so real correction will be a challenge.
 

Jigga said:
Making room for Aaron Brown?
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That is what I was thinking. As much as it ticks me off that the U seems to f-up everything, this could allow for a grad transfer this year and also allow us to grab Nwankwo (sp?) with Alex. Or even open up a scholarship for someone like Anim. I would still be happy to see Gaston on the team though.
 

BballJones said:
That is what I was thinking. As much as it ticks me off that the U seems to f-up everything, this could allow for a grad transfer this year and also allow us to grab Nwankwo (sp?) with Alex. Or even open up a scholarship for someone like Anim. I would still be happy to see Gaston on the team though.
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Think he commited to BC or somewhere else out east last week
 

Although is Brown a junior? I was just rethinking what I wrote.....
 



Winasota Gopher said:
"Failed" calculus at the U because of the same deal(48% on the final for a B-, finished with an b- but my overall percentage was well below the normal failure line, I didn't learn anything, and few others did). My TA literally could not speak English and the professor was eccentric as all hell, wouldn't turn around and look at the class just wrote and talked to the chalk board. ECON professors were all fresh off the boat from European nations with THICK accents.

I'm not advocating that Gaston get in even though he cannot speak English, just agreeing with m2s that this is quite the hypocrisy from the U.


Sidenote: Why does the strib article have a mugshot of him as the cover story's picture? Looks like he commit a crime...
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Wonder if we were in the same classess...
 

Can't help but think this may be a case of an admissions person hating the athletics department and wanting to make things difficult for them.
 

Gopher Warrior said:
Things are often not what they seem if you accept only what you're told.

Consider what may actually be at play here and different ways of handling it. See if you don't conclude this path may be the best available.
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You are a horrible journalist or blogger.

Put up reportable information with your name attached to it or shut up. Your innuendo and cute conspiracy games are idiotic.

Go away again, this time permanently.
 



MadtownGopher said:
Can't help but think this may be a case of an admissions person hating the athletics department and wanting to make things difficult for them.
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Could be. But if the kid only misses a few months in order to bone up on English, then everyone wins.
 

Gopher Warrior said:
Things are often not what they seem if you accept only what you're told.

Consider what may actually be at play here and different ways of handling it. See if you don't conclude this path may be the best available.
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I don't doubt that there could be more to the story, and I don't doubt that you might know what that is. But I must say your post reads like many written by Crazy Joe Davola during the football coaching search.
 


I am proud of the U for not setting Gaston up for failure. How often do we bash other programs for substandard academic requirements.


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It is comical to me that people are discussing some sort of conspiracy between the admissions and athletics department.

Of course it couldn't be the fact that a kid from Senegal and Spain can't speak English.


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gopherlaney said:
I am proud of the U for not setting Gaston up for failure. How often do we bash other programs for substandard academic requirements.


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except his academics were up to standard. They just doubted his ability to master the English language despite the fact he already knows multiple languages.
 

They do not doubt his ability to learn English...they doubt his ability to take classes in English in the first week of September.


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gopherlaney said:
I am proud of the U for not setting Gaston up for failure. How often do we bash other programs for substandard academic requirements.


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His academics played no role in this decision. It was solely based on a subjective opinion that his English was not good enough. And as many have pointed out, it would be nice if the U had the same standards for their professors and TA's considering most of the people teaching math classes are not strong English speakers.
 

MadtownGopher said:
His academics played no role in this decision. It was solely based on a subjective opinion that his English was not good enough. And as many have pointed out, it would be nice if the U had the same standards for their professors and TA's considering most of the people teaching math classes are not strong English speakers.
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You made my point. If he can't pass the TOEFL he can not speak any English.

Those grad students you refer to PASSED the TOEFL.


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gopherlaney said:
You made my point. If he can't pass the TOEFL he can not speak any English.

Those grad students you refer to PASSED the TOEFL.


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Scary. 40 years ago I had and Indian TA for Genetics lab. Never understood a thing he said. Total waste of time.
 

gopherlaney said:
You made my point. If he can't pass the TOEFL he can not speak any English.

Those grad students you refer to PASSED the TOEFL.


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except Athletes get a lot more support than your typical foreign student. He'll have no trouble learning the language and passing any freshman class.
 

AO54 said:
except Athletes get a lot more support than your typical foreign student. He'll have no trouble learning the language and passing any freshman class.
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Oh really...you know him?


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gopherlaney said:
Oh really...you know him?
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it's an educated guess based upon his ability to pass the NCAA requirements and his ability to adapt to a new language at his old school.
 

J. Jones can get in and a guy that has a solid educational background and speaks three languages cannot? Yeah, I would imagine his English is rusty, he has been living in Spain for the past few years. Give the guy just a couple months in an English speaking environment and it will be no issue. In the world of languages Spanish and French are like advanced calculus while English is the equivalent of a coloring book. The guy is young, smart and will pick it up in NO time. Not to mention reading and listening are always much easier than speaking. I highly doubt listening to a lecture and reading a textbook would be some insurmountable task for Gaston.
 

Gopher Warrior said:
Things are often not what they seem if you accept only what you're told.

Consider what may actually be at play here and different ways of handling it. See if you don't conclude this path may be the best available.
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Winasota Gopher said:
Thats deep man....
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He is deep alright... This great piece of art he created really demonstrated his brilliance.

Gopher Warrior said:
YWxjgQN.png
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Well this sucks; seems like we might go from being a sweet 16 team to a borderline NCAA team...
PG, SG, and Center play should be about the same--
SF might be about the same with Morris and McNeil replaying Austin--

Only hope for improvement was PF and now Martin has to step up.... Or 20 pounds more of King is somehow going to have to pass as better... Or maybe see if Mo can play PF and Konate can back up EE...

Oh well ...
 

What are the objective standards to deny admission based on language? How many total students get denied each year? is there an appeals process? What other factors are considered for denial? Has this bureaucrat denied other people of a particular race or nationality? Are there any patterns to Bias? Has this bureaucrat denied or approved an unequal proportion of women, mixed race, men, athletes, whites, or any pattern that shows a bias or discrimination? Has this person had issues with the Athletic department in the past? Since there are no objective standards, all these questions are fair game....I want a good investigative reporter to dig in to the facts on this case. This does not pass the smell test......
 

PP; Gophers basketball: Incoming freshman Gaston Diedhiou will not join team this fall
He would be admitted at 95 percent of schools in the country,” one source said...
http://blogs.twincities.com/gophers...hman-gaston-diedhiou-expected-join-team-fall/

http://www.cce.umn.edu/Minnesota-English-Language-Program/

Jon said:
Well this sucks; seems like we might go from being a sweet 16 team to a borderline NCAA team...
PG, SG, and Center play should be about the same--
SF might be about the same with Morris and McNeil replaying Austin--

Only hope for improvement was PF and now Martin has to step up.... Or 20 pounds more of King is somehow going to have to pass as better... Or maybe see if Mo can play PF and Konate can back up EE...

Oh well ...
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