2008 Woodie Awards
Basketball embarrasses PUC
By: Linda Merrick
Issue date: 1/16/07 Section: Opinion
- Page 1 of 1
When the news that the men's basketball season was cancelled broke, I knew it was going to be a bad thing. To have well over half the team ineligible is embarrassing for the team, athletic program and the university. I just never thought it would be such a big deal on a national level.
That's right; our little-team-that-couldn't is now on the national stage. Outside of stories in The Times and the Post-Tribune there has been a fairly wide distribution of this story on the internet and in large publications.
On December 30 the Chicago Tribune ran a small news story about the season being cancelled. The day before, a similar story ran on espn.com.
This was before it came to light that three players were ineligible last season but played any way, a revelation that lead to the resignation of athletic director Rob Jensen. It just keeps getting worse for the Peregrine athletic department.
The handful of news articles isn't what is the most embarrassing about this whole situation. In the world of blogging, we are a laughing-stock. Even the larger blogs are making fun of us for the world to see.
The AOL sports blog ran this headline "Purdue Calumet, which lacks the recruiting standards of Yale, cancels season."
To quote the story: "The administration has decided to cancel the rest of the season because the entire roster was dumb." Rubbing salt into the wound, huh? They do follow up by saying that maybe the entire roster wasn't dumb, but over half were academically ineligible. They also describe a player who "….urinated on himself, scribbled on the wall in crayon and demanded a juice box." It's obviously a joke, but it is a humiliating one for everyone at PUC.
And this is only one of many, many gems mocking our former basketball team. Deadspin.com has a headline "How many of them could actually defeine [sic] Peregrine?" As a treat, this site links to an article about the cancellation that ran in USA Today.
Steve Rosenbloom, a columnist for the Chicago Sun-Times even gave us a shout-out in his January 12 blog on chicagosports.com. "I didn't even know there was such a thing as the Purdue-Calumet basketball team, and now there isn't one."
This is embarrassing. I would much rather go to a school that no one has ever heard of, rather than one that is known for something like this. Student athletes accept a responsibility to be public faces for the university. Something like this is unacceptable and embarrassing for all of us.
That's right; our little-team-that-couldn't is now on the national stage. Outside of stories in The Times and the Post-Tribune there has been a fairly wide distribution of this story on the internet and in large publications.
On December 30 the Chicago Tribune ran a small news story about the season being cancelled. The day before, a similar story ran on espn.com.
This was before it came to light that three players were ineligible last season but played any way, a revelation that lead to the resignation of athletic director Rob Jensen. It just keeps getting worse for the Peregrine athletic department.
The handful of news articles isn't what is the most embarrassing about this whole situation. In the world of blogging, we are a laughing-stock. Even the larger blogs are making fun of us for the world to see.
The AOL sports blog ran this headline "Purdue Calumet, which lacks the recruiting standards of Yale, cancels season."
To quote the story: "The administration has decided to cancel the rest of the season because the entire roster was dumb." Rubbing salt into the wound, huh? They do follow up by saying that maybe the entire roster wasn't dumb, but over half were academically ineligible. They also describe a player who "….urinated on himself, scribbled on the wall in crayon and demanded a juice box." It's obviously a joke, but it is a humiliating one for everyone at PUC.
And this is only one of many, many gems mocking our former basketball team. Deadspin.com has a headline "How many of them could actually defeine [sic] Peregrine?" As a treat, this site links to an article about the cancellation that ran in USA Today.
Steve Rosenbloom, a columnist for the Chicago Sun-Times even gave us a shout-out in his January 12 blog on chicagosports.com. "I didn't even know there was such a thing as the Purdue-Calumet basketball team, and now there isn't one."
This is embarrassing. I would much rather go to a school that no one has ever heard of, rather than one that is known for something like this. Student athletes accept a responsibility to be public faces for the university. Something like this is unacceptable and embarrassing for all of us.
Viewing Comments 1 - 1 of 1
Brad
posted 1/15/07 @ 11:36 PM CST
hmm....
well its a good thing we still have BASEBALL!!!!
http://life.calumet.purdue.edu/baseball/
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