Strib: Nolen to miss Saturday, possibly entire season

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Sounds to me like we're desperate and searching for a loophole. Not something to be real proud of. That's my gut reaction, anyways.

If the NCAA starts allowing ineligible "student"-athletes to play simply because there is a family issue, that's a can of worms they probably don't want to open. There has to be a line drawn somewhere. All of a sudden we'll have "family issues" with extenuating circumstances popping up all over the country. Give major-college programs a loophole and they'll jump at it.
 

josh087 said:
While I 100% agree with this in principle - Myron has said that the team told him there were "extenuating family circumstances" surrounding this situation. Until we fully know the extent of the family circumstances, maybe we should hold off on this opinion.
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Then he should take the year off of basketball if he can't juggle schoolwork, basketball and his family situation.
 

this season sucks, it is SO UNDERWHELMING....and people need to stop saying it is ever better to play 3-4 games in the NIT than 1 and done in NCAA. no way. always better to go to the Dance...who's with me?? also, what about this team makes you think we can win 3-4 games in the NIT?? seriously...this season was supposed to be better than this and that makes it worse than any of the Monson years, when expectations were low.

this season has been like working a 4x10 and finding out on Tuesday that you have to work Friday. then finding out on Thursday you have to work Saturday. finally, on Friday discovering they have rearranged the office setup and you must switch your desk and the only time you have left to do it is on Sunday.

listen, however you are choosing to view this ridiculous and lengthy analogy, let's hope we don't get laid off.

wouldn't a season where we exceed expectations be awesome??
 

Then he should take the year off of basketball if he can't juggle schoolwork, basketball and his family situation.
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Fair point.

But perhaps the situation popped up after the season/semester began and he thought he could handle it and make the grades. If that is true it is likely by the time he realized he couldn't there's not much he could have done. I highly doubt any student, athlete or not, can automatically know for certain before a semester starts that they won't be able to stay eligible.

I'm not trying to make excuses. Odds are it isn't that serious or else we would have already heard about it and Al would have taken a little bit of time to deal with it - maybe missing a game or two along the way. And a lot of students are able to deal with things out of the classroom and still manage it. For me it would have to be a really serious family situation for me to understand why Al couldn't handle it.

But still, none of us knows exactly what the circumstances are yet.
 



I'm with ya' on the NCAA/NIT thing. No matter how many games you end up playing, under no circumstances is the NIT better than the NCAA. Never. None. Zero. Nadda. Zippo. No comparison. End of story.
 

wow, OK, one season 5 years ago....sorry, I am too grumpy about our team this year to think that is in any way adequate, especially when all we did was go and lose in the 1st Rd. great. we are now supposed to be on an upward swing. building. getting better.

I am a reasonable fan, all I wanted this year (knowing we had a bunch of newcomers and most of our real talent are underclassmen) was a repeat of last year. get in to the NCAA...if you lose in the 1st Rd again, fine by me (maybe not others on here, I realize that). get the young ones experience w/ the Dance and real fun can begin next year.

the sky is not falling, I have just been watching this team for too many years...I don't believe they can in any way resurrect this season. God do I hope they prove me wrong...I will continue to watch and cheer and support, like I always do, but the grade for this season so far is a big fat D.

maybe they will shock me. I would willingly and happily admit I spoke too soon!
 

Update from Myron Tweet:
GophersBBGuy

University submits progress toward degree waiver on Al Nolen's behalf, according to NCAA official. #stribgophers
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From the Barn said:
Which means...?
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Lol - that's why I didn't comment, because I didn't want to interpret it wrong. What I got from it was the U was supporting him, and they were submitting an exception with the whole "progress towards degree" issue to the NCAA. I could be wrong though!
 

There are requirements (Section 14.4.3 in the NCAA bylaws) related to academic eligibility.. an exception can be made on a case-by-case basis, but requires that the school (i.e. Univ of Minn in this case) submit an application for a waiver.

"The decision regarding a waiver is based on objective evidence that demonstrates compelling mitigating circumstances along with a reasonable expectation that the student-athlete will successfully complete graduation requirements within five years of initial collegiate enrollment."

