Morehead's Woods explains low academic rating at previous school

Although his former program was one of 10 banned from next year's NCAA Tournament because of subpar work in the classroom, new Morehead State Coach Sean Woods saluted his players' academic efforts.

"Mississippi Valley State is a low-resource institution and they have difficulty meeting the needs of student-athletes with the resources they have available," Woods said in a statement Thursday. "We had no academic support people during my four years there, and there were no funds to put our young people through summer school."

On Wednesday, the NCAA announced that 10 schools would be banned from post-season play in 2013 based solely on the annual Academic Progress Rate scores. Connecticut became the first BCS school to face such a ban.

Woods said that Mississippi Valley State's team grade-point average was "in the neighborhood of a 3.0.

"I was actually pretty proud of that given the extremely difficult circumstances," he said in the statement. "The student-athletes who stayed in the program were passing their classes and working toward college degrees. The negative APR points were a result of the individuals who decided to transfer."

Woods, the point guard on the Kentucky team known as "The Unforgettables," rebuilt Mississippi Valley State's program, an effort that culminated in a berth in the 2012 NCAA Tournament. Morehead State hired him as coach in May.

This story was originally published June 21, 2012 at 7:03 PM with the headline "Morehead's Woods explains low academic rating at previous school."