2015-16 UW Badger Basketball Discussion Thread

[Newz]

Can one of the hold ups really be that he has to take an extra year of foreign language? I'm all for academic standards for athletes being set and at times being set high... but that seems like a really random and kind of ridiculous block for school acceptance.

[LUKE23]

Can one of the hold ups really be that he has to take an extra year of foreign language? I'm all for academic standards for athletes being set and at times being set high... but that seems like a really random and kind of ridiculous block for school acceptance.

Not sure on that example specifically, but from what I've heard, there is growing frustration among basketball/football coaches about UW's academic requirements for athletes. Gary Andersen was really frustrated with it. If it costs UW Stone I am guessing there will be stuff coming out there as well.

[Newz]

Can one of the hold ups really be that he has to take an extra year of foreign language? I'm all for academic standards for athletes being set and at times being set high... but that seems like a really random and kind of ridiculous block for school acceptance.

Not sure on that example specifically, but from what I've heard, there is growing frustration among basketball/football coaches about UW's academic requirements for athletes. Gary Andersen was really frustrated with it. If it costs UW Stone I am guessing there will be stuff coming out there as well.

I personally think academic standards need to be upheld. It should be more about education and schooling than about sports. I guess it's just my personal opinion that we value sports way too highly in America.

That being said if his grades are high enough I don't see why one of the hurdles should be that he has to take more foreign language classes. What if the guy just doesn't want to learn another language? I mean I guess it's the UW-Madison school and I guess they can set their own standards... but that just seems like a really stupid standard to set. Based on that they could have a scenario where it's like:

"Oh, yeah. Diamond Stone had a 3.9 GPA in High School and is a super bright kid... but he only took a year of Spanish. This other kid had a 2.8... BUT HE TOOK THREE YEARS OF SPANISH! Thus the kid with the worse GPA will be allowed entry and Diamond Stone will be rejected... because that dude needs him some more Spanish."

[chuckleslove]

When I was applying to colleges UW Madison was my backup, I got conditionally accepted pending taking foreign language my first two years of college. I didn't take any foreign language in high school because I was in band and my graduation requirements for high school were 2 years of foreign language or 4 years of fine arts(band) and 1 year of applied technology(I took some stupid typing class that I was way overqualified for).

I had a 3.9ish GPA in high school and scored a 33 on my ACT. Madison accepted me but I would have been on academic probation for the first 2 years pending taking 12 credits of foreign language. So yeah it is a legit thing they do and it doesn't matter what your grades/tests in high school say.

Luckily I got in to my top choice of schools and didn't have to deal with that BS. I'm all for diversity but not everyone benefits from knowing/learning a foreign language and taking 2 years of a foreign language you aren't really going to know anything of value. Just imo they need to lighten up on that a bit.

[Newz]

When I was applying to colleges UW Madison was my backup, I got conditionally accepted pending taking foreign language my first two years of college. I didn't take any foreign language in high school because I was in band and my graduation requirements for high school were 2 years of foreign language or 4 years of fine arts(band) and 1 year of applied technology(I took some stupid typing class that I was way overqualified for).

I had a 3.9ish GPA in high school and scored a 33 on my ACT. Madison accepted me but I would have been on academic probation for the first 2 years pending taking 12 credits of foreign language. So yeah it is a legit thing they do and it doesn't matter what your grades/tests in high school say.

Luckily I got in to my top choice of schools and didn't have to deal with that BS. I'm all for diversity but not everyone benefits from knowing/learning a foreign language and taking 2 years of a foreign language you aren't really going to know anything of value. Just imo they need to lighten up on that a bit.

That seems incredibly stupid.

@ forcing students to take foreign language classes.

[ReasonablySober]

Can one of the hold ups really be that he has to take an extra year of foreign language? I'm all for academic standards for athletes being set and at times being set high... but that seems like a really random and kind of ridiculous block for school acceptance.

I've heard that specifically has been an issue with athletes in the past.

That's what I don't get, honestly. It's one thing if the academics are substantially more difficult once you're actually admitted to Madison, but they're comparable across the board to other B1G schools. Wisconsin is simply tougher to get in because of (seemingly) arbitrarily added requirements that should have no impact on core curriculum for Madison students.

[buckboy]

Stone is a UW lock assuming he qualifies academically. That's the hold up. I'm not an inside source buy but the guy I spoke to is extremely close to the program (as in, attends practices regularly close).

I have a similar source and this is what I've heard as well. It's not test scores either, it's classwork.

Also, I think Maryland has a better chance with Stone than UCONN .

[neiLz]

I don't see why Stone would be holding out on his decision other than waiting to be accepted to UW. If he does commit to UW. That should give the badgers a top 10 class for next year, right?

[Kerb Hohl]

I don't see why Stone would be holding out on his decision other than waiting to be accepted to UW. If he does commit to UW. That should give the badgers a top 10 class for next year, right?

On 247 they speculate it would be a top 15 class. I wonder if Khalil Iverson or Charlie Thomas will get a bit of a ratings bump (if it matters at all) in the end or if they do those at all at this point in the game.

[BUCKnation]

They want 3 to 4 years of a foreign language of high school or earlier before you come to the UW. I took 5 years of German and a year of Spanish before I came here. It's excessive but it is what it is. I'm surprised they wouldn't have more leeway for an athlete though and just make them take a few semesters of another language.

[trwi7]

I personally think academic standards need to be upheld.

I wouldn't mind loosening the standards a little bit. Not like making it Alabama easy to get in but just letting up a little bit would open it up for some more athletes. At the very least make it on par with some other Big Ten schools like Penn State and Ohio State.

