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SOUTH BEND, Ind. -- The NCAA announced Tuesday that 77 percent of black mens Division I basketball players who entered college in 2009 earned a degree within six years, up five points from a year earlier and a record high.That improvement helped the overall Graduation Success Rate match last years record of 86 percent of athletes graduating within six years, the NCAA said. Of all black Division I student-athletes, 74 percent graduated within six years. NCAA President Mark Emmert said in a news release the improved rates were hugely significant.Over the last 15 years, the overall Graduation Success Rate has dramatically improved, but the really good news is how college sports helps more and more minority students, especially those playing our highest-profile sport, earn a degree that will help them long after their athletics career is over, he said.The graduation rate for black basketball players is up 31 percentage points over the past 15 years, the NCAA said. Overall, all black male athletes have increased their GSR by 19 percentage points to 70 percent during that time. Black female athletes improved their rate 13 points to 84 percent over that same time.For all Division I athletes, the rate increased 12 percentage points during the past 15 years.B. David Ridpath, an associate professor of sports business and president of The Drake Group, an NCAA watchdog, said the GSR provides only a partial picture, pointing to reports of athletes at North Carolina taking courses aimed at boosting their GPAs in a department popular with athletes.Are we essentially practicing eligibility maintenance, potentially in a major with friendly faculty? he said. Are these kids graduating with a very meaningful, vital degree that can benefit them for the next 50 to 60 years of their life? In some cases, yes, this is happening. But all too often -- and I know this because I worked in college athletics -- were essentially pushing these kids through, keeping them eligible and in cases where they do graduate they might not be graduating with the requisite skills.Among The Associated Press Top 25 football teams, the only teams with a GSR 65 percent or lower were No. 25 Troy at 65 percent and No. 13 Oklahoma State at 50 percent. Among Top 25 mens basketball teams, No. 4 Oregon had a GSR of 38 percent; No. 25 California 40 percent; No. 5 North Carolina, No. 18 Syracuse and No. 24 Cincinnati all had GSRs of 50 percent; and No. 13 Michigan State had a GSR of 63 percent.The University of Connecticut mens basketball team had one of the lower graduation rates at 22 percent, according to the latest results. But those 2009 numbers were actually a big improvement over previous years. The teams GSR rose from just 8 percent in 2006, 17 percent the following year and 20 percent in 2008.School spokesman Mike Enright said the poor graduation rate reflects the same time period for which UConn was sanctioned by the NCAA and missed the 2013 postseason because of another indicator, the Academic Progress Rate, which measures whether players are in good academic standing.The school has reported perfect or near perfect APR scores since 2012-13 and is expecting similar numbers this year, Enright said. He also said all current members of the basketball team are on track to graduate.The academic achievement of our mens basketball team has been outstanding the past several years and I have a full expectation that this will continue, UConn athletic director David Benedict said.Buy NMD NZ . -- Jimmie Johnson held off a teammate, passed a pair of Hall of Famers, and dominated once more at Dover. Superstar NZ . 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Self was acquired from the Buffalo Bandits in a trade for Alex Hill midway through last season, and made his debut in Rochester on March 16, 2013.The greatest gymnast Mary Lou Retton has ever seen is a wonder.She has the power to get such height on the vault it seems as if shes bungee jumping from the roof.She has the energy to make the final tumbling pass of her boundary-pushing floor exercise -- when most of her peers are breathless and counting the seconds until the music stops -- as fresh as her first.She has the poise to flip and swoop and turn on a 4-inch wide slab of wood 4-feet off the ground so fluidly its like an X Games version of ballet.The god-gifted ability of explosiveness and just her athleticism, you cant teach that, said Retton, the 1984 Olympic champion. You cannot teach that. You can teach somebody to be a little bit more graceful. You can teach someone more skills, but you cant teach that special unique quality that Simone has.Get ready to know Simone Biles. In her sport, the live-wire 19-year-old from Spring, Texas, enjoys first-name only status, the byproduct of a three-year run of dominance that includes 14 world championship medals with a record 10 golds and three