Everywhere you look, college football and college basketball news stories are filled with scandal and skullduggery. It’s enough to make one think there are no good guys left among the coaches, and no “students,” in the term “student-athlete.”
Tim Abromaitis of Notre Dame is an exceptional exception. His team finished the season ranked #4 in the final poll, earned a #2 seed in the NCAA Tournament and they return three senior starters next year. He was the team’s second best offensive weapon behind Big East Player of the Year Ben Hansbrough, and should have an even bigger role next year.
By Paul M. Banks
“I’m very excited, it’s funny when you get into the postseason you start thinking about next year’s team and I thought about that a little bit and we have a lot to work with,” ND Coach Mike Brey said about 2011-12.
Brey took home both a conference and a national coach of the year award; to complement Hansbrough’s conference POY. And Abromaitis, who graduated a year early with a degree in Finance and a 3.7 GPA, won his second Big East Scholar-Athlete of the Year Award. He’s on the fast-track to complete his MBA this May. So he’ll have two degrees already completed before getting back on the hardwood for his final season next fall.
I asked him how he does it all.
“I work hard at managing my time, and just taking advantage of any free time that I have, being able to know how much I’m able to do, without doing too much, little things like that, and being disciplined I guess,” Abro responded.
His MBA specialization is Corporate Finance.
“I think that’s my desired career path at this point, but I still have next year to play, and hopefully a couple years after that, and we’ll see what I get into,” Abromaitis said.
“I’ve tried not to look too far ahead, and focus on basketball, but it would probably be something with a big company in the finance division. Something like that I’d be interested in. However it works out, I’m sure I’ll be okay.”
Indeed he truly will; without or without basketball. Firsthand, I’ve heard from scouts who believe he could be a tremendous overseas player, and in midseason I read his name in the second rounds of NBA mock drafts. So if/when earns professional money from basketball, I’m sure he’ll be good at managing it.
I asked him if he had any favorite economic theorists during a recent media session. (Yes, a reporter who also holds a MBA can sometimes be a dangerous thing)
“We get preached about Adam Smith pretty much all the time in business school, so I guess I have to follow his stuff, but I wouldn’t say there’s any favorite or anything like that,” he said.
Smith’s timeless classic “The Wealth of Nations” is considered the bible of free market doctrine. He’s often quoted as the founder of the specific strain of capitalism that dominates over today’s contemporary landscape. Of course, if Smith were alive today, I think he’d reject the manner in which his ideals and beliefs are being practiced and applied. (Much like Karl Marx is rumored to have said on his death bed “I am not a Marxist.”) But that’s another discussion for another time.
Abro told me about a specific organizational behavior class he enjoyed in South Bend.
“One class I particularly liked in undergrad was a behavioral finance class. It’s kind of like a mix of psychology and finance and economics all thrown together, and it was a view of how people behave in finance and some of their irrational behaviors.”
Paul M. Banks is CEO of The Sports Bank.net , a Midwest webzine. He’s also a regular contributor to Chicago Now, Walter Football.com, Yardbarker, and Fox Sports
He does a regular guest spot each week for Chicagoland Sports Radio.com You can follow him on Twitter @thesportsbank