Marquette Tribune Editorial: Stop Glorifying Athletes

[reinko]

Hilarious on so many levels.  Keep up the crack reporting team.

~~~~~~~~~~~
EDITORIAL: Stop glorifying the basketball teams; they're just student-athletes

Vice President and Director of Athletics Larry Williams begins his first semester on the job this week, and we at the Tribune would like to welcome him to the job.

The premise of Williams' hiring process and appointment was in part to change the culture of our athletics, most notably scarred by the sexual assault case reported last spring involving student athletes.

The time has come to see just how dedicated he and our athletes are to changing athletics' culture, and we believe the best place to start would be with our most prominent athletics programs: men and women's basketball.

It's no secret the basketball players on campus are treated more like quasi-celebrity-athletes than students, especially the men's team. The basketball teams are separated from the rest of the student body, and it's time to change that for the better.

Unlike other sports teams on campus, both the men and women's basketball teams have specialized, isolated housing arrangements. They have their own study space at the Eagle's Nest in the Al McGuire Center and even their own area to eat breakfast, lunch and dinner.

We feel these discrepencies insulate basketball players from th rest of campus, as does the students' willingness to put them on a pedestal.

This is not to suggest the basketball teams are undeserving of respect. Members of both teams pull off feat that few can. They are full-time athletes and full-time students. They have strict schedules that usually involve early-morning practices, specific study tables and planned meal times. It's hard to be that dedicated to a college sport and still attend classes and get work done, and this is something for which any athlete should be commended.

But it's perhaps because players are put on this glorified pedestal that situations such as this year's "Crosstown Shootout" between Xavier University and the University of Cincinnati happen on Dec. 10, 2011. The basketball teams were involved in a bench-clearing brawl 9.4 secords before the game ended. This abrupt ending to the rival's game occured after words were exchanged between players on Twitter before the game and on the court.

Though this was not solely because of Xavier's players, the fact that these athletes represent an institution supposedly grounded in Jesuit ideals — and remained largely unapologetic in the post-game press conference — is amazing, and not in a good way.

"That's what you're going to see from Xavier/Cincinnati. We got disrespected a little bit before the game – guys calling us out. We're a tougher team," senior guard Tu Holloway said: "We're grown men over here. We got a whole bunch of gangsters in the locker room; not thugs, but tough guys on the court. And we went out and zipped them up after the game. That's our motto – "zip them up"– and that's what we just did to them."

While there are of course many factors in play in this particular instance, we feel the sense of entitlement cultivated by college basketball programs –– especially programs structured in the way both Xavier's and Marquette's are, where basketball is the university's top athletic priority –– encourages behavior that is far outside the norm for regular students, or even regular student-athletes.

And while this example does not mean that Marquette players are exactly the same as Xavier players, we feel the conditions existing could potentially cultivate such problems somewhere down the line.

The solution, then, is to eliminate these conditions. This requires two things: that the student body take them off their imaginary pedestal and that the athletic department encourage the players to take that step down and work to become a more integrated part of the student body.

Integrating the basketball team into the rest of the student body must be an all-campus effort. To change the culture, we as a campus have to be willing to forge that connection with the team as real people, not glorified celebrities or stereotyped athletes.

It is not sufficient to promise a change of athletic culture with Williams' hiring and let the matter continue as is. We must make an effort to fit the basketball players into the university as a whole. It's time to make them student-athletes again, not just athletes who are students.

[TallTitan34]

The author failed to mentioned the millions of dollars the school makes on these guys.

[🏀]

Marquette Tribune just lost all their good credibility that Paint Touches has established in my mind.

Get off your fucking high horse, bunch of crybaby fagbags.

[🏀]

I cannot believe they got the X/Cincy reference in there. Unbelievable.

[🏀]

The author failed to mentioned the millions of dollars the school makes on these guys.

MILLIONS.

As soon as the Spirit Shop starts selling Soccer or LAX jerseys at the pace that DJO's jersey goes, everything else can suck it.

[MU B2002]

I am confused.  Are we to stop glorifying the Xavier and Cincinatti teams, or the Marquette team?  

I didn't think anyone gave a crap that the players had different housing, dining, and study areas.  

[🏀]

This is the same kind of bullshit thinking that made DePaul what DePaul Basketball is today.

Larry Williams, do not heed this advice in any way.

[g0lden3agle]

I like how whoever wrote the article had it posted as "By Tribune Staff".  If you're going to write a completely off the wall article blaming the Xavier Cincy brawl on students putting the players on a pedestal, at least have the cojones to put your name on your piece.

[TallTitan34]

It's no secret the basketball players on campus are treated more like quasi-celebrity-athletes than students, especially the men's team. The basketball teams are separated from the rest of the student body, and it's time to change that for the better.

I would consider an athlete who is on national television 20 some times a year and brings in millions of dollars a "quasi-celebrity-athlete" at the least.

Keep treating them as such!

[reinko]

I blame the students for the Vander Orange incident.

[MU B2002]

I like how whoever wrote the article had it posted as "By Tribune Staff".  If you're going to write a completely off the wall article blaming the Xavier Cincy brawl on students putting the players on a pedestal, at least have the cojones to put your name on your piece.

Herm Edwards agrees (I don't know how to embed video.)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vy9NyUKcGQw

[🏀]

I like how whoever wrote the article had it posted as "By Tribune Staff".  If you're going to write a completely off the wall article blaming the Xavier Cincy brawl on students putting the players on a pedestal, at least have the cojones to put your name on your piece.

It is an editorial, so that's the norm for such things. Can't hate on them for that.

