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Two of Joseph's high school teammates went through the same tedious process with the NCAA. Russell said point guard Jeuvol Myles, who signed with Louisiana Tech, is waiting for a decision on his eligibility. And forward Dwayne Smith was ruled ineligible to play for George Washington, Russell said, because he took two core classes during the etra year.

"The NCAA isn't looking at this seriously," Russell said. "It might take a class-action (lawsuit) for things to change."

I believe that the rule is the same for US or international players.  You have to graduate from HS with a certain grade point average and having taken certain core courses.  You also have to score a minimum score on the SAT and/or possibly the ACT.  My understanding is that you can't use a 5th year to get anything more than ONE required core course and/or improve your test score.  This is essentially the Omar Williams rule put in by the NCAA to prevent players from not graduating and then going to a diploma mill and getting all your grades.  The notion is also that HS students will be forced to concentrate on a more academically oriented curiculum in their HS years since they won't be able to make up more than one course in the 5th year.

This particular article hints (not very effectively) that this isn't fair to Canadian students because their HS curriculums are different than those in the US.  Now the NCAA put everyone on notice when they enacted this rule and there was a pretty clear understanding that many players and schools would not get the message and a certain number of students would basically get screwed by not getting enough of the core requirements filled after 4 years.  It was pretty obvious to some that the NCAA almost wanted kids to get caught in this because they had a pretty short phase in period for the rule, so if players didn't pick up on the new rule right away it would be hard to catch up.

Again, for international students this rules makes much less sense because many of them wouldn't be thinking that they might be up for a scholarship in the US until their junior or senior year - too late to get all your requirements.

If true and hope it isn't, yet another notch in the stellar recruiting of recent years.

Well thought out.

Another year, another open scholarship spot.

And we would find out from a Minnesota newspaper.

Classic GW public relations/openness with it's closest fans operation in recent years.

Bigfan - Clearly I am not a defender of the administration.  Still I don;t think that Hobbs gets full access to a player's academic records until he signs and then applies for admission.  Coaches and schools and players will sometimes talk about their SAT scores, for eample, as being no problem and then when push comes to shove it is a problem.  That happened with the kid from Oregon that we signed last year and we withdrew his scholarship when he couldn't get a qualifying score.  He ultimately couldn't get one for anybody and went to a smaller school.  You also can't precit who the NCAA will give a waiver to, etc.  Also when we see their record, I would imagine that the admissions office has to decide what particular course would be called core course etc.  So I don;t blame Hobbs for recruiting this kid.

Now about the PR.  I do agree that it is total billshit that GW is SO secretive about all of these stupid details.  There is no reason why there couldn't be a way for us to find out broad details about recruits in some possibly indirect way that doesn;t violate privacy and doesn't keep us totally in the dark.

From a team perspective, losing Dwayne Smith for net season doesn't really hurt that much.  He would've been behind 4 wing players already (avier, Hollis, Witherspoon and Wilmore).  Thus, Smith would have been battling Ware and Allbritton for what looks to be 1 spot left in the rotation at  the SF/SG/Wing position.  No big deal to lose him in 2008-2009.

But what becomes of Dwayne Smith now if he doesn't qualify for the NCAA?   Can he Prep for another year and get qualified?  JUCO might be the easiest route to the US of A.  I guess he could play in Canada.  If he plays 1 year north of the border and has the grades to transfer, can he do so to GW or another D1 school and play immediately?  I don't know but that might be the best option for him.  Having a more mature Smith come down net year to help replace the loss of Witherspoon and Wilmore would work out well for GW. 

If Smith is serious about playing in the US and for GW and GW is commited to Dwayne Smith, there must be a way for it to eventually happen. If not, that's OK too.

Good point about playing time.

But we are so desperate that any loss of anyone who can contribute beyond those last year is sorely needed. We can't really afford to lose any opportunity to improve on our 13th place A-10 performance.

Last year, none of the freshman contributed significantly (even though I think FQ may differ with me on Aleander).  The year before, Hollis and King both contributed, but not to the eent that they would have made a significance difference on last year's team.  Even Diggs' contribution his freshman year was minimal.  I agree that the loss of Smith will not have an immediate impact.  (I don't recall seeing him on any top 100 lists...or top 500 lists for that matter).  Maybe it will work out for the best.   BM, or FQ or Herve or someone, help me out here.  Who was the last recruit from whom we received a verbal but was never signed due to eligibility that we lamented.  I am not talking about a player who we recruited or was even rumored to be coming (such as little Spoon) but the last actual verbal who didn't qualify. 

Cunningham couldn't get a passing score on the SAT - nothing skeezy or poor action on the coaches there.

Jeremy Wise got caught in the Omar prep school thing.  He probably qualified but we shied away because of the WASHPOST.  He would have been a great player for us.  avier had a tough year last year - it's pretty hard to imagine a tougher thing for a freshman to come into a team with no leader, bad chemistry, no defined role for himself.  I think he will be a very good player for us and consider it one of the successes of last year that he didn't leave amid the cluster #$%^ of a season we had.

I think the one negative we have learned about avier is that short of his dramatically improving his outside shot, his prolific scoring abilities in high school are not going to translate to the college game.  The opposition is too big, too athletic and too skilled for to be a reliable "points in the paint" scorer.  Even taking into account the probability of better free throw shooting, I'm not sure he'll ever be a big scorer at GW.  That said, can play for my team any day.  He brings tough perimeter defense, ecellent rebounding for a player his size, and is a decent passer (I suspect his passing skills will improve as he gains more eperience).  His ball-handling is a little suspect but all things considered, he brings a lot to the table.

Mailvan,

I think you sell avier short.  He can become a big time scorer in the A10 over time.  avier does need to improve his outside shot and I think he will.  But most of his points are going to be attacking the basket.  He's got a lightning first step and already has proven he can get to the line.  Now he needs to make some FTs (he'll improve on that as well).  avier missed an awful lot of bunnies last year and I can't see that happening again.

See Gary Forbes from UMASS.  About the same size and style of avier.  Forbes went from 7 ppg as a freshman to 19 ppg as a senior.  Only shot 27% from 3pt in his first year (avier shot 29%) but had the mindset to drive to the hole.  Forbes never really became a 3pt shooter (although he hit 57 3pters as a senior) but lived off the line jumping from 68 FTAs as a freshman to an outstanding 243 FTAs as a senior.  Forbes also improved his efficiency going from 1.10 PPS (Points per Shot) in his first year to 1.22 as a senior and from .51% FT% to .72% in the same period.   There's no reason that avier can't do the same.

LSF,

I think you've already seen the improvement in Wilmore's game from his sophmore to Junior years.  Jumped up in every statistical catagory and improved his 3pt shooting % to .42%.  He also improved his overall shooting %, defense and all around play.  That's about the best we can epect from Noel as a senior. Come off the bench, shoot a decent % form long range, hustle on D.  Let's say 15-20 minutes/game, 6-7 points/game and .39-.42% from long range.  I'll take that from the senior and be glad to do so.