Been a little busy the last few days, with the NCAA's release of the Academic Progress Rate filling up a lot of time yesterday.

Since Howard's football team incurred penalties from the NCAA, it bumped the usual lead of any academics-related story --- Maryland basketball --- deeper into the story.

Still, it was important to talk to Terrapins coach Gary Williams, who has his lines for these occasions well-rehearsed by now.

I happen to agree with Williams' assertion that it's a prudent decision for guys to withdraw from classes to pursue far more money in pro basketball than they'd make initially coming out of school and entering the "real" workforce.

It's especially true when the NBA is in play. No one should begrudge Maryland or D.J. Strawberry for Strawberry's decision last spring to bolt College Park --- a choice that ultimately got him into Phoenix's organization.

But what is irritating is Williams' eagerness to toy with the numbers. He proudly said the Terps would be 8-for-10 in graduating seniors whose eligibility expired between 2007 and 2009.

That's all well and good, but for the NCAA's purposes, it's really 6-for-8. Walk-ons, such as Gini Chukura and Jason McAlpin, don't count in the calculations, and I pointed this out to Williams.

"He's my player and he counts to me. ...," Williams said. "People are always trying to put labels on people. It happens a lot of the time. I'm not one of those people."

That's certainly swell. There's no doubt Chukura and McAlpin are good guys and were useful parts for the Terps in recent years. But no scholarship means no consideration in the NCAA's number crunching. That goes for the APR and for the graduation success rate, in which Maryland so famously earned a zero percent for last fall.

There are things to argue about in the APR system. Since an athlete can get two points each semester --- one for eligibility, one for retention/graduation --- anyone who transfers automatically costs the school a point. So Maryland will lose a point for Shane Walker's transfer, even though Williams said Walker will leave College Park in good academic standing.

What does not help is to be disingenuous about the numbers. Ekene Ibekwe, Will Bowers and Parrish Brown graduated last year, while Mike Jones and Strawberry did not. James Gist and Bambale Osby are expected to graduate this month. Williams said Dave Neal is on track to graduate next spring.

That makes 6-for-8 on scholarship players, which is good --- but not as good as 8-for-10. The tendency toward statistical chicanery does not enhance any arguments coming from Williams, it hurts them. And heavens knows he'll be making them for a few more years.

The mass exodus of the class of 2006 (Chris McCray, Nik Caner-Medley, Travis Garrison and Sterling Ledbetter) will anchor down Maryland's APR for a couple more years before that class finally cycles out of the data. And that will leave Williams to put his own spin on the academic state of his program in the interim, a lingering black eye and nuisance from a group whose exploits are not exactly the stuff of legend in College Park.

--- Patrick Stevens