Monday, December 14, 2009

Gillenwater, McKines appear to be out for year

From the story to appear on Tuesday
McKines, Gillenwater to miss remainder of season
By Jason Groves
Sun-News reporter
LAS CRUCES — According to a New Mexico State official, Aggies basketball players Wendell McKines and Troy Gillenwater will not return to the court for the second semester.
“We have determined that the status of Troy and Wendell will remain the same as it was in the fall semester,” said Braun Cartwright, compliance officer at NMSU.
Cartwright said that university officials meet on Jan. 12 to certify grades for all student athletes for the spring semester.
“If we need to meet before then for Wendell or Troy before that, we will call an emergency meeting,” he said. “As of (Monday), there is no need to meet after reviewing the information that I reviewed today.”

20 comments:

Anonymous said...

Jason,

I asked this question before and I'll ask it again, what are their options under these circumstances? Will we see either one of them in Aggie uniform next season or is this it for them?

GS

Anonymous said...

cue the music... thanks wendell and troy. good lookin out.

regards,
the WAC

Jason Groves said...

GS. I remember. I wanted to wait until I knew for sure. That is the biggest question that I have for Menzies in the coming days. From covering the team the last couple years, I assume Menzies will wait to return to address the future plans of these two guys, including scholarships and where to go with BJ West, who I would think will not redshirt this season.

justin said...

West burned his redshirt ability with 8 minutes of gameplay last night, unless he gets injured and applies for a medical exemption.

Troy cannot redshirt, as he used that before his freshman year. He loses a year, and if he comes back, he does so with 2 years remaining.

Wendell could redshirt and return with 2 years remaining in 10-11.

Though I understand the sentiment that these two should be sent packing, our APR can't afford it. We'll have to ride it out down 2 scholarship players this year.

Anonymous said...

knuckleheads.

IC said...

Hey so I know that they need to get it done in the classroom. But what good is a great recruiter if his kids cant start the season because they aren't cleared or if they dont get it done in the classroom? What does this do to our apr? When was the last time we lost 1 player for the year due to grades? When was the last time we lost 2?

tim said...

Hey jason about time you put UNM in the Top 25, even if you did put them 24rg. Good luck watching the Aggie trainwreck the rest of the year...

Anonymous said...

This is the second school to do this in the last month. "Pennsylvania coach Glen Miller was removed as head coach Monday morning and replaced by assistant and former player Jerome Allen, the team announced.

" ESPN reports ...........We Can Get Marvin out this way.

Mikey V said...

Now would be a goodtime to have a program like cash for clunkers, but instead of cars you could trade in your season tickets.

You bring in your NMSU Men’s Basketball Tickets and get NMSU Women’s Basketball tickets or even Aggie Baseball or Softball season tickets.

Anonymous said...

In your opinion Jason, should they be allowed to return? I know I talked about in other posts about how usually we pick student athletes based on their abilities rather than their school efforts but this is different. One year and they cant make the grades to get back with the team? I know Menzies said in the interview that he couldnt control their situation but to me he is still the head coach. I understand that he cant be in the classroom with them but they have study hall and you can monitor progress through various ways. Like I mentioned in other post this also happened during Menzies first year with Hatila and Hawkins so Menzies does have to take more responsibility for it.

GS

Anonymous said...

Anyone surprised here?

So why does Menzies continue to recruit kids that have questionable academics?
Most of his recruit have issues w/ the NCAA clearinghouse.

The Utep win was nice but, it's back to reality. Fire Menzies!

Jason Groves said...

In my opinion....they should be allowed to return. Both players are already going to count against an APR down the line for not remaining eligible but it would be made worse if the program also loses a retention point. To your point though, they have had a year so docking scholarships doesn't seem too harsh to me. I don't know the APR implications of that or if either Troy or Wendell would either want to stay without a scholarship or have the means to do so. They have decisions to make just as Menzies does. I think what you and others are asking for is reasonable though, to make a statement of some sort by jettisoning them. But I've said at NMSU, they have to take risks to bring capable players to Las Cruces. Hawk and Hatila came here for Reggie so Theus even took chances and it worked out for him. Not so with Menzies thus far. There is an entire department with James Hall and his staff that work to help these guys out though but in the end, I guess they have to do the work in the classroom if they want to see about playing in the future. What the Aggies staff doesn't have is a leader like Trei Steward. Steward went through it as a player and a student and he excelled in both and eventually the younger players came around. I don't think the Aggies have that on their mens basketball staff at this point

Anonymous said...

