SCRooster...Cousinard?

Here's what I've been told but who knows if it is absolutely fact or not ... I'll still share it with you.

I was told he was flagged for a test score AFTER someone received info that there is an investigation going on where he took the test about other suspicious big jumps in some other test scores, and his was flagged.

This thing supposedly came to light after the fact. Our admissions originally had no problems accepting the score until this other thing came to light and it wasn't just his.

Pastides and Tanner have both said to err on the side of caution and, once presented with all the facts, Martin is supposed to be pissed but understanding for the time being.

Now, that's all I know and it didn't come from anyone directly involved ... so take it fwiw. They're being pretty tight lipped about it over there and rightfully so.

It does not just involve our kid, but others at other places ... whatever that means. Because I asked, "so you are telling me there is an ACT factory at Montverde (basketball) Academy in Florida where kids, prospective athletes, are going to get big jumps in their scores? How is that even possible?"

And as it was explained to me ... someone got a call, someone was alerted to something that caused concern, and to be on the safe side they went back and reviewed everything and decided to err on the side of caution.

He wasn't the only one that realized a big jump in his score fwiw.

Who knows. None of it makes sense. First he's cleared ... and not just by us but also by the Clearing House, and then something happens like this. It doesn't make sense.

Here's the really weird part imho. When Cousinard was told what was going-on ... he didn't contest anything. So far he's taken everything in stride and everyone seems to think he'll be back in time for classes. In the end this will probably be much ado about nothing but it is weird, that's for sure.

Did someone over at TBS, someone who works for the site, make some kind of disparaging remark about our academics or the academics and education system in South Carolina as a whole?

I heard some talk about that yesterday and, whatever it was that was said, it must have been unnecessary or out of line. Evidently it's gotten back to someone on our recruiting staff and they are not too happy about it.

At least I think it was supposed to be TBS because I heard JC's name come up but didn't recognize the other guy's name.

Called us a dumb hick state full of dumb students, or something to that effect. Along the lines of we should never have issues getting anyone we want academically qualified to enroll here because we're the worst state in the union when it comes to grades ... or something like that.

Had some people fired-up I guess. Probably something you don't want to hear from a credentialed press guy if that's truly the case.

The BigSpur puts out podcasts, Locked on the Gamecocks. They are hosted by JC and Keith Allsep. The latest one discussed the Cousinard situation and Keith was very critical of our educational system and admissions. During the Bowen debacle, JC took to tweeter and blasted Ray Tanner and our compliance officer. Called him a rent a cop. I don't know the behind the scenes situation and maybe the criticism is justified, however, resorting to name calling was very childish and unprofessional. I do enjoy the podcasts, for the most part. Lots of good information.

Somebody that works for that site from Texas maybe? I've got another guy on the phone right now that was with me yesterday and he's confirming what I heard but adding that he thinks they told us it was someone who works for the site that is originally from Texas because evidently they made disparaging remarks about how dumb we are in this state compared to his home state of Texas?

I probably should have been paying more attention but I was busy talking to someone else about Robinson and Cam.

Keith Allsep goes by the username Cockfather I believe. He's not employed by the site to my understanding though but seems to have some pull.

Locked on the Gamecocks Podcasts

LINK

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Called us a dumb hick state full of dumb students, or something to that effect. Along the lines of we should never have issues getting anyone we want academically qualified to enroll here because we're the worst state in the union when it comes to grades ... or something like that.

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I've read some things about that ranking and the way they came up with it penalizes the hell out of South Carolina.

For example, South Carolina high schools require 24 credits to graduate and you are penalized in the report for having a relatively low high school graduation rate. California, on the other hand, is praised for their high graduation rate (which is only a few percentage points higher)... and it should be high since they only require 11 credits (13 now) to graduate. Arkansas is hardly known for our educational prowess but we require 22 credits for God's sake. Mississippi requires 21!

For another South Carolina has every student take the ACT, one of 11 states to do so (those states predominantly being in the South from what I can tell). So you have low ACT scores. Well, yeah, they are going to be low if everyone has to take the ACT when compared to other states where only the kids going on to college take the ACT.

Its like testing every kid in the state on whether they can throw down a two handed dunk and then comparing it to another state where only the kids who have Division 1 college basketball scholarship offers take the same test.

I'm not saying that South Carolina doesn't have flaws in the education system that need to be corrected. I am sure you do, just like a lot of other places. But this ranking he's gassing on about penalizes several states for actually having higher standards then others.

No one is accusing New York of being intellectual midgets and they require about the same number of credits as you folks do (44 credits, but if they figured those up the same way you do it would come out to 22 I believe). Surely they must boast a much higher gradua... oh no, wait, its identical to South Carolina's.