Jaylin Fleming: The Nation's Finest 10-Year-Old Basketball Player - WOW!!!

(Photo from
Chicago Tribume)

In today's Chicago Tribune, Anne Stein highlights the exceptional talents of a very young and rising basketball star (can you be a rising star at 10?) in her article The Best 10-Year-Old Basketball Player in America. On the current online version of this story, they have a video demonstrating Jaylin's basketball prowess, along with comments from his father regarding how he is being raised and where Jaylin's and his family's priorities are.

What I find most interesting as I watched the video clip, and read through the commentary in the article, is how much of what Jaylin is doing and dedicating himself to resembles what I went through as an athlete my last year of high school, only, for me, at a much older age. His passion for mastering the skills of his sport, at least at this point, is very evident, and the solid foundational upbringing of placing family, school, and religion as important pieces in his life is also obvious.

NCAA March Madness: Low Graduation Rates For Some - Why?

There has been a swirl of articles floating around on the internet pertaining to the Secretary of Education Arne Duncan's statement that teams with a graduation rate below 40% should not be allowed in the NCAA tournament, something that the Chicago Sun-Times expanded on in its article, Low grad rate should bench NCAA teams, this past Sunday.

Much of the information currently presented centers its focus on basketball and March Madness stating that there are 12 teams in the men's tournament below this 40% level, some of which are as low as 8%. Sure had to scratch my head on that one. Do they go to class at the University of Maryland?