James Hall and his staff has been doing great work with the players. The problem is they are not getting much support from the coaching staff. As a head coach, when you are consistently told that your players are not meeting with their tutors, they are not putting in the required 8 hours of study hall, not going to class and not turning in assignments, you have to do something. Ultimately it's the players' responsibility to become eligible and stay eligible but it sure would help to have a coach that reinforces the concept of academics as well.

By the way, if the players are ineligible, are they still on a scholarship? I though that if you are ineligible, you can't be on a scholarship but maybe I am wrong. Anyone know the answer?

Anonymous said...

Pull their scholarships and give them a one way ticket out of town!

Were taking an APR hit already for them being in-eligible.
Time to cut our loses and find some real STUDENT Athletes!

Anonymous said...

Hey Tim and Mikey V.,
Did not hear from you two during football season. All you can look forward to now is a brief run in the Top 25 so a major conference school might risk hiring Alford. If that happens please report back. Why doesn't UNM have some civility and quit recruiting out of NMSU's backyard? Oh, there aren't anymore kids in Los Alamos?

Anonymous said...

This is disappointing on many levels, especially as a fan (embarrassing to be an NMSU alum actually). The potential for a decent team is there, it is just unfortunate these guys can't get it together.

But I had somewhat of an epiphany last night after reading the news. These two need to live their lives, and it is not for the benefit of you & I. Maybe they are pro prospects, but likely they are not. This situation has a direct impact to their futures and education (both basketball & life), not ours. So please keep in mind that they have plenty more vested in this than the fans when judging them. Unfortunately there are consequences that need to be paid.

JG-this report seems to leave a sliver of hope for this year, as does the compliance officer's report. Is that just lip service, or is there any reason to think one or both might get eligible?

Anonymous said...

I saw A&M's win over a solid Tubby Smith program at Minnesota, eh? And so I'm glad to read today where New Mexico catapulted in the polls off of that big win and bringing some good publicity to the state. But Lobo fans, come on, act like you've been there before. I guess it has been since the 98-99 season that there's been anything to get all gaga over. So that explains why these guys are wetting their pull-ups on your blog, JG. Incidentally, Lobos wore black to the Pan Am that year and came away with an L do to overconfidence(I'm just saying). At least this year's Lobos are humble (so far)and being quietly led by Roman Martinez. Fans should take note.

10 yr. vet said...

I find the release of this information, especially since it would appear to be an unsettled situation, by the NMSU compliance officer to be extremely inappropriate. While I understand that the NMSU fans and community have an interest in the matter, to speculate what these young men have or have not accomplished as it pertains to their academics is both wrong and inappropriate.

What if they decided, independently of their academic status, that NMSU is not the best place for them?

What if, in the case of Wendell, he decided that he would rather play a full slate than 20 or so games?

The bottom line is that unless you have direct contact with one of the athletes, then you probably don't know the whole story. To turn on these young men at this point would seem a bit ridiculous. Let the whole thing play out...it might take a week, a month...it could take a few years to see it all truly playout.

Jason Groves said...

Vet, My job is to try to get the information out to readers and I believe Braun to be one of the few people there to actually tell more of the story than anyone else there. How many times have you read coach quotes that read the same way over and over because chances are he was waiting to hear from Braun regarding the matter. As always with NMSU sports, I'm not ready to say the matter is resolved either and I guess there is some sliver of hope but as of now, those two guys aren't part of the team this season. Regarding either of them leaving, unless it's to the NBA, where will they go? Two guys with loads of potential who have struggled in the classroom? Like I said in an earlier response, they have a big decision ahead of them as well.

Anon 2:13, I think you may be right. But I believe they are also mad that I voted the Lobos (who I think are a good team) at No. 24 and they ended up at 19

10 yr. vet said...

JG - I agree that you have a job to do and I believe that you do a very good job of it. Clearly Menzies is not inclined to make a definitive statement one way or the other and I understand that. I would venture to guess that both WM and TG are accepting responsibility for their current status but MM is more than just a little responsible for this mess. How many other D1 athletes do you see becoming ineligible? Not a lot. To have two in the same semester, especially when there is a history of problems, leads me to believe there was some serious lack of oversight. I just don't understand when you only have a max of 15 student athletes to oversee, how two of your best ones are unable to participate. Especially, when your professional livelyhood is on the line. Making sure that you have all of your players able to participate is one of the major responsibilities of the job.

As for the options available to these young men, I don't want to speculate but I would assume that is heavily dependent upon the circumstances surronding their academics. And as far as I know, that information is private so we may never know.

Thanks again for your work! I enjoy reading it.