Could any school possibly need a point guard bad enough for this?Hey, why not? Who wouldn't want a 26-year old [accused] rapist nomad with marginal academic credentials who's attended five high schools, three junior colleges and two colleges.
Robert Morris coach Al Breuhl articulated his folly thusly: "He just came to us, and he has a lot of talent. He's one of the fastest players I've ever seen." Does Kenny Brunner have any eligibility left? Maybe Coach Breuhl could add him too.
Best line in the article: Told Wednesday that Cole was enrolled at Robert Morris, former Georgia athletics director Vince Dooley said, "They better watch out."
No word whether Dooley went on to say "I told Coach Adams not to hire Jim Harrick, but Adams overruled me. It was Adams and Harrick who brought this turd/point guard to Athens, but nobody listened to me."
Dawgnoxious
Bureau Chief
Mike Adams Accountability Division
11 comments:
Granted, I'm nobody's idea of an unbiased observer when it comes to this particular topic, but Adams should have lost his job over the Harrick/Cole fiasco. He was singlehandedly responsible for bringing in that worthless sh*tstain Cole (over Vince Dooley's strenuous objections), and campaigned for Harrick (his old buddy) despite the fact that Dooley, if memory serves, wanted to go in a different direction. Yet Dooley is forcibly sent off into the sunset while Adams gets to continue occupying a big-ass office and ordering $30,000 furnishings.
I continue to be amazed at the Svengali-like power Adams seems to wield over our Board of Regents. He has a track record of malfeasance and stupid-ass decisions that would've earned any CEO in the country a "suggestion," at the very least, that he retire early. Am I missing something? What is it that Adams has supposedly accomplished that makes him such a Godsend to the University?
I know people don't like Adams but the answer to your question about what Ga has accomplished since he got there is easy....
First, he made education and getting Ga as an academic program back on the map, well on the map at all, his first priority because before him Ga was a very average academic school. Now its admission status along with popularity is at an all time high and tied with Fla as second best in the SEC behind Vandy. UGA has been recognized as one of the nation’s top 20 public research universities for six consecutive years by U.S. News & World Report. Adams can almost be solely responsible for this with his plans for spending the money the school gets in the right places. You could equate a lot of his spendings success with the amount of money he has had to spend through the Hope Grant. But the Hope was introduced in '93 and it wasn’t until Adams redesign and structure of a strategic plan in 2001 did the money go to the right places with the right intent. Total research output in dollars up 89.6% from $84.3 mil to $159.9 mil. Enrollment increased from 29,693 (fall 1997) to 33,405 (fall 2004) with UGA turning down a record of # VERY qualified applicants.
At the same time Adams has remained VERY instrumental to things in the sports programs. Yes, he has been a little too hands on at times (firing of JD, hiring of Harrick, etc) but some of his hands on approach have actually done good things. VD didn't want to fire JD, but Adams wanted him gone and so he was. Im not trying to say JD should have stayed but thats the way it happened. So without Adams there would be no CMR. Since Adams has been at Ga I think we have won about 20 national championships school wide, that’s got to be more than anyone in the nation and with sometimes half the varsity programs than the others. Ga now also has the most profitable sports program in the nation. Now VD IMO has most all credit due to him for the sports program, but it was done while Adams is in the CEO seat and if we are going to blame him for all the downfalls we got to give him partial credit for the good things he has been in on too. Cause without the go ahead from the CEO VD wouldn’t have been as successful at his job.
Lets be honest, the school is able to make more money and get more applications as a university hence higher quality students the better the sports program and Adams understands that. While at times has been too hands on I think the good he has done has out weighed the bad. I just ignore the Adams bashing every time it comes around because its easy to bring up if you dont know the facts. Sometimes the 'Dawg Nation' doesnt care about the Ga academic success, but being a 4th generation Ga grad I consider it very important.
82, fourth generation graduate is nice, but I have two degrees from UGA so don't think for a moment I don't value UGA's academic integrity.
You're free to genuflect in the glory of Michael Adams, but if you want to give credit where credit is due, the two people you need to thank for making UGA an academically respected institution are Zell Miller and Charles Knapp.
