Studen Athlete Graduation Rates

I was reading an article on NCAA published graduation rates, and I came across this paragraph:

"The racial and gender gaps also remain. While white men’s basketball players who enrolled in 2001 graduated at an 80 percent rate, their black teammates’ rate was 58 percent. And while 86 percent of female athletes overall graduated, only 71 percent of men overall got their degrees."

This seems to me to be a very important distinction; the gender gap could probably be partially explained by the fact that men's sports are more popular (and therefore probably more pressured), but I see no acceptable reason for the racial divide in men's basketball. It's possible that more black student athletes are accepted into pro leagues before they graduate, but not enough students turn pro in order to account for that gap. Any thoughts?