Dan Kane (N&O): Questions Linger

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Of all folks, it’s the N&O keeping the heat on The Flagship.

Many of us keep rightly pointing out that The Flagship Spin Machine is distancing the basketball program from this mess, making sure to always call it “football class.” Our new friend Dan Kane questions this and highlights several other key questions that remain unanswered (News & Observer):

Is this about basketball?

UNC-CH men’s basketball coach Roy Williams said Thursday that the academic fraud case is not a basketball issue. “I’m worried about it from a university issue, but not from a basketball issue,” he said.

Some have cited the low percentage of basketball players enrolling in the 54 classes that university officials say showed little or no instruction. Three percent, or 23 enrollments, does seem small. But it doesn’t take many athletes to field a basketball team – five on the floor plus several backups. If Williams fielded a new team each of the four years of the period under review, 23 enrollments could equal one in three players taking a suspect class.

Furthermore, the records show that in two cases a basketball player was the sole enrollee in a class. In another, a basketball player was one of two enrollees. Two of those three classes were Swahili language courses, and are among nine classes in which officials can’t identify who created them and provided some kind of assignment.

Put another way, here are two language classes in which students would be expected to develop their speaking skills that never met. And they had no more than two students enrolled. How were they expected to practice speaking the language?

So, ol’ Roy Williams himself see this as a “university issue.” Wouldn’t this naturally imply then that it’s an “institutional issue?”

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35 Responses to Dan Kane (N&O): Questions Linger

  1. timberwolf 06/16/2012 at 11:49 PM #

    Could you imagine fsu doing ONE of these? That, folks, is what is behind the big12 drive.

  2. timberwolf 06/16/2012 at 11:57 PM #

    Greensboro is such a short drive from the hill. Straight shot down 40. That’s why John went. What would you do?

  3. choppack1 06/17/2012 at 9:09 AM #

    Did some quick analysis for basketball numbers. From the 2006-07 season to 2009-2010 season, the Tar Heels had 31 different basketball players on their roster…so when you look at the 23 seats, let’s just say it looks A LOT worse.

  4. BureauOfMines 06/17/2012 at 1:54 PM #

    If this had been us, we would have been dead and buried months ago. UNC, the BOG/BOT and state government is demonstrating total corruption by not dealing with this in the harshest possible manner. Their last 2 basketball championships are ill gotten gains and should be forfeited. This scandal is a disgrace to North Carolina.

  5. choppack1 06/17/2012 at 2:38 PM #

    Bureau – I keep on repeating it, but I don’t think it can be repeated enough:
    This state is little more than a banana republic…look at what has happened with our political leaders, look how many have been in trouble or disgraced. And that idiot bev perdue was embarrassed by the amendment one vote….state makes Louisiana look virtuous.

  6. Pack78 06/17/2012 at 4:06 PM #

    ^Chops-there is only one thing to say in response-AMEN!

  7. NCSU88 06/17/2012 at 6:59 PM #

    So let’s say the phone records get released. Even though it is BMFD’s phone, how do you prove that he actually made all of the calls in the call log?

  8. Oldwolf 06/18/2012 at 7:30 AM #

    Roy knows that it is not a bball problem. He knows what is going on and is taking advantage of the situation. He pretty much said so, when asked about his players and he said that they did all of the work required.

    In other words, if the university is allowing bogus classes then his players can take officially sanctioned classes – thus a university problem, not a bball problem.

    It almost sounds like he is throwing the school under the bus!

    This could get interesting.

  9. ppack3 06/18/2012 at 9:20 AM #

    I think that the trick would be to find a legal reason to pursue those records, aside from the fact the they were court-ordered to be released. Once they are out there for public consumption, the NCAA doesn’t have to prove anything. If they feel like an infraction has taken place, then they are the judge, jury and executioner.

    There’s no telling what’s in those records, honestly. But, one thing is for certain, the worry that they would be released set in motion his payoff and his layoff.

  10. DFMo 06/18/2012 at 12:37 PM #

    In today’s print version of the N&O, the UNC NOW blog (which is not yet posted the online blog) has an entry “Coach Williams: UNC’s academic problems not a basketball issue”.

    In the quotes for this short article (printed version of blog), Ole Roy says 6 times in one form or another that “it is not a basketball issue”, sometimes noting that he feels strongly that is not a basketball issue but he does note that “it’s a very sad time, OK”.

    Andrew Carter does a nice short summary of the current academic investigation situation in AFAM and calls out the numbers again including the basketball player impacts including “a single men’s basketball player, meanwhile, comprised the entire enrollment of two other suspect courses”.

    Ole Roy does mention twice that “its a university issue / I’m worried about it from a university issue …”

    Are we all clear now?

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