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USA Today Probes: 'Too Many White Guys' on Wisconsin Basketball Team?
NewsBusters.org ^ | 04/06/2015 | Tim Graham

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.


TOPICS: News/Current Events; US: Wisconsin
KEYWORDS: athletes
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1 posted on 04/08/2015 4:15:13 PM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

OK, then why so few whites on most sports teams?


2 posted on 04/08/2015 4:17:36 PM PDT by Da Coyote
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

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.


3 posted on 04/08/2015 4:18:20 PM PDT by lee martell (The sa)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum
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.

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.

4 posted on 04/08/2015 4:18:47 PM PDT by Pearls Before Swine
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

Take this issue up with Rand in light of his latest legal theory.....


5 posted on 04/08/2015 4:19:59 PM PDT by Paladin2 (Ive given up on aphostrophys and spell chek on my current device...)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

Because there aren’t enough playing opportunities for black roundballers?


6 posted on 04/08/2015 4:20:54 PM PDT by BenLurkin (The above is not a statement of fact. It is either satire or opinion. Or both.)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

Not too many Blacks in the NHL either. #Black men can’t skate ?


7 posted on 04/08/2015 4:20:59 PM PDT by Impala64ssa (You call me an islamophobe like it's a bad thing.)
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To: Da Coyote

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.


8 posted on 04/08/2015 4:21:53 PM PDT by rey
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

there should be a rooney rule for basketball, and the teams without enough white guys should be fined.


9 posted on 04/08/2015 4:22:29 PM PDT by biggredd1
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

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.


10 posted on 04/08/2015 4:23:01 PM PDT by entropy12 (Real function of economists is to make astrologers look respectable.)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

The KOLD winters in WI don’t help


11 posted on 04/08/2015 4:23:16 PM PDT by SandRat (Duty - Honor - Country! What else needs said?)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

What is the racial makeup of employees and reporters at USA Today?


12 posted on 04/08/2015 4:27:48 PM PDT by rey
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To: entropy12

They are showing an example of “white privilege”. 4 white guys must be unfair competition.


13 posted on 04/08/2015 4:29:38 PM PDT by affan76
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To: E. Pluribus Unum
The players were not amused by that article.

"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."

14 posted on 04/08/2015 4:31:12 PM PDT by Darren McCarty (We need a conservative electable candidate in 2016)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum
But according to Jalen Rose the Duke basketball players are a bunch of"Uncle Toms".

To hint that those who grew up in a household with a mother and father are somehow less black than those who did not is beyond ridiculous. -- Grant Hill

Grant Hill’s Response to Jalen Rose

15 posted on 04/08/2015 4:32:52 PM PDT by Kid Shelleen (Beat your plowshares into swords. Let the weak say I am strong)
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To: Da Coyote

You want to talk about racism, just look at any swim team.


16 posted on 04/08/2015 4:34:04 PM PDT by hardspunned
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

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... :-)


17 posted on 04/08/2015 4:35:08 PM PDT by CA Conservative (Texan by birth, Californian by circumstance)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum
The top player in the state the last two years were both black. Both (Kevon Looney and Diamond Stone) were heavily recruited by Wisconsin...especially Stone who was reportedly leaning towards Madison but instead signed with Maryland. Looney signed with UCLA and is now declaring for the draft after one year of college ball.

We don't need one and ones thank you. We came within an eyelash of winning the whole thing without them.

18 posted on 04/08/2015 4:36:54 PM PDT by driftless2 (For long term happiness, learn how to play the accordion.)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

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..


19 posted on 04/08/2015 4:39:23 PM PDT by clintonh8r (ISIS IS ISlam/Christian lives matter!)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

Dang good white guys, too.


20 posted on 04/08/2015 4:42:58 PM PDT by The_Media_never_lie (The media must be defeated any way it can be done.)
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