Posted on 04/08/2015 4:15:13 PM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum
Racially obsessed USA Today on Friday wrote this headline: “Wisconsin doesn't hide from 'white guys' reputation.”
Josh Peter assembled current and former Badger players, former assistant coaches, and “authorities on the African-American experience” to answer: “Why is the Badgers' roster predominantly white?”
When the Final Four is played Saturday in Indianapolis, all five starters for Kentucky, Duke and Michigan State will be African American. Wisconsin's starting lineup, by contrast, includes one African American, forward Nigel Hayes.
The average Division I men's basketball team this season includes nine African-American players and four white players, according to data provided by the NCAA. At Wisconsin, the roster includes five African Americans, 10 whites and one Native American.
This year's starting lineup is no aberration. When Wisconsin played Kentucky in the Final Four last year, it had one African American in the starting lineup. When the Badgers reached the Final Four under previous coach Dick Bennett in 2000 — in the school's only other appearance since 1941 — it had one African-American starter.
Former Badgers point guard Jordan Taylor told of being was needled by a teammate about Wisconsin's chances against undefeated Kentucky.
"He was just saying we've got too many white guys," Taylor says with a chuckle. "I still get kind of poked at, teased about it, because it always seems like there are about four white guys and a black point guard all the time (in Wisconsin's starting lineup)."
“Too many white guys?” Is that funny? It’s proof that you can’t be racist for joking that whites are inferior at basketball.
Peter eventually, near the very end, relayed the obvious: coach Bo Ryan recruits heavily inside the state, and “African Americans represent 6.5% of Wisconsin's population, about half the national percentage.” Add to that Ryan’s low-scoring, slow-tempo style arouses complaints from basketball stars who want to score a lot and audition for the NBA.
OK, then why so few whites on most sports teams?
That’s a very stupid and very racist point of view for a so called Newspaper. Vacuous too, did I say vacuous?
Be like McCartney, and just let it be.
Ryan coaches team play, not self-centered "N-ball". But, then again, San Antonio won big over the Miami Heat, and race had nothing to do with it. That was a great series to watch.
Take this issue up with Rand in light of his latest legal theory.....
Because there aren’t enough playing opportunities for black roundballers?
Not too many Blacks in the NHL either. #Black men can’t skate ?
Why are there so few Black guys on the St. Louis Blues hockey team? The city is predominately Black. Come to think of it, why aren’t there any women, hispanics, mentally retarded (I know, debatable), physically handicapped, transgender people on the team or any pro team for that matter? So unfair.
there should be a rooney rule for basketball, and the teams without enough white guys should be fined.
It’s not just USA Today. ALL liberals are obsessed over race. Liberals have use racial politics for half a century and they will keep using it to scare the minority races.
The KOLD winters in WI don’t help
What is the racial makeup of employees and reporters at USA Today?
They are showing an example of “white privilege”. 4 white guys must be unfair competition.
"White, black, whatever," said Traevon Jackson, one of the five African-Americans on the roster. "We all worked hard, and Coach Ryan is a tough-nosed coach who gets the most out of you. We're in back-to-back Final Fours, and we're looking for more."
You want to talk about racism, just look at any swim team.
Since the left is so in love with quotas, maybe we should insist that no more than 12% of all athletic scholarships should go to black athletes, since that is the approximate percentage of blacks in the US population. How loud do you think they would scream? We could also insist that no more than 3% of the roles on TV and in movies can represent LGBT characters or be filled by LGBT actors.
You know, at this point maybe we SHOULD support quotas... :-)
We don't need one and ones thank you. We came within an eyelash of winning the whole thing without them.
This is part of the new narrative: being racially “color blind” is now a bad thing. We must all see the race in everybody so that we can treat them accordingly..
Dang good white guys, too.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.