March Dumbness

As you decide which teams to support in the NCAA basketball tourney, Globe reporter Derrick Jackson has some suggestions. Root for: Kansas, Duke, Villanova, Pittsburgh, Georgetown, Marquette, Wofford, Brigham Young, Wake Forest, Utah State, and Notre Dame. Root against Maryland, Texas, Nevada Las Vegas, and Kentucky.

Does Jackson know how the teams will do in the tourney? Nope. But he's got an idea how they'll do afterward. The first list of schools are [relative] paragons of academic excellence, getting at least 67% of black players through to graduation. The others - especially Maryland - seem to make no effort at all, even when defections to the NBA draft are not counted in the denominator.

Jackson singles out Kentucky Coach John Calipari as an agent of evil:

He remains one of the faces of college basketball despite Final Four appearances at UMass and Memphis that were struck from the record books for violations that damaged the reputations of the schools and its players, but somehow, not him.

High school stars (of any race) should be encouraged by those around them to find a school and coach committed to sending them along in life with high prospects, not a Calipari type who wants to use the young men to burnish his own credentials and then discard them.