[lab_warrior]

GUUUUUUUUUUUUUH. 

http://www.youtube.com/v/fEkWH8DB7b0&fs=1&source=uds

[Ohbie]

I think that the Eagle's Nest is a great resource for the student athletes.  All freshman are required to use it a certain number of hours during their first semester and any subsequent semester after not meeting a GPA requirement.  The whole purpose of it is to make sure that the student athletes are on the right track academically.  To say it's putting the student athletes on a pedestal is a little far fetched.

[Silkk the Shaka]

This article is an embarrassment to the entire College of Communication at MU.  Sounds like it was written by whiny spoiled white kids jealous they aren't getting enough attention themselves.

[🏀]

This article is an embarrassment to the entire College of Communication at MU.  Sounds like it was written by whiny spoiled white kids jealous they aren't getting enough attention themselves.

I won't say the entire College as many great journalism students didn't participate in the Tribune due to it's lack of quality.

[Ari Gold]

absolute fucking garbage
Embarrassed as a college of comms grad

[strotty]

No one at Paint Touches was consulted for the editorial. This was the response I left on the Facebook link to it:

Yes, they do. And for good reason. All the men's basketball team does is bring in millions of dollars annually for the school so all other sports can be funded. And, without a football team, they are celebrities on campus because their successes over the past six years have provided the campus with a pulse when it comes to sports.

They work harder than any of us can even imagine and do it all while being students. I'm not surprised the editorial didn't mention the three instances this year where the entire team shot around at the Bradley Center with dozens of families (each time) with disabled children at Buzz's Bunch. Every single player was in attendance with a smile on their face, genuinely happy to be there. They were also all there during the summer camp portion of Buzz's Bunch. I would know: my brother attends it and it's one of his favorite days of the year.

And to go anywhere near the Cincinnati-Xavier brawl is ludicrous. To think that a sense of entitlement on campus means the Marquette players are going to start throwing punches in games and call each other thugs is laughable, and a ridiculous stretch connecting Jesuit schools. For all the Marquette basketball team does for the school and the Marquette family, I'm absolutely fine with them walking around campus with a little strut in their step.

[Badgerhater]

This editorial has reduced the value of my MU degree.  It was that bad.

[Clam Crowder]

There is such a large segment of students that despise the men's basketball team players. I don't think they realize that without the money and publicity they generate this school would not be what it is today. I for one from the east coast would probably have not even known about Marquette without the basketball team. We also would have zero big time athletics without these teams. How many kids go to girl's soccer games even with how good that team has been in recent years?? The best part of this article was the fact that the student who wrote the article doesn't even have his/her name attached to it. It simply says staff.

[mu03eng]

This editorial has reduced the value of my MU degree.  It was that bad.

Who is the adult supervision over at the Tribune???  I'm fine with controversial topics, if they have a point and are not rambling, incoherent diatribes that make no logical sense.  What Comm professor read that crap and said, yeah I could totally see a paper like the MJS printing that???  Sounds like someone at the Trib there likes to toss grenades and then run.  I'd love to see one of the basketball players write a well crafted and intelligent response to stick it to the Trib if they had the guts to publish it.

[RJax55]

To sort of defend this... The article is an editorial, so it was written to foster discussion. And, the basic premise that separate facilities for the basketball teams causes them to be isolated from rest of the MU community, I think is a reasonable discussion topic.

Unfortunately, the references to the Xavier-Cincy brawl kill it.

[🏀]

No one at Paint Touches was consulted for the editorial. This was the response I left on the Facebook link to it:

Yes, they do. And for good reason. All the men's basketball team does is bring in millions of dollars annually for the school so all other sports can be funded. And, without a football team, they are celebrities on campus because their successes over the past six years have provided the campus with a pulse when it comes to sports.

They work harder than any of us can even imagine and do it all while being students. I'm not surprised the editorial didn't mention the three instances this year where the entire team shot around at the Bradley Center with dozens of families (each time) with disabled children at Buzz's Bunch. Every single player was in attendance with a smile on their face, genuinely happy to be there. They were also all there during the summer camp portion of Buzz's Bunch. I would know: my brother attends it and it's one of his favorite days of the year.

And to go anywhere near the Cincinnati-Xavier brawl is ludicrous. To think that a sense of entitlement on campus means the Marquette players are going to start throwing punches in games and call each other thugs is laughable, and a ridiculous stretch connecting Jesuit schools. For all the Marquette basketball team does for the school and the Marquette family, I'm absolutely fine with them walking around campus with a little strut in their step.

Well said Strotman.

[Benny B]

Completely idiotic.

What about the students who aren't athletes who live off campus in private facilities.  Should they be forced to study in the library with the peasantry?  Eat the recycled hash with the need-based students?  Give up their BMWs and Jettas & use LIMO, public transportation, or - God forbid - walk like most students?

IMO - The student athletes have done more to earn their - and let's be honest here - modest lifestyle than most of these spoiled, entitled "if you have more than I have, you shouldn't have anything at all" children in college these days.

[mu03eng]

To sort of defend this... The article is an editorial, so it was written to foster discussion. And, the basic premise that separate facilities for the basketball teams causes them to be isolated from rest of the MU community, I think is a reasonable discussion topic.

Unfortunately, the references to the Xavier-Cincy brawl kill it.

Except that the basketball players attend classes with the regular students and live in Humphrey Hall with students(rode the elevator a million times with Wade, etc when I was at MU).  Additionally, the basketball players aren't getting treated any differently than the other student athletes.  To call out the basketball team alone is merely an ax to grind.