Some people might think that players on high-performing teams would have lower grades, but statistics show otherwise.  The average APR score for the Associated Press top five teams was 956.6 in 2010-2011.

Mahleik Crawford

The average rate for the bottom five teams was 964.2. That means there was only a slight difference between the top five and bottom five.

That did not come as a surprise to Jeff Jacobs, the longtime sports columnist at The Hartford Courant. He said low APR rates are not always found on the best performing teams.

“Not necessarily. It has more to do with a commitment to academics and an ability to recruit top players and great students,” he said. “Duke and Stanford get both. Others tend to get high-risk students.”

Basically if a college wants to win a championship in basketball and still wants to maintain great GPAs, they look for good players who are also good students, he said. Some schools take players who want to get playing time so they can go pro, then they may transfer and ruin the college’s APR, he said.

Surprisingly the teams with the lowest APRs were unranked teams such as the University of New Orleans, Alabama State University, Mississippi Valley State University and the University Louisiana at Monroe.

The eleven teams with perfect scores in 2010-2011 were the University of Texas at Austin, the University of Richmond, Notre Dame, the University of Kansas, Lehigh University, the University of Indiana at Bloomington, Elon University, Cornell University, Bucknell University, Butler University and Belmont University.

Of those teams, Kansas, Notre Dame and Butler played in the NCAA tournament. Notre Dame made it to the Sweet 16, Kansas made it to the Elite Eight and Butler fell short of being champions, losing to UConn in the final.

In 2013, UConn was unable to play in the postseason because of its poor APR.

Jacobs discussed the difference in APR rates between UConn’s men’s and women’s basketballs teams.

“It’s not about gender,” he said. “UConn women happen to be like Duke where they look for top players that are on top of their academics.”

Mahleik Crawford is a senior at the Hartford Journalism And Media Academy.

Cooper went to those countries and more with the People to People Ambassador Program from age five.

But his favorite location may surprise you. It’s Martha’s Vineyard.

“Martha’s Vineyard is beautiful, and I just love Massachusetts,’’ he said.

Cooper was born and raised in New Haven. He gets his name, which means “eagle claw,” from a male family tradition of taking his great-great-grandfather’s middle name, which has been passed on to each new generation.

The early part of Cooper’s childhood wasn’t very happy, he said.

“I had a lot of fun with my parents, but I was alone,’’ he said. Then his brother was born when he was six, and “it lightened things up for me.”

He described his brother as his best friend.

“We fight, but in a family way,’’ he said. “I can always hangout with him.”

When leaving eighth grade, Cooper dreamed of going to Career Magnet High School since it was one of the better New Haven high schools. But when he was told there was no space there and James Hillhouse High School was the only available school, he took an optimistic approach.

“Might as well make the best of your situation,’’ he said. “There isn’t really anything else you can do.”

Cooper used to play freshman basketball and baseball but is now seeking out other activities that can help find a career path. He is attending journalism programs at Yale University and the University of Connecticut this summer because he knew athletics was a long shot to success.

“Making the pros is like one in a million,’’ he said. “I’m good at writing, and I like sports. I know I can be a sports writer.”

He dreams of working for ESPN, but said if that didn’t work out, he would like to work for his local newspaper covering local sports.

Mahliek Crawford is a senior at the Hartford Journalism And Media Academy.

It’s the love of sneakers that pushed Crawford to start his own business, and he admits he “likes to make money,’’ too.

He sells much of his merchandise through social media, using Instagram, Facebook and good old fashioned word of mouth.

He also likes to design his own footwear and hopes to some day have investors to back him to market his own brand of sneakers. He hopes to work with either Nike or Adidas.

When Crawford isn’t selling sneakers, he’s in school at the Hartford Journalism and Media Academy.

He plays basketball on the high school team and likes to draw.

Crawford wants to study business in college. He’s hoping to attend the University of Maryland, New York University or Sacred Heart University.

Talon Cooper is a junior at James Hillhouse High School, New Haven.