GW Women’s Basketball: "Making the Grade" ABC World News Tonight, March 28

CHARLES GIBSON (ABC World News Tonight Anchor):
Next we turn to basketball’s March Madness. This time of year, the country goes a bit hoop crazy. There are, of course, both men’s and women’s tournaments underway and in March, it is the men who get most of the attention. But come June, and graduation time, it is the women who score best. ABC’s John Berman reports.

JOHN BERMAN (ABC World News Tonight Reporter):
Last night the crowd went wild as Louisville beat Tennessee. But two scores that might not get so much applause: over the last six years, Louisville has graduated just 50 percent of its players. Tennessee, 33 percent.

At least two big time college players think that is a shame.

SARAH JO LAWRENCE (GW Women's Basketball Player):
Our duty here at a university is to do well academically and to learn.

WHITNEY ALLEN (GW Women's Basketball Player):
What’s the point of coming to college and being here for four years if I’m not going to get a degree.

JB:
George Washington’s Sarah Jo Lawrence is a double major in sociology and communications. Whitney Allen is already working on her master's. Their team, which plays in the Sweet Sixteen on Sunday, has a graduation rate of 92 percent. Overall the teams in the women’s tournament this year have a graduation rate of 82 percent. More than 20 points higher than the men.

One reason so many women stay in school is that no matter how good they are, there just aren’t as many opportunities to go pro.

RICHARD LAPCHICK (Professor of Sports Diversity and Ethics, University of Central Florida):
Too often the men are focused simply on the basketball game.

JB:
While the women have the WNBA, Sarah Jo says the culture is just different.

SJL:
I think men recognize it later that how important academics are, but we, females, kind of know that’s one of our only tickets to living a better life.

JB:
It’s something the men might think about. Only 1 percent of college players ever make it in the NBA.

JACK KVANCZ (GW Director of Athletics):
I think there is a lesson to be learned for the guys to look and say, you know if I don’t make it, I have something to fall back on.

JB:
Sarah Jo has proven she can hit a game-winning shot. In the long run, her 3.8 grade point average might prove even more.