BTW, when I was in high school our counselors told us we needed at least two years of the same foreign language to get accepted to Wisconsin schools. Now that I'm looking it appears they lied and that's only required to get into Eau Claire and Madison.

[JayMKE]

These foreign language classes really are an undue burden, its already pretty much too late once you get to high school or especially college to expect any fluency at all from most people imo. I took plenty of Spanish classes and I pretty much only know my numbers and colors, perhaps if I took these classes starting back in kindergarten or 1st grade it would of had more effect.

[trwi7]

These foreign language classes really are an undue burden, its already pretty much too late once you get to high school or especially college to expect any fluency at all from most people imo. I took plenty of Spanish classes and I pretty much only know my numbers and colors, perhaps if I took these classes starting back in kindergarten or 1st grade it would of had more effect.

Pretty much the same for me. I took 4 years of German from 7th grade through my sophomore year in high school and pretty much the only words I remember are the numbers 0-100 and some random words and sentences.

[Bernman]

These foreign language classes really are an undue burden, its already pretty much too late once you get to high school or especially college to expect any fluency at all from most people imo. I took plenty of Spanish classes and I pretty much only know my numbers and colors, perhaps if I took these classes starting back in kindergarten or 1st grade it would of had more effect.

Pretty much the same for me. I took 4 years of German from 7th grade through my sophomore year in high school and pretty much the only words I remember are the numbers 0-100 and some random words and sentences.

I had pretty much the exact same experience. I took German from 8th thru 12th. Most of the focus was on differing ways to say "the" or conjugating verbs. Why not just learn a variety of words, practice speaking them, hearing them, and focus on the less imporatant details later? I would have learned so much more that was usable that way. The curriculum here for foreign language is ridiculous, making what we learn largely unusable, yet that's what they're the biggest sticklers about? I'm much more liberal than conservative ftr, but I'd guess it has a lot to do with liberal political correctness in Madison. I feel bad for the kids who couldn't get in for that dumb reason. And if big-time athletes like Stone can't get in I feel bad for people like me too.

[Bernman]

These foreign language classes really are an undue burden, its already pretty much too late once you get to high school or especially college to expect any fluency at all from most people imo. I took plenty of Spanish classes and I pretty much only know my numbers and colors, perhaps if I took these classes starting back in kindergarten or 1st grade it would of had more effect.

That's absolutely what I think they should change the policy too. Mandatory 2nd language, ideally spanish, starting when kids hit kindergarten. Otherwise it's a real uphill climb to learn a language. There's no problem instituting the policy in many other countries who then have a leg up in communication in English with us and the other major countries where that is the native tongue. In this case I think it's irrational conservatism that's the issue. Like it would be too un'murican to force kids to learn another language but English. It's gotta be more of an elective later on in their academic lives, even if that leads to dramatically lower retention, to the point there isn't much of one.

[Kerb Hohl]

Education standards that make sense move incredibly slowly in America (and with all of the polar opposite politics going on it's only getting worse). What Bern is suggesting makes a ton of sense but will take forever to get to that point.

[HaroldinGMinor]

These foreign language classes really are an undue burden, its already pretty much too late once you get to high school or especially college to expect any fluency at all from most people imo. I took plenty of Spanish classes and I pretty much only know my numbers and colors, perhaps if I took these classes starting back in kindergarten or 1st grade it would of had more effect.

Pretty much the same for me. I took 4 years of German from 7th grade through my sophomore year in high school and pretty much the only words I remember are the numbers 0-100 and some random words and sentences.

kügelschreiber = ball point pen

[trwi7]

These foreign language classes really are an undue burden, its already pretty much too late once you get to high school or especially college to expect any fluency at all from most people imo. I took plenty of Spanish classes and I pretty much only know my numbers and colors, perhaps if I took these classes starting back in kindergarten or 1st grade it would of had more effect.

Pretty much the same for me. I took 4 years of German from 7th grade through my sophomore year in high school and pretty much the only words I remember are the numbers 0-100 and some random words and sentences.

kügelschreiber = ball point pen

I prefer bleistifts.

[humanrefutation]

These foreign language classes really are an undue burden, its already pretty much too late once you get to high school or especially college to expect any fluency at all from most people imo. I took plenty of Spanish classes and I pretty much only know my numbers and colors, perhaps if I took these classes starting back in kindergarten or 1st grade it would of had more effect.

I disagree that it's too late to learn a foreign language once you get to high school. Rather, learning any foreign language comes down to the frequency in which you use it.

Think of our native languages - we learned them by being forced to - our families spoke the language, our friends spoke the language, our communities spoke the language, etc. We had to learn in order to communicate with those closest to us.

It's a similar concept with foreign languages. If you only speak Spanish in class, you're not going to take much with you going forward. But if you immerse yourself in the language, you can learn it fairly well. But you have to keep up practice.

Two of my best friends learned Spanish in high school and are fluent today - but what boosted their fluency was taking classes in college, traveling abroad to Spanish-speaking countries for semester-long exchange programs, and practicing with their spanish-speaking friends constantly. Now, they can move fairly easily between English and Spanish.

So, it can be done. I think it's a useful skill. But it requires a lot of practice, IMO.

[BUCKnation]

Kids should definitely be learning languages earlier than they do. I have had numerous friends that have studied abroad (like germany for example) and they attend english classes that are very similar to what we have, though a little lower in level. They learn both languages at nearly the same level throughout their schooling, making it very easy for them to be bi-lingual.

As hr said, going to said country is huge for learning development too though.