| | By Andy Katz
ESPN.com
Credit Kentucky and Wake Forest for discovering that Jason Parker's high school grade-point average was incorrectly calculated, making him eligible Tuesday to play this season.
Point some of the blame toward West Charlotte High School, the NCAA Clearinghouse and North Carolina for Parker being told he was ineligible for the previous two weeks.
And watch out for Kentucky now that Parker has enrolled and will play for the Wildcats, making them a Final Four contender because of his "Elton Brand-like strength inside."
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“ |
(Jason Parker) is very special. He's
Elton Brand and a more determined and offensive
minded Carlos Boozer (Duke). ... When he puts his
shoulders parallel to the baseline, he's Charles
Barkley. ” |
|
|
— Dave Odom,
Wake Forest head coach |
Parker's chaotic August concluded with Tuesday's announcement that he is in fact eligible to play this season at Kentucky. Parker's world was turned upside down on Aug. 14 when North Carolina coach Matt Doherty told him that he wouldn't be admissible in Chapel Hill because of a questionable standardized test score.
"They (the Tar Heels) knew his SAT had been questioned and they thought his good ACT would be questioned in the future," Jesse Parker, Jason's father told ESPN.com Tuesday. "They didn't feel he would get into school. But that wasn't the problem. It was the GPA."
Jesse Parker said North Carolina told the family that he should go to a junior college. The Tar Heels never thought Jason Parker would be eligible this season and, certainly, didn't think he would end up at a team the Tar Heels play this season (Dec. 2 in Chapel Hill).
School started Aug. 22 for the Tar Heels, while Kentucky could enroll students as late as Tuesday. Wake Forest begins Wednesday. Sources said a correctly calculated GPA wouldn't have changed the Tar Heels' stance on admission, even though the Tar Heels had invested two years of recruiting Parker, signing him out of West Charlotte and Fork Union, (Va.) Military Academy.
His departure each of the last two years (Parker wasn't eligible out of high school) affected two, possibly, three UNC recruited classes because the Tar Heels kept passing on power forwards.
But North Carolina won't, and say it can't, comment on the matter like Kentucky did Tuesday. So, here's what has been discovered, according to sources close to the situation and officially announced by Kentucky.
Kentucky and Wake Forest reviewed Parker's high school transcripts from West Charlotte once North Carolina released him on Aug. 15. What they discovered was his accelerated curriculum throughout high school hadn't been given full credit for the "advanced gifted classes," he took in high school.
Sources said Parker still had to go to Fork Union to earn a qualifying SAT score. He did in January. If the Tar Heels had checked his core classes in the winter, he would have never been in Lexington Tuesday. The questioned test scores came after January. Parker took more tests because he was told he didn't have a high enough test score to go with his GPA.
The bottom line: It appeared as though Parker needed a higher SAT and/or ACT score to go along with a lower GPA than he really had in high school.
"This is one of the most complex cases our compliance office has ever handled," Kentucky athletics director Larry Ivey said in a statement Tuesday. "Sandy Bell, our assistant athletics director for compliance, has worked closely with the NCAA Clearinghouse to ensure that Jason gets credit where credit is due. The test scores that were in question from April have been canceled. His corrected GPA combined with previous test scores from last winter, which have not been challenged, allow him to play for the Wildcats this season."
According to NCAA member schools, the protocol for a prospective student-athlete is this: once he's recruited by a college, the school should ask the player to request that his transcript be sent to the college and the Clearinghouse. The Clearinghouse requires a 48H form to describe the core classes.
At that point, the core courses are transcribed and a GPA is properly calculated. But it is then incumbent for the school recruiting the player to go over his transcript from one end to the other to ensure that a GPA was calculated properly.
Once that is done, the only thing left to do is wait for qualifying SAT or ACT scores. According to sources close to Parker and the schools recruiting him, the Clearinghouse accepted West Charlotte's work without question as did North Carolina.
Kentucky and Wake Forest, the two finalists for Parker, checked the work once he was released and word spread that they would have to appeal to get him eligible.
Jesse Parker said Doherty called his house Friday night and tried to get Jason to change his mind.
"He expressed an apology about the oversight (in his GPA) and asked my wife if Jason would reconsider," Jesse Parker said. "He then called back the next day and told my wife that it wouldn't be fair to ask Jason to reconsider."
Meanwhile, Wake Forest coach Dave Odom called the Parkers Saturday and pulled out of the process. Odom didn't want to mess with the chemistry of his team, which should compete for a top-four ACC finish. Odom didn't even take a family vacation while he was dealing with the Parker recruitment the past two weeks.
"Wake Forest and Kentucky worked fast and hard for Jason," Jesse Parker said. "We feel honored that they and North Carolina recruited our son."
But Kentucky got him.
The Tar Heels are still a Final Four contender without Parker. But they're not nearly as deep in the frontcourt, and they're relying heavily on the return of two players (Kris Lang and Brian Bersticker) who have battled injuries, and another (Brendan Haywood) who has lacked energy at times in the post. The wings of Jason Capel and Joseph Forte are as good as any tandem in the country. But the team will be run by a pair of freshmen, albeit highly-touted, in Adam Boone and Brian Morrison.
Parker's infusion would have pushed Haywood and given the Tar Heels another legit scoring force inside.
Meanwhile, the Wildcats add a chiseled 6-foot-8, 250-pound power forward to a frontcourt yearning for production after the departure of Jamaal Magloire. Kentucky needed another body up front after signee Michael Southall got in legal trouble in the spring and was released from his scholarship.
Sophomore Marvin Stone is tough to move out of the post, but doesn't always finish well once he's close to the basket. Junior Jules Camara is still relatively thin to be a bully inside. Redshirt sophomore Marquis Estill is coming off two knee injuries. Junior Tayshaun Prince has played power forward, but his natural position is facing the basket as a small forward. The Wildcats backcourt rotation is set with senior Saul Smith, sophomore Keith Bogans and freshman Cliff Hawkins.
But no one inside can produce as quickly as Parker.
"He's very special," said Odom who coached Parker through USA basketball last summer. "He's Elton Brand and a more determined and offensive minded Carlos Boozer (Duke). He's more like Brand because he's got more moves. When he puts his shoulders parallel to the baseline, he's Charles Barkley."
Adding a Brand, Boozer or Barkley on the first day of school is unheard of, even for a program as storied as Kentucky.
Andy Katz is a senior writer at ESPN.com.
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