Disappointing to see Waliyy and Charles depart Rutgers then achieve basketball success soon later. Charles was 2x NCAA scoring champ and NBA player. Question is did Waliyy and Charles belong in Rutgers, or another university’s, classrooms.
I know a prof at LIU who was on the athletic advisory committee and said they had to have a major police presence at games because there were a lot of gangs that came out to watch in those years.
LIU had also been the landing spot for Richie Parker, who was going to SHU until he was convicted of sexual assault of a 16 year old.
To say they had different admission criteria would be an understatement.
The prof said there were a lot of guns and gambling and drugs and extra curricular stuff going on that always resulted in fights and the whole scene was pretty wild.
I told him I never noticed any of that while Charles was at RU - maybe it was just far enough away or wasn’t his crowd at all; Charles said in a NY Times interview that about 15 kids he grew up with in BedSuy died in the streets.
College is an adjustment for everyone and when you are essentially a campus celebrity and your “job” is to play a sport, I think it’s easy to lose sight of the bigger picture of why you are there.
I know athletes at large state schools and Ivies who had “tutors” or girlfriends basically do their assignments for them. I’m sure this was going on at RU as well, and still does, but you can tell when these coaches talk they share a conviction that they are here to do more than just coach a sport. That’s a culture.