The HOPE Scholarship and Knapp's tenure as president charted the course on which UGA is presently traveling. Selectivity in the admissions process was firmly in place when Adams got here.
Michael Adams merely stayed the course. You couldn't be more wrong if you think Adams is "almost solely" responsible for anything at UGA except Jim Harrick. Adams has presided over an aggressive building campaign, but that master plan and MANY of the newer buildings on campus were conceived, planned and built under Knapp.
You never have to worry about Michael Adams not getting enough credit for anything. He takes a bow when the sun sets. He'd attend the opening of an envelope to take the credit. The most charitable thing I could say about him is that he has been a mixed bag for UGA.
82..
The increase in admissions standards in fact DOES correlate with the implementation of the HOPE scholarship. Whereas in the early to mid 90's there was a mass exodus of our best high school seniors to places like Auburn and Clemson, those kids are all now looking first to UGA.
Adams just happened to be in the right place at the right time. Sure, he helped focus some of that money in the right areas, but he's also bleeding it out the other end on 'beautifying the campus'.
Adams has survived at UGA because he has Don Leebern as a key ally.
Leebern has the personal connections that have kept fundraising on track and the political clout*(Sonny Perdue) and capital to keep his position on the Board of Regents.
As long as Adams has Leebern as an ally then the UGA President's job is his to keep. Lose Leebern as an ally and he probably would lose his job.
Remember Leebern has been able to retain his position as a regent, despite selling unlicensed UGA wine, committing NCAA violations as a booster of the UGA gymnastics team coached by his, ahem, live-in girlfriend, and getting into a street brawl with a neighbor with said girlfriend witnessing the incident.
Dawgnoxious, I really don't want to get into a long heated discussion (even though this post ended up being too long) about this because I for one don't care for Adams anyways, I merely was trying to remind sports fans that he has done more for UGA than hire Jim Harrick and defend him a bit in the process because sometimes that's all sports fans can credit him for doing. Doug just wanted to know what Adams had accomplished; I was only trying to provide my opinion based on facts and reports of stats and numbers released by the university and national publications reporting on such topics. I agree with you on your other 2 acknowledgments but you shouldn’t discredit Adams for where he has taken Ga in the last 9 years. You can give all of them along with VD MUCH credit to where the school has come from and is headed both academically and athletically. I just believe that the success of the 2 are entirely correlated in Adams instance.
With that said I want to build on a couple of things you mentioned. You said that Adams is "merely staying the course"; well can’t it be argued that Knapp was merely continuing on the course as well? I mean he did follow president Davidson who arguably brought UGA further than any president in the history of school with his 20 years at helm. I would then say that following that course was a good thing, not bad as you were referring, it was successful and it worked and he took it to the next step. Just as Adams has done by what you are quoted saying "merely staying the course" If by taking that "course" to levels never been before by this university then yes, he did do that. How is Adams responsible for Jim Harrick but not responsible for growing external funding by 57% over the past 5 years using a growth plan constructed and developed by Adams and his staff in 2001, 4 year after Knapp, which by the way led to the 6 years in a row of being in the top 20 in research university’s in the country. You said that the newer buildings on campus were conceived and built under Knapp. Huh? The value of construction initiated during Adams current tenure is $1 bil. while Knapp’s didn’t get half that far ($400 mil) Adams is a great fundraiser and most importantly understands that a great athletic program can be the best thing for your academic well being, especially in the south. At the end of the day the school is a business and making the athletic department the most profitable in the nation is a HUGE accomplishment just as the freshman class of ’05 had record-setting academic credentials for UGA just as annual fundraising has increased 100% since ’97.
You can’t convince me that the improvements in academic standards, the recognition as a top 20 research university 5 years in a row (2001-2005, no where near Knapp), the $1 bil in new construction, are not correlated to the athletic success. Just as you cannot convince me that it is not a coincidence that it has happen under the direction of one president who by the way is close to the athletic disappointments and successes (sometimes too close) and that it is only because he is staying the course as you put it 10 years after the course had ended.
