Another reason that the REAL Miami is in Ohio, Dammit!
While the "student-athletes" churned out by the Miami school that most people are familiar with (the one in south FLA) continue to do embarrassing things on and off the field (Say hello to Kellen Winslow Jr.!!, here's Sean Taylor, Mr. Role Model, and others..lots and lots of others), my alma mater, Miami University in Oxford, Ohio seems capable of producing athletes that, if they are talented enough to make a name for themselves in the professional ranks, have a sense of perspective about themselves...or at the very least graduate and then avoid turning up as a mug shot on The Smoking Gun. Three Miami stars in the last two decades who have had good to great careers in the pros include:
(1) Ben Roethlisberger: (Bio at Wikipedia) Super Bowl Champ in just his second season in the NFL. After a redshirt year, he started for three years at Miami and by his junior/third year at the helm, the team finished in the Top Ten for the first time in school history. While a senior in high school, was recruited early by Miami, then had a great final year (his first season as a starting QB since the coach's son was a year ahead of him) which caused bigger name schools to offer him full boats, but to Big Ben's credit he stuck to his committment to Miami and signed a letter of intent. To be fair, he also thought he had a chance to start sooner at a MAC school than one in the Big Ten: little did he or anyone else know that the big guy would turn into a high first round pick four years later.
(2) Wally Szczerbiak:(Career Numbers) Similar to Big Ben, Wally was under recruited out of high school. I believe he was offered by the Big East's St. Johns University, since he was local, playing high school ball on Long Island, but chose Miami during the final days of the Herb Sendek era because he thought he might play right away in a less competitive league like the MAC. Again, in similar fashion to Ben, Wally started his career as a solid contributor to a good but not great team, and built himself up to the point that in his senior season, Wally led Miami (basically singlehandedly) to the Sweet Sixteen of the NCAA Tournament, and even the cover of Sports Illustrated. A lottery pick by Minnesota in 1999, Wally has been the definition of a "solid NBA starter" since he entered the league. He has had a few injury issues and is not considered a great defender at either shooting guard or small forward. But the one thing he can do, and do as well as just about any man on the planet, is consistently hit the 17 to 22 foot jump shot. Having been traded by the T-Wolves to the Celtics in midseason, Wally contributed some points to a very young team that seems to have a bright future. With Paul Pierce and Wally acting as veteran anchors, next season could be a strong one for the Celtics.
(3) Ron Harper: (Career Numbers)A small forward/shooting guard who played for five NBA champions and had a long, distinguished career in "The League", as they say....but oh, what might have been. Those of us lucky enough to see Harper play at Miami and in his rookie year with the Cleveland Cavaliers know full well that this guy could have been one of the best players in the entire NBA had he not seriously injured his knee early in his pro career, instead of being a more complementary player to first Jordan and then Shaq and Kobe. What we got was good, and good for a long while, but there could have been so much more!
But the real genesis of this post for me was a short article on si.com this morning about Rob Carpenter's son Bobbyan expected first round pick in this year's NFL Draft. Rob is one of the all-time great Miami running backs and a member of the school's athletic Hall of Fame: he played on several of the best teams in school history back in the '70s, was taken in the third round of the NFL Draft, then had a solid though far from spectacular career with three teams over nine seasons. And now that his son, who had a terrific career as a linebacker at Ohio State, is first round material and being pulled in a hundred directions, I'm sure, by agents, hangers-on and so on, dad Rob seems to be doing things the right way: allowing his son to live his own life away from what could have been a very imposing shadow caused by an ex-NFL player/father, but at the same time providing sane direction to his son's efforts at choosing an agent. Good on ya, Rob and Bobby! All Miamians are proud of both, though it would have been a tad sweeter had young Bobby chose to follow his Dad's footsteps in Oxford.....
Update:Young Carpenter was selected in the first round, 18th overall, by Bill Parcells Dallas Cowboys. A great day for the Carpenter's!
(1) Ben Roethlisberger: (Bio at Wikipedia) Super Bowl Champ in just his second season in the NFL. After a redshirt year, he started for three years at Miami and by his junior/third year at the helm, the team finished in the Top Ten for the first time in school history. While a senior in high school, was recruited early by Miami, then had a great final year (his first season as a starting QB since the coach's son was a year ahead of him) which caused bigger name schools to offer him full boats, but to Big Ben's credit he stuck to his committment to Miami and signed a letter of intent. To be fair, he also thought he had a chance to start sooner at a MAC school than one in the Big Ten: little did he or anyone else know that the big guy would turn into a high first round pick four years later.
(2) Wally Szczerbiak:(Career Numbers) Similar to Big Ben, Wally was under recruited out of high school. I believe he was offered by the Big East's St. Johns University, since he was local, playing high school ball on Long Island, but chose Miami during the final days of the Herb Sendek era because he thought he might play right away in a less competitive league like the MAC. Again, in similar fashion to Ben, Wally started his career as a solid contributor to a good but not great team, and built himself up to the point that in his senior season, Wally led Miami (basically singlehandedly) to the Sweet Sixteen of the NCAA Tournament, and even the cover of Sports Illustrated. A lottery pick by Minnesota in 1999, Wally has been the definition of a "solid NBA starter" since he entered the league. He has had a few injury issues and is not considered a great defender at either shooting guard or small forward. But the one thing he can do, and do as well as just about any man on the planet, is consistently hit the 17 to 22 foot jump shot. Having been traded by the T-Wolves to the Celtics in midseason, Wally contributed some points to a very young team that seems to have a bright future. With Paul Pierce and Wally acting as veteran anchors, next season could be a strong one for the Celtics.
(3) Ron Harper: (Career Numbers)A small forward/shooting guard who played for five NBA champions and had a long, distinguished career in "The League", as they say....but oh, what might have been. Those of us lucky enough to see Harper play at Miami and in his rookie year with the Cleveland Cavaliers know full well that this guy could have been one of the best players in the entire NBA had he not seriously injured his knee early in his pro career, instead of being a more complementary player to first Jordan and then Shaq and Kobe. What we got was good, and good for a long while, but there could have been so much more!
But the real genesis of this post for me was a short article on si.com this morning about Rob Carpenter's son Bobbyan expected first round pick in this year's NFL Draft. Rob is one of the all-time great Miami running backs and a member of the school's athletic Hall of Fame: he played on several of the best teams in school history back in the '70s, was taken in the third round of the NFL Draft, then had a solid though far from spectacular career with three teams over nine seasons. And now that his son, who had a terrific career as a linebacker at Ohio State, is first round material and being pulled in a hundred directions, I'm sure, by agents, hangers-on and so on, dad Rob seems to be doing things the right way: allowing his son to live his own life away from what could have been a very imposing shadow caused by an ex-NFL player/father, but at the same time providing sane direction to his son's efforts at choosing an agent. Good on ya, Rob and Bobby! All Miamians are proud of both, though it would have been a tad sweeter had young Bobby chose to follow his Dad's footsteps in Oxford.....
Update:Young Carpenter was selected in the first round, 18th overall, by Bill Parcells Dallas Cowboys. A great day for the Carpenter's!
posted by joe sweeney at 11:22 AM
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