Playing the Numbers Game
Marquette University, and specifically the athletic department, have angered one of their alumni. That's bad enough, but what makes it worse is that that alum is Marquette's all-time leading scorer and basketball legend George Thompson. George wore the number 24 back in his playing days, and it was retired after he left Marquette. His name and number currently hang in the rafters of the Bradley Center along with names like Ellis, Lee, Tatum, Lucas and McGuire.
Normally, when someone's number is retired, nobody wears it ever again. No Bulls player wears no. 23, no 49er wears no. 16, no UCLA Bruin wears no. 33, and no Marquette basketball player wears no. 24. Except for the first three games of this season, freshman forward Lazar Hayward has worn no. 24. This has apparently angered George Thompson, who was not even contacted by the university about this. He told the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, "As I understood it, when a number is retired, they go through all of the motions and they put it up on a banner with the rest of them and no one else can wear it, which I guess is the point of the whole thing."
According to the athletic department, Marquette actually retires jerseys, not numbers. The idea is that since the NCAA only allows players to wear numbers in which each digit is between 00 and 5 for reasons we will discuss later, they would soon run out of numbers if they retired numbers. The only problem is that every year, the team's media guide specifically says that it is retired numbers, and never claims that it is the jerseys that are retired.
Now the reason that the NCAA only allows 37 different numbers to be worn by basketball players is that they want to make it easier for referees to signal to the scorers table which player has committed a foul. Under this system, referees are able to make this symbol with one hand. The NBA, of course, allows players to wear any number from 00 to 99, and I have never heard of a referee having trouble signaling which player committed the foul. Once again, the NCAA is being stubborn with some antiquated rule. A player should be able to wear any number he chooses, provided, of course, that it has not been retired by his school.
There has been a considerable backlash against Thompson from the Marquette community on this issue. Many feel that he should have simply called athletic director Bill Cords instead of going to the press to handle this issue. But the fact of the matter is that he should not have had to handle anything. Cords and head coach Tom Crean should have known better than to offer the number of a Marquette legend to a freshman without even consulting him. Even if it is policy to only retire the jersey and not the number, it is clear that Thompson's understanding was that Marquette was retiring his number, and that no one else would ever wear it. Furthermore, if this had not happened, and next year, or the year after, some player were to come in and wear no. 3, which will be retired for Dwyane Wade in February, everyone would be in an uproar over how they let someone else wear Wade's number. If everyone would take that into consideration, maybe the reaction to Thompson would not be so harsh.
Many people have mentioned today that Doc Rivers wore no. 31, even though it was retired for Bo Ellis. This would be a good point, except that it wasn't retired until well after Doc had left Marquette, and it was later retired for Doc, as well. It has also been mentioned that Ryan Amoroso was allowed to wear 43 even though it was retired for Earl Tatum. Ryan, however was already wearing the number when it was retired, so Marquette allowed him to continue wearing it.
The fact of the matter is that once someone's number goes up in the rafters, no one else wears it. It's not like Marquette is exactly running out of numbers, either. Out of the thirty-seven available numbers, Marquette has retired six. If at some point, numbers were becoming scarce, perhaps it would be necessary for those numbers to become jerseys. But even then it might warrant a phone call to the guy who wore it before.
Click here to read the article from the MJS
Normally, when someone's number is retired, nobody wears it ever again. No Bulls player wears no. 23, no 49er wears no. 16, no UCLA Bruin wears no. 33, and no Marquette basketball player wears no. 24. Except for the first three games of this season, freshman forward Lazar Hayward has worn no. 24. This has apparently angered George Thompson, who was not even contacted by the university about this. He told the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, "As I understood it, when a number is retired, they go through all of the motions and they put it up on a banner with the rest of them and no one else can wear it, which I guess is the point of the whole thing."
According to the athletic department, Marquette actually retires jerseys, not numbers. The idea is that since the NCAA only allows players to wear numbers in which each digit is between 00 and 5 for reasons we will discuss later, they would soon run out of numbers if they retired numbers. The only problem is that every year, the team's media guide specifically says that it is retired numbers, and never claims that it is the jerseys that are retired.
Now the reason that the NCAA only allows 37 different numbers to be worn by basketball players is that they want to make it easier for referees to signal to the scorers table which player has committed a foul. Under this system, referees are able to make this symbol with one hand. The NBA, of course, allows players to wear any number from 00 to 99, and I have never heard of a referee having trouble signaling which player committed the foul. Once again, the NCAA is being stubborn with some antiquated rule. A player should be able to wear any number he chooses, provided, of course, that it has not been retired by his school.
There has been a considerable backlash against Thompson from the Marquette community on this issue. Many feel that he should have simply called athletic director Bill Cords instead of going to the press to handle this issue. But the fact of the matter is that he should not have had to handle anything. Cords and head coach Tom Crean should have known better than to offer the number of a Marquette legend to a freshman without even consulting him. Even if it is policy to only retire the jersey and not the number, it is clear that Thompson's understanding was that Marquette was retiring his number, and that no one else would ever wear it. Furthermore, if this had not happened, and next year, or the year after, some player were to come in and wear no. 3, which will be retired for Dwyane Wade in February, everyone would be in an uproar over how they let someone else wear Wade's number. If everyone would take that into consideration, maybe the reaction to Thompson would not be so harsh.
Many people have mentioned today that Doc Rivers wore no. 31, even though it was retired for Bo Ellis. This would be a good point, except that it wasn't retired until well after Doc had left Marquette, and it was later retired for Doc, as well. It has also been mentioned that Ryan Amoroso was allowed to wear 43 even though it was retired for Earl Tatum. Ryan, however was already wearing the number when it was retired, so Marquette allowed him to continue wearing it.
The fact of the matter is that once someone's number goes up in the rafters, no one else wears it. It's not like Marquette is exactly running out of numbers, either. Out of the thirty-seven available numbers, Marquette has retired six. If at some point, numbers were becoming scarce, perhaps it would be necessary for those numbers to become jerseys. But even then it might warrant a phone call to the guy who wore it before.
Click here to read the article from the MJS
posted by Rob Stack @ 4:53 PM
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