As the basketball Hogs were executing a flawless late-season collapse earlier this year, you surely had only one thought: "This disastrous performance must mean they're spending more time studying in the library than practicing on the court. Kudos to them, at least, for their dedication to the student-athlete ideal."
Well, I hate to break it to you, but Brandon Marcello has blown the doors off that theory with a post on the Slophouse blog revealing that the Hog hoopsters actually had the 3rd lowest GPA in the SEC (to be fair, those nerds at Tennessee, Mississippi State and Auburn didn't reveal their grades).
This shocking news comes on the heels of last week's report that outgoing seniors Stefan Welsh and Michael Washington left school without graduating, and when you add that to Courtney Fortson's untimely departure it means that Arkansas may be the first school in NCAA history to post a negative APR rating. Good times. (Props are due to former walk-on/golfer Stephen Cox for earning his diploma.)
Frankly, all this comes as a surprise to me, as I have it on good authority that Fortson was frequently spotted walking around campus arguing the oratorical merits of Demosthenes over Leodamas of Acharnae to anyone who would listen. Just goes to show that you never really know about this stuff...