NY Post’s Mushnick throws shade on Michigan, Wagner & Webber.

Submitted by Blue Mind and Heart on

Mushnick is the worst columnist in the NY area.  He is relentlessly negative and comes across as an out-of-touch harpy in every column.  I never read him but the picture of Wagner and Wilson was too much and it drew me in.

In the article he takes Chris Weber to task for not asking how a German born student with English as his second language could possibly keep up with his studies.  He states, “how does he legitimately matriculate at such a school.”  He goes as far as to insinuate that it is academic fraud. 

I guess he did not read the Players Tribune article.  He and the Post should both be ashamed and publish an apology.  His days as an insightful journalist (??!!) are long gone.  Ice floe time. 

 

Won’t include link.  No need to give him clicks.  

M-Dog

March 26th, 2017 at 2:18 PM ^

How does a one-and-done basketball player at Kentucky even pretend to have any studies?

When you are looking to fish for academic fraud, you should look in the fruitful deep blue ocean of a place like Kentucky, and not waste your time on the barren dry hole that is John Beilein's program.

 

Chalky White

March 26th, 2017 at 2:54 PM ^

I don't think people understand that there are people in Europe who wrote and speak English better than we do. I've interracted with Germans on message boards who wrote in Crystal clear English. You would never know they aren't from the US. I've had interractions with people from Latvia of all places who don't even speak a Phoenetic language that uses our alphabet, yet they wrote in Crystal clear unbroken English. They don't even teach these kids English until third grade.

The guy who wrote that article needs to educate himself. That also goes for whomever is in charge of educating kids in this country. There is no excuse for poor literacy rates regardless of the income level. If a former Soviet country's first language is in those bizarre Russian symbols, there is no excuse for their kids being better at writing English than us.

jmblue

March 26th, 2017 at 3:48 PM ^

To say that they "speak better than Americans" is an overstatement.  Writing something down is a little different than speaking in a rapid, natural conversation.

I would say that a lot of Europeans have achieved about a conversational level of English, where you can understand the gist of what they're saying, though they'll make some grammar/pronunciation errors, have some gaps in their vocabulary, and probably need you to repeat yourself sometimes.  The Europeans I met who were fully fluent had usually spent time in an anglophone country beforehand.

Wagner himself has acknowledged that he wasn't fully comfortable speaking in English when he came and has gotten much better through immersion.  I'm guessing he could probably read and write pretty well though.  That's typically how it is for a lot of foreign students.

  

OC Alum91

March 26th, 2017 at 11:35 PM ^

Germans start formally learning English in 2nd Grade.   Also, English is a Germanic language, about 60% lexical similarity (for comparison, English and French have 27% lexical simlarity).   Lastly, Europeans have exposure to US songs, movies, etc and travel as well throughout Europe.

The link below shows an 8th grade English textbook...content is about expensive homes in Malibu, Hollywood movies, and surfers...

https://www.quora.com/How-do-Germans-learn-English-in-school

Only ignoramus would ask that question of a German student.

Anecdotally, I've met a few Germans who speak English as a second language--they all speak very well, don't seem to have much trouble with the langage (not so with other ESL's from other countries of origin)

 

 

M-Dog

March 26th, 2017 at 4:57 PM ^

English is the international language.  Most countries teach it.

I was at a business meeting with a lot of international people in it.  A French guy and a Japanese guy were having a conversation.  They had it in English.  

PopeLando

March 26th, 2017 at 2:21 PM ^

There have been tens of thousands of Asian exchange students at Michigan who barely speak English and still manage to set the curve in their classes, graduate with honors, and succeed in business far beyond anything I've done.

Not speaking English is not a barrier. That's pretty offensive to... Basically everyone

Wolverine Devotee

March 26th, 2017 at 2:27 PM ^

I've heard of this shit-for-brains before. This guy is a typical NY media blowhard. They are not to be paid attention to.

Solecismic

March 26th, 2017 at 2:27 PM ^

One could easily respond by pointing out how the standards at newspapers have declined at a much faster rate.

In this case, knowing what we know about Wagner, his choice of target is a terrific example of the state of journalism these days. Bright kid who will get a lot from this education.

