Academic deficiencies cost LU two basketball scholarships

By Chris Lang

Published: May 6, 2008

The NCAA has put Liberty University’s men’s basketball program on public notice for poor academic performance in the last half decade.

The nation’s collegiate athletics governing body released its annual academic progress report Tuesday, and Liberty fell short of the NCAA mandated score of 925 in men’s basketball.

The penalty: The loss of two scholarships. The LU athletics department, anticipating the men’s basketball program would fall short of reaching the score, reduced scholarships in men’s basketball by one in each of the 2007-08 and 2008-09 seasons.

The NCAA allows 13 scholarships for Division I basketball. Liberty is one of 53 Division I programs facing penalties.

“Our department has been extremely proactive in dealing with this and has made the needed improvements to place this program in a position to succeed in the future,” LU athletics director Jeff Barber said.

The news wasn’t all bad for Liberty’s teams, however. LU’s women’s basketball, soccer and volleyball programs all had APR scores in the 80th-90th percentile of all Division I programs, with women’s soccer recording a score of 990.

The APR (Academic Progress Rate) report, measures the eligibility, retention and graduation of student-athletes competing on every Division I sports team.

The most recent APR scores are based on a multi-year rate that averages scores from the 2003-04, 2004-05, 2005-06 and 2006-07 academic years.

Liberty’s score of 892 was in the 10th-20th percentile among Division I’s 337 men’s basketball programs.

Liberty had massive turnover in its men’s basketball program from 2003-07. Many of the players who left before their playing eligibility was up were academically ineligible at the time they left school, and it counted against the school’s APR.

LU coach Ritchie McKay said B.J. Jenkins, who announced last week he would transfer, is in good academic standing, as is every current player in the program.

During the fall 2007 semester, the men’s basketball team’s GPA was the highest it had been in five years. All four Liberty seniors — TeeJay Bannister, Alex McLean, Russell Monroe and Rell Porter — will graduate this weekend.

McKay said the support system is in place to make sure Liberty’s numbers are on par with the national average (928) in future years.

“What we can do best from now on is to stay on top of it and build parameters within the program to make sure this won’t happen again,” McKay said. “I’m confident that our staff and our support program are in place to accomplish those goals.”