In other words, Nolen messed up, but the University is going to the NCAA to say, "hey, there are compelling mitigating circumstances here... please let him play".

Waiver Application Instructions

I'm not expert in this area (academic issues), but it's likely Nolen will be playing again this year.
 

Then the question is- how long will it take the normally glacial NCAA to review it? I guess we can assume he's still toast for Saturday?
 



TheHofferette said:
wow, OK, one season 5 years ago....sorry, I am too grumpy about our team this year to think that is in any way adequate, especially when all we did was go and lose in the 1st Rd. great. we are now supposed to be on an upward swing. building. getting better.

I am a reasonable fan, all I wanted this year (knowing we had a bunch of newcomers and most of our real talent are underclassmen) was a repeat of last year. get in to the NCAA...if you lose in the 1st Rd again, fine by me (maybe not others on here, I realize that). get the young ones experience w/ the Dance and real fun can begin next year.

the sky is not falling, I have just been watching this team for too many years...I don't believe they can in any way resurrect this season. God do I hope they prove me wrong...I will continue to watch and cheer and support, like I always do, but the grade for this season so far is a big fat D.

maybe they will shock me. I would willingly and happily admit I spoke too soon!
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Here is some perspective to help you through your grumpy times. Iowa is a trainwreck compared to us so be thankful we're not Iowa. Michigan had high expectations but is no better. Purdue had huge expectations but just messed its pants 3 games in a row. Northwestern was giddy last week and talking first NCAA bid but is now 2-4 and not looking good. Penn State won the NIT last year but is 0-5 and looks lost.
 

bga1 said:
Then the question is- how long will it take the normally glacial NCAA to review it? I guess we can assume he's still toast for Saturday?
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I think 2 to 3 weeks is a reasonable expectation.
 

IIRC, it was a Wisconsin board that first reported that Nolen was having problems.

IIRC part-2, it was also a Wisconsin board that first reported Mbakwe being in some trouble.

Why?
 

Mikie S said:
IIRC, it was a Wisconsin board that first reported that Nolen was having problems.

IIRC part-2, it was also a Wisconsin board that first reported Mbakwe being in some trouble.

Why?
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Look at the rosters, that might be an indicator. Most of these guys have been playing with/against each other since grade school.
 

Drex96 said:
Look at the rosters, that might be an indicator. Most of these guys have been playing with/against each other since grade school.
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There's a short circuit to Madison somewhere.
 

One very direct link to Wisconsin is Maturi.
 


NateDawgUM said:
Then he should take the year off of basketball if he can't juggle schoolwork, basketball and his family situation.
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Wouldn't it benefit us (the fans) more if he could just take a year off of schoolwork? Ooops, looks like he already did that.

I keep forgetting about that silly notion that athletes are scholars first.
 

tikited said:
Wouldn't it benefit us (the fans) more if he could just take a year off of schoolwork? Ooops, looks like he already did that.

I keep forgetting about that silly notion that athletes are scholars first.
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oh i guess you also forgot he is a human before he's scholar.
and just to clarify I'm not saying he shouldn't be punished for his actions, thats not my place. I'm just not a big fan of judging how someone deals with their problems especially when we don't know the whole the whole extent of them, and i will always have sympathy for someone who falls on hard times, even if it interrupts a basketball season.
 

moonlightIII said:
oh i guess you also forgot he is a human before he's scholar.
and just to clarify I'm not saying he shouldn't be punished for his actions, thats not my place. I'm just not a big fan of judging how someone deals with their problems especially when we don't know the whole the whole extent of them, and i will always have sympathy for someone who falls on hard times, even if it interrupts a basketball season.
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Wasn't ripping on him-just stating how easy it is to assume all athletes are scholars first (which is not the case for many players)-not even replying to anyone in particular-just stating a random view.

I was also trying to make a point that most fans would rather see a player excell on the court more than caring about schoolwork off the court--not that there is anything really wrong about that. We are fans of the team first...

The "Ooops" part did come off as a rip on Nolan now that I focus more on it, but the reality is he did drop the ball--pun intended.

Guess I'm just tired of reading bad news about the Gopher atheletes. Hoping for something positive for once.
 

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