McLaughlin not a go at Nevada

Okay, we get no satisfaction out of pointing this out but Chris Murray reports this morning that Nevada recruit Mark McLaughlin will not be in Reno this year to begin his college basketball career.

Why did we lead the way we did?

Because we earlier pointed out that the reason McLaughlin dropped off his prep team in his senior year was to focus on academics and one reader of this blog chastised us as being critical of the young man.

Anyway, here is Murray, on top of all things Wolf Pack as usual:

Pack Basketball: McLaughlin will not enroll at Nevada this fall
Chris Murray
Reno Gazette-Journal
August 23, 2008

The Nevada basketball team lost one of its top recruits for the upcoming season when the school announced Friday that shooting guard Mark McLaughlin would not enroll in classes this fall.

McLaughlin has not been certified or denied by the NCAA Eligibility Center and with full-time students beginning classes Monday, his family decided to enroll him in prep school so he would not be in limbo until the clearinghouse's decision.

"It's been frustrating," McLaughlin's mother, Maureen, said Friday evening. "We've all been pressing it and pressing it, and it's just taken so long."

In January, McLaughlin left his high school team in the middle of the season so he could focus on becoming eligible at Nevada.

Nevada coach Mark Fox said the university provided all of the requested information to the clearinghouse two months ago, but it requested more information just a few days ago. That was a likely indication that a ruling on McLaughlin's eligibility might have come later rather than sooner....

Go here for the remainder.

For those who care -- each of you ;-) -- here is what we wrote earlier:

April 19, 2008

We caught a bit of heat earlier when we posted a previous article on Wolf Pack prospect Mark McLaughlin, along with the introduction that the kid looks to be in a struggle to meet NCAA academic eligibility requirements for D-1 basketball recruits.

We recall the comment in mind took us to task for writing the above, saying we should have congratulated the kid for re-ordering his priorities (leaving his high school team to focus solely on academics).

Our response was that we were in no way criticizing Mark McLaughlin, simply that a prepster doesn't leave his team in mid - season in order to hit the books harder unless there is a problem to rectify. We didn't then and don't now have a bone to pick with McLaughlin -- what we wrote was the reality as we perceived it with no element of criticism.

Currently, McLaughlin has apparently yet to take the SAT, which is a requirement, as is a passing score. He is also taking additional classes to meet graduation and eligibility prerequisites.

Hey, if the kid earns his freshman eligibility, then great for him. Nevada will be a better team for it and the WAC a better conference for it.

As best we can, we approach such matters with a quest for what is real rather than having our vision impaired by any semblance of fandom or partisanship. But fans being fans have no such obligation.