This may be Al Skinner’s first season at Kennesaw State, but the former NBA player has been a Division I head basketball coach for 23 of the last 28 seasons.
So that employment history should carry a little extra weight when Skinner says of asking today’s players to play and practice for up to six months over two semesters:
“Academically, everybody worries about grade point averages. It could be because they’e not in school. We were basically on the road for the first 10 days of the season. That’s too many days away from class, even with tutors. And student-athletes are suffering for it.”
That should be reason enough for reasonable people to reconsider the current basketball model. Too many games too soon, practice and games running, in some cases, from early October to early April. This season cryptically began on Friday the 13th of November for most Division I programs, including the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, which knocked off Skinner’s Owls 78-66 on Friday.
But the sparse crowd of 2,421 inside McKenzie Arena to watch the Mocs’ latest victory might be a stronger argument for a shorter season.