Again, not trying to argue but just as I respect and learn from your thoughts I hope you and anyone else can form your opinions at least knowing the facts. If you still don’t like Adams fine, but at least you can have an educated opinion of the good things he and his staff has done and not just know he hired Jim Harrick.
So when you said that the most charitable thing you could say about Adams was that he had been a mixed bag is wrong. The most charitable thing you said was that he stayed the course. If this was indeed the course proposed and approved by Knapp then props to Knapp for setting it and props to Adams for seeing it through successful as its been!
Sure, he helped focus some of that money in the right areas, but he's also bleeding it out the other end on 'beautifying the campus'.
I actually think this has been money well spent, just like the new basketball and gymnastics facility.
and dawgnoxious, i undertand adams takes alot of credit himself, i hope you understand i was only trying to shed light on things he has done because in the end he has been good for ga as a school and is one of the few presidents that understands the importance of the athletic program as a tool to further the institution as a whole, even if he gets too hands on. saying i hate adams because of harrick-gate is shortsighted, but i hear it ALOT from dawg fans.
82, I respect a rationale and well-presented dissenting opinion such as yours. Thank you for elevating the debate.
82, you make some great arguments.
I believe that Adams has actually been very, very good at spending money (when he goes through the proper channels). In other words, not the Bungle in the Jungle, his office, his wife's salary, his secret deal with Donnan or the Buckhead million dollar condo fiasco.
The work he has done in adding green space and building new facilities on campus has been remarkable. IMO - the two crown jewels in his revamping of the campus are the Herty Field area and the Forestry/Pharmacy School greenspace. Most folks point to the new "Student Learning Center" or whatever it's called over by Tate, but I believe the facility is simply too overwhelmingly large and overbudget to get as much praise as it would otherwise get. I'm a huge fan of the understated smaller greenspace projects.
That said, he has been exceptionally weak as a fundraiser for academics.
As I understand it, the 57% increase in fundraising from external sources takes into account funds raised for academics and athletics.
When you strip out Athletic fund raising, Adams is remarkably mediocre at increasing our endowment/foundation. Despite having worked on the project for almost 10 years.
Of course athletic giving is up. We are winning at a level only seen one other time in our history, we raised GEEF levels and added 5,000 seats. So naturally giving there is going to be up. We're also $80-90 million in debt as an athletic department so it's not all roses and sunshine there either.
I want to see much more results from Adams in the area of increasing our pathetically low endowment, and much less in the area of bad ideas like combining the Journalism school with the Communications school.
You bring alot to the discussion, and I appreciate your contribution. Even if we don't agree.
pwd
I'll skip the debate over the utility of President Adams. Suffice it to say I am not a fan.
PW, not sure what you mean when you mention combining the Journalism school with Communications. Now, it's been a while since I graduated from J-school, but (as I recall from that era just after dinosaurs walked the earth), when I started college in the mid 70s, it was simple "The UGA School of Journalism."
At some point during my undergrad years, we got a new dean and someone came up with the nifty idea to call it "The UGA School of Journalism and Mass Communications." I guess the "UGA School of Redundant Descriptions" wouldnt have been clear enough. Wags at the time gently pointed out that journalism, was, ideally, the business of mass communication, so the new name was somewhat similar to calling MCG "The Medical and Treatment of Sick People College of Georgia." However, pomposity and redundancy ruled the day (as it frequently does with academic types).
I'm not sure where Czar Mike was in the late 70s, and I hold no brief for his perfomance at UGA, but I'm pretty sure he's clean on the name change, unless he lobbied from the beach in Malibu.
If I have misunderstood what you were getting at, my abject apologies. I'm just a troublemaker, anyhow.
UGA has a top flight journalism school. It is elite at the undergrad and graduate levels.
We also have a hooptie program in either the Business School or Arts and Science college called the "Communications Major." This thing is a complete joke, and it's where the kids go that couldn't get into the J-school.
You take stuff like public speaking and parlimentary procedure. It one of the majors that we shouldn't have at Georgia.
He wanted to combine the clunker major and the clunker professors with the elite program and elite majors.
Sanity prevailed and that decision was shot down.
Combine the best with the worst and you get mediocre.
pwd
Post a Comment