What would you say the odds are that enes is freed. 50 50 is the best I got. You never know with the ncaa, however I ask you because I was wondering since its so close to start of season. It would really bite if we didn’t have a decision by then. The whole matter is a lot to wrap ones head around.

Strengths are relative.

Enes may very well have been admitted to The Samanyolu School as a precocious 10 year old but that says nothing about how he performed once he was in. Like all groups, there is bound to be a distribution of individual performance and Enes may not have been a lock to gain admission to University despite his studies at this prestigious private high school. In Turkey, the standard of academic excellence is measured against attaining a University track designation and progress toward passing the National University Entrance Examination. Despite the contrarian Wildcat examples of Patrick Patterson and Brandon Knight, we all know athletic savants in the United States are seldom the best students. In Turkey, that juxtaposition of student and athlete is just as challenging and maybe more so.

The total capacity of Turkish universities is 450,000 – Wikipedia – while every year approximately 1,600,000 students take the admissions examine and that number is going up every year. I’m told by Turkish nationals who know this stuff that only about 5% of applicants pass the University admissions exam. It’s called the “Life = 180 minutes?” exam because it’s a 3 hour test covering their entire academic history and determines the rest of their ‘life.’ It places a huge amount of stress on the students and their families as well as engendering a ton of anger from unsuccessful applicants with dashed dreams. Families with any kind of aspirations for their kids encourage extremely disciplined study habits. Still, only 5% pass.

Unless you are attending an Anatolian Imam-Hatip High School (religious training) or a Vocational bi School (no plans for college), most families begin examining college options shortly after the their child takes a set of qualifying examines at the end of the 9th grade. This is apparently when the Kanter’s began looking to sent Enes out of the country. These early exams basically try to segment the student population into various career and continuing education tracts. If you score sufficiently high to place you in a University track, even middle-class parents frequently try to enhance the odds of passing the entrance exam by transferring their child to an expensive private school. If it becomes clear you’re unlikely to pass the exam despite the benefit of private school (and Enes was already in private school), families who can afford it, begin to assess the need to go overseas for post secondary-education. The United States is a very attractive option. Enes’ father is no fool.

Believe it or not, basketball players in Turkey do not benefit from excessively high social status. Owing to the extreme difficulty of obtaining a college education, educated professionals occupy a higher rung on the social ladder. When Enes is talking to this Tamer Turkman (Study In America), an educator no less, of course he’s going to play up the opportunity to study in the United States rather than the chance to play basketball. Does that mean he is academically talented, maybe, but given the odds, probably not. He appears to be a bright enough guy and by American standards certainly deserves an opportunity for a college education but I think you are reaching to become indignant about anybody suggesting that Enes’ strong suit isn’t academics. Honestly, as long as he stay’s eligible and can sustain credible progress toward graduation, and UK will move heaven and academic earth to keep him eligible, then, as with the rest of the guys on the team, it’s a total none issue.

  And I believe that is what is going on here. I think to often some of us (me included) forget that these are kids. They are 18 and still in school I don’t really think that his choice of school should bring into question his academics. If he would have kept his first choice would this still happen. Yes, to some degree. My guess is not at the level it is currently.