all-around titles.Were joking she should have to compete with the guys, Retton said. Shes so good. She pushes it. Shes just special.If still somewhat anonymous outside of the buzzing fans who inhabit the social-media driven gymternet. For all of the awe Biles inspires, the one thing -- really the only thing -- Biles lacks is that Olympic moment of triumph with the world -- the whole world, not just part of it -- watching.Its that Olympic all-around gold medal, the Queen Bee, the most important, Retton said. Yeah I think she needs it as part of her repertoire.There is no denying Biles excellence. She could never turn another backflip and her spot in her sports pantheon would be secure. Yet to the general public, she remains somewhat unknown. It took her two world titles before Twitter would verify her. Her followers -- currently in the 82,000 range -- total just 10 percent of those who follow 2012 Olympic champion (and 2016 teammate) Gabby Douglas.Its like you still need that one puzzle piece, said 2004 Olympic champion Carly Patterson. Its just crazy. You really need to have that checkmark to be looked at as one of those tops. Thats what it seems like. Her career is incredible and you wonder if that creates so much pressure.Such is the fine line Biles, her family and longtime coach Aimee Boorman have been trying to walk in the run-up to Rio. While they have taken steps to maximize the potential a golden moment in Rio would provide -- Biles turned professional last spring -- they have also been careful in creating internal expectations focused more on the process than the end result.She could quit tomorrow and still be a world champion, said Boorman, who coaches at the aptly named World Champions Centre, the state-of-the art training center/passion project the Biles family opened in suburban Houston last fall. We tell her that is people want to put pressure on her to win the Olympics, thats their pressure, not hers.For Biles, its not about her scores. Biles doesnt pay mmuch attention to them.dddddddddddd Its not about winning, maybe because every meet she has entered since the 2013 US championships has ended the same way: with Biles atop the podium ducking her head so the latest medal to her ever-growing collection can be draped around her neck.Its not even about her highly GIF-able routines either, the ones that leave her peers in awe. If Biles is being honest, she doesnt even know the formal terms for some of the skills she does anyway.Theyre like, `Oh, you did a ... and Im like, `I did a what? Biles said. No, I flipped twice. I twisted twice. They go `its called a ... and Im like `Why do I need to know that? I just need to go and do that.While Biles is happy to talk about shopping, favorites pictures of junk food on Instagram and kidnapping Steph Currys kids so she can babysit them (as she did on Monday after securing a spot on the five-woman team while easily winning the Olympic trials), shes not interested in fangirling over herself.It hurts my head, but its fine because its something I do every day, Biles said. You cant avoid the gymnastics questions.Particularly the most basic one. How?We all have skills I guess, she said.Maybe, but Biles somehow seems to have all of them.The sports code of points -- overhauled over a decade ago to get rid of the 10-point system in favor of one designed to great a higher risk/reward factor -- forces its competitors to make a choice between aggression and precision. Biles is the rare gymnast who doesnt have to choose. She can do both.If you made it look as easy as Simone, youd be smiling too, said former Olympic Bela Karolyi, whose wife Martha has turned the U.S. national team into the Harlem Globetrotters in leotards and ceiling-scraping hair buns. There is no one to compare Simone to.On the final night of Olympic trials Sunday night Biles drilled her intricate Amanar vault and earned a 16.2, the highest of the meet on any event. The score included a 9.9 mark for execution, as close to perfection as the judges let things get these days. Her two-day total on vault of 32.200 was 1.3 points clear of runner-up MyKayla Skinner, the equivalent of a three-touchdown win in football.Theres so much cushion between Biles and the rest of the world that even a fall or two like the one on beam Sunday night that briefly set her eyes ablaze -- a miscue that would jeopardize the medal hopes of most -- is basically no big deal. Not that it mattered to Biles. Shes spent the last three years setting a standard that is uniquely hers, which may be her most remarkable talent of all.Typically you can have an athlete thats head and tails above the rest, they might rest on their laurels a little bit, said seven-time Olympic medalist Shannon Miller, a member of the 1996 U.S. team that won the countrys first team Olympic gold. They might slide a little bit. She doesnt. Shes at the top of her game every time.The ultimate stage awaits. ' ' '