“It’s Friday, Bitches!!!”
ESPN “Outside the Lines” was able to speak with Rashad McCants about his time at UNC and specifically about the No-Show AFAM classes.
McCants told “Outside the Lines” that he could have been academically ineligible to play during the championship season had he not been provided the assistance. Further, he said head basketball coach Roy Williams knew about the “paper-class” system at UNC. The so-called paper classes didn’t require students to go to class; rather, students were required to submit only one term paper to receive a grade.
McCants also told “Outside the Lines” that he even made the Dean’s List in Spring 2005 despite not attending any of his four classes for which he received straight-A grades. He said advisers and tutors who worked with the basketball program steered him to take the paper classes within the African-American Studies program.
Well with this first hand account of what was going on by one of the very players involved I wonder what UNC’s response will be. Will they finally admit to it? Yeah, I got a good laugh from that one too.
In a statement to “Outside the Lines” on Thursday, UNC athletics director Bubba Cunningham said: “It is disappointing any time a student is dissatisfied with his or her experience. I welcome the opportunity to speak with Rashad McCants about returning to UNC to continue his academic career — just as we have welcomed many former student-athletes interested in completing their degrees.
“The university hired former federal prosecutor Kenneth Wainstein in January to conduct an independent investigation into past academic and athletic irregularities. While these are the first allegations we have heard from Mr. McCants, I encourage him to speak with Mr. Wainstein. …
“I have gotten to know some of Mr. McCants’ teammates, and I know that claims about their academic experience have affected them deeply. They are adamant that they had a different experience at UNC-Chapel Hill than has been portrayed by Mr. McCants and others.”
Uh Oh. Guess UNC has another Rogue Player on their hands.
McCants then goes into Roy “I have no idea what’s going on” Williams’ involvement in this.
McCants said his first year he did go to class and took several legitimate, core-curriculum courses. But overall, his transcript shows he ended up with more than 50 percent of his courses being AFAM classes.
McCants said he was headed toward ineligibility during the championship season because he had failed algebra and psychology, which accounted for half of his credits, in the fall of 2004. He had two A’s in AFAM classes in addition to the F’s. He said coach Roy Williams informed him of his academic troubles during a meeting ahead of the spring semester.
“There was a slight panic on my part … [he] said, you know, we’re going to be able to figure out how to make it happen, but you need to buckle down on your academics.”
He said Williams told him “we’re going to be able to change a class from, you know, your summer session class and swap it out with the class that you failed, just so the GPA could reflect that you are in good standing.”
McCants ended up in four AFAM classes in the following semester, earning straight A’s. He said he didn’t know what Williams was getting at with the summer school class replacement reference, and he never talked with Williams about it again. The transcripts show he had received one A in an AFAM class in the summer of 2004.
“I remained eligible to finish out and win the championship, his first championship, and everything was peaches and cream,” McCants said.
He said he is sure Williams and the athletic department as a whole knew “100 percent” about the paper-class system.
“I mean, you have to know about the education of your players and … who’s eligible, who’s not and … who goes to this class and missing that class. We had to run sprints for missing classes if we got caught, so you know, they were very aware of what was going on.”
UNC may be able to attack one person at a time and call them rogue but you can’t argue against a Transcript. I wonder if Roy will continue to say no one in his program would ever do anything like that. It’s not the “Carolina Way”…or is it?
There is much more in the article so please go check it out.