Regardless, it's a lazy approach to the issue. Any athlete can be a student if he or she chooses, and those who choose not to be students aren't necessarily foreign.

Raskolnikov

March 26th, 2017 at 2:31 PM ^

I suppose, at this point, it is just none of our business.

Still, as long as we’ve been watching the NCAA Tournament contested by student-athletes, isn’t there someone — anyone — on these telecasts who can explain for us how the players attend college, when they attend and whether their courses are taught in English?

Chris Webber, a Michigan man working Tournament telecasts, could’ve helped us figure out the presence of 6-foot-11 Moritz Wagner, who arrived at Michigan from Germany last season.

Given that Michigan is a tough academic school for English-speaking kids, given that Wagner presumably speaks English as a second language, and given that he misses so many classes to play basketball, how does he legitimately matriculate at such a school?

But Webber, who must know how it works at Michigan, apparently wasn’t asked.

If we’re talking about fraud here — colleges operating as wholesome fronts for basketball teams — TV’s silent financial partnering on such matters makes CBS and Turner a prominent party to the fraud, no?

CBS’ Kevin Harlan didn’t help us out, either. Thursday he seemed delighted to declare Michigan recently “won four games in four days!”

Perhaps that was the week Michigan gave Wagner’s German-speaking professors off.

Gonzaga-West Virginia on TBS was filled with such wonder. Forget about attending classes, are Gonzaga’s practices conducted in English? In addition to a player freshly arrived from Japan, the Zags have recruits from Poland, Denmark and France.

They must be exchange students, enrolled in exchange for helping the college win games — a lofty goal among so many of our institutions of higher learning and social engineering.

Would it be cynical or rude to ask how these full-scholarship players receive a legitimate, useful college education?

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Oregon’s Dylan EnnisAP

A few years back, CBS tried listing players’ academic majors. But, perhaps because so many were identified as majoring in “general studies” and “undecided” — “I’m majoring in General Indecision” — it was, you should excuse the expression, a one-and-done.

That year a French-speaking player recruited from a former French protectorate in Africa was shown to be majoring in French.

Deep into the second half of Oregon-Michigan, Harlan let us in on a secret: Oregon’s Dylan Ennis, 25, is the oldest player in the Tournament.

He might’ve added that he also is among the most immature. After scoring on a layup, he struck an all-about me, double-arm muscle flex.

But at 25, Ennis by now must know that such demonstrations, as seen live, then on tape, throughout the Tournament, guarantee replay attention. CBS immediately rewarded his immodesty with a recorded encore.

As a student-athlete, Ennis has circled the continent playing college basketball. From his home in Ontario, Canada, he first went to Texas to play for Rice, then to Villanova and now Oregon. Before that, he went to high school in The Bronx, then in Chicago.

But no one on CBS/Turner has found that suspicious, let alone curious.

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Bob HugginsGetty Images

Early in Gonzaga-West Virginia, sideline reporter Louis Johnson seemed pleased to report that WVU coach Bob Huggins’ motto is “No days off, and make every day count.” No days off? What about studying for midterms? Finals? Or am I being facetious? What does college have to do with college basketball?

Moments later, play-by-play man Brian Anderson, in what sounded like a salute to Huggins, reported this about WVU:

“This is a team that won on Saturday in the round of 32, bussed from Buffalo back to Morgantown, and were in the gym later that night.”

Of course, there was no chance we would be told that Huggins, while the coach at Cincinnati then Kansas State, annually produced graduation rates of zero percent.

But that didn’t matter to the shot-callers at WVU, who hired him to return to his alma mater to coach their student-athletes. WVU, after all, is where Adam “Pacman” Jones refined his social graces before being unleashed on the NFL.

So maybe it doesn’t matter if you speak English to become a full scholarship college student-athlete in the United States — as long as you can, as they say in German, erzielte das basketball! (score the basketball!)

Rose hoops picks don’t rise above the fray

Surprise! CBS’ special halftime guest during Oregon-Michigan was Charlie Rose, the CBS News journalist who stopped by to prove that he also is a willing network shill!

