Tuesday, April 8, 2008

Justin Hawkins

Here's a link to the Portsmouth Invitational where Justin Hawkins and other invited WAC seniors are playing. There are eight teams that start play today and run through Saturday. Another notable player on Hawkins' team is Kentucky guard Ramel Bradley. Marcelus Kemp and Jaycee Carroll are also playing.


http://www.portsmouthinvitational.com

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thanks Groves, you're doing a great job of answering all the questions on an NMSU basketball fanatic's mind this offseason.

Keep up the good work, and glad you've got this blog going.

Anonymous said...

I just heard today that Gillenwater, Rahman, Lumpkins, Aden, and Joyner are all enrolled at NMSU, and no Dona Ana Branch like you wrote about in a article. Here is what Braun Cartwright wrote on the Aggie Message Board
"All of our student-athletes (qualifiers and non-qualifiers) have been admitted to NMSU and are NMSU students. We have no student-athletes that are currently admitted to DACC (this is prohibited by NCAA rule). Students at NMSU often enroll in courses at DACC and vice versa. Some courses that are required for a degree at NMSU are only offered at DACC. The idea that we have student-athletes that enrolled at DACC is incorrect and if a student does enroll at DACC they would be bound by NCAA legislation and if he/she was a non-qualifer out of high school an AA degree would be required.

Braun Cartwright

Associate Atheltics Director/Compliance

NMSU

So why did you get that wrong?

Jason Groves said...

Here is a piece from the article you mention. At no time did I say students were enrolled at the branch, but Coach Menzies as well as the players talked about taking courses there.

“I like the idea of bringing in recruits and them not playing for a year so they can understant what college life is like,” Menzies said. “Utilizing the Doña Ana County Community College, we have been able to bring in some kids who weren’t initial qualifiers out of high school.”
With current redshirts Troy Gillenwater, Hamidu Rahman and Robert Lumpkins already at the branch campus, Menzies added two more guards in the last month. Terrance Joyner (Genesis One in Missisippi) and Faisal Aden (God’s Academy in Dallas) are the latest two additions.

Anonymous said...

I don't understand what the big deal is here.
I remember the article never did get the impression they were enrolled at DACC.

I took an English 111 and Math 115 at the branch when the main campus classes were full and still got my EE degree years ago.

Also, maybe their scholarships haven't kicked in and the kids are paying for these courses.
DACC courses are cheaper than the main campus.

As long as no rules are being broken, I don't see the big deal.

Anonymous said...

Faisal Aden doesn't even have his high school diploma so how is he eligible? I believe there is another kid also without a diploma. They will figure out how to pull some strings like they did with JY to get him eligible.