By Ferd Lewis
Advertiser Columnist

If you know how many points a 3-point field goal is worth in a college basketball game, you, too, could have done "A" level work at a leading public university.

If you know how many halves there are in a college basketball game, you might have been on your way to a place on the Dean's List.

If you know how many players there are on a basketball court for a team at one time, you, too, could have aced a final exam and raised the old grade point average.

Trick questions?

Not at the University of Georgia, where apparently the only trick involved was finding your way to a course entitled "Coaching Principles and Strategies of Basketball." It was taught by assistant basketball coach Jim Harrick Jr. in the fall of 2001, where the final exam consisted of 20 such can't-miss questions.

While there is no word if some questions were missed or not, three Bulldog basketball players received "A" grades, according to documents released by the university in response to an NCAA investigation.

Forget the old academic punchline mainstays of underwater basketweaving, hula hoops and finger painting, Georgia has taken academic fraud to a whole new depth.

If Flounder, Bluto and the others at "Animal House" had it this easy, there never would have been a "double secret" probation at Faber College.

But for all the one-liners this is sure to inspire — and you can just imagine the material the more creative student rooting sections at Southeastern Conference rivals will soon be unleashing on the Bulldogs — there is a real price to be paid.

And not just in Athens, Ga., where the reputation won't soon be repaired and heavy NCAA sanctions can't be far off.

All the parties involved in this curious caper have done is perpetuate the stereotype of the "dumb jock" and suggested "student-athlete" is an enduring oxymoron.

Never mind that there are many athletes at Georgia and elsewhere who are real students taking genuine classes in pursuit of hard-earned degrees. These Bulldogs, and we're talking the coaches, players involved and the administrators who should have exercised some oversight, have reinforced the legend of players who can't tie their Nikes without a tutorial or find their way to the library without a map.

The sad thing is that Georgia isn't the first school to play fast and loose with academics at the expense of success in sports. Like Fresno State, Minnesota and dozens before them, the Bulldogs probably won't be the last, either.

Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8044.