Rose, who identified himself as a big college basketball fan, said he would like to see North Carolina play Kentucky, thus he apparently has no problem with how either school — Kentucky’s one-and-done NBA warehouse, UNC’s 15-plus recent years of rank, sustained academic fraud — annually achieved basketball success.


Why we watch: Best game seen all week? Defying logic, it was Tuesday’s Rangers-Devils. After all, the Rangers are in; the Devils are out.

Yet, throughout it was played with fury — aggressive, fast and with both goalies, Antti Raanta and Cory Schneider, making tremendous saves to keep it 2-2, before Jersey won in overtime. It was time well spent, as riveting as any game played for greater stakes.

It brought to mind Chris Russo’s dismissive day-before wisdom on an Army-Navy game when both were unranked: “This game does nothing for me.”

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Mike FrancesaGetty Images

A timely Clemson prediction

The ease with which Mike Francesa tells self-inflating lies would be stunning only if we expected better.

Not that his guest asked, but Thursday he told FOX Sports’ Peter Schrager that he picked Clemson to win this year’s national football title. He has claimed that several times despite demonstrable proof — type in SportsFunhouse for the audio — to the contrary.

In early November, after Clemson lost at home to Pitt, Francesa abandoned Clemson’s bandwagon as if it had been hit by lightning. He repeatedly said — he is known to repeat himself, repeat himself — that Clemson is not a good football team.

Though Francesa is 25 years overdue to get one right, this wasn’t it.

One can hear Pinocchio defending himself to Geppetto: “Oh no, Dad, there’s a guy on the radio in New York who’s much worse!”


Had Oregon, 69-68 Sweet 16 winners over Michigan, lost, it would’ve been a residual of modern, TV-inspired, senselessness.

In the first half, Oregon’s 6-foot-9 Jordan Bell took an inside pass and had an unrestricted path to the basket. He could’ve laid it in, dropped it in or given it a two-handed slam.

Instead, he shifted the ball to his right hand, took it high above his head then went for an ESPN “Top 10” wrecking ball slam. Clang, boing, bing, he missed.

Michigan ran it the other way and scored an easy layup. As Reggie Miller said, “A four-point swing, right there.” Miller was kind. He should’ve added “absolutely ridiculous.”

 

jmblue

March 26th, 2017 at 5:49 PM ^

If it's a scandal for a French-speaking player to major in French, how does he feel about the hundreds of thousands of Americans who major in English?

If the guy was taking a bunch of 100-level courses that'd be one thing, but majoring in a foreign language means taking upper-level courses that are normally conducted entirely in the language and cover adult-level readings. A native speaker would have a leg up but would still have to put in some effort.

George Pickett

March 26th, 2017 at 2:40 PM ^

This opinion isn't even sports-related.  He's objecting to the entire concept of foreign students, which is quite the hot take.

bronxblue

March 26th, 2017 at 3:30 PM ^

I am SHOCKED that the NY Post would publish something xenophobic. NY is absolutely not a place that tolerates racist ideas, especially in newspapers that appeal to a very particular subset of NYers I will refer to as "screaming assholes on the 4" train.

nappa18

March 26th, 2017 at 3:39 PM ^

I have been subjected to this troll's drivel for years. He's getting worse with age. Probably bitter about his lot in life, maybe fancies himself as a journalist. Not even an average columnist. Lucky he's still working. Jealous of non print media talking heads who are admittedly almost uniformly annoying, especially former athletes, I'm talking about you Joey Galloway.

Cannot recall anything positive he has written about any individual, sport, specific game, etc. I think he is a former "beat writer" who lost his beat.

Pitiful character really. Deserving not of our scorn but of our pity. Not a face made for TV.

Blue Vet

March 26th, 2017 at 4:15 PM ^

As one poster noted, Wagner speaks English very well — a fact anyone could pick up from an interview, unless determined to smear and ignore the facts. I've been impressed at this German-born and -educated young man's facility with English, including slinging slang, all with a very light accent.

Beyond the inaccuracy of this specific attack, the Post writer (sic) might venture to Queens, home to 130 (?) languages, to be reminded what other posters have pointed out, that many people with less command of the language manage to communicate and succeed.