Academics

UNC Academic Scandal: Roy Williams Denies Rashad McCants' Allegations in Lengthy ESPN Interview

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Roy Williams does not believe the allegations Rashad McCants brought forward suggesting the Tar Heels basketball coach knew his players were in "paper classes."

In an exclusive interview with ESPN, Williams said he was in "disbelief" when he saw McCants' interview on "Outside the Lines" (OTL). During Williams' 35-minute one-on-one conversation with Jay Bilas, 11 former UNC - Chapel Hill basketball players looked on to display their support of the coach.

Williams has coached the Tar Heels since 2003 and led the team to two National Championships in 2005 and 2009. On OTL, McCants said he and some teammates rarely attended class and benefitted from tutors writing papers for them and that Williams knew of this alleged academic fraud.

"Every one of those players that are sitting over there and every player I've had make me feel like they did their work, and we emphasize that and we push them towards that all the time," Williams told Bilas.

Though none of the players granted interviews of their own, they all expressed their support for what Williams was saying and that McCants was not telling the truth. The former Tar Heel said he made the Dean's List thanks to high marks he received in those paper classes. Without them, McCants said, he would be academically ineligible to play on the team.

Mary Willingham has been labeled the whistleblower of this system at UNC - Chapel Hill where the school's African American Studies (AFAM) Dept. sets up false classes for basketball and football players' benefit. Know as paper classes, attendees do not show up for class and only write one term paper for which they receive a grade. According to various documents and records, those AFAM classes were quite popular with UNC's basketball and football players.

"First of all, how does anybody know what somebody else believes, but I know what I believe," Williams said in his interview. "I thought that meant that a class was on paper but it didn't really exist, and then come to find out people are using that terminology 'paper classes' to signify independent study courses that you do papers.

"I've been told by people that some of those are really, really good. It shows a lot of discipline because you're self-directed. If my players took independent study courses that were offered by this university for a reason that the university thought they were valuable, my players, if they took those courses, did the work, and I'm proud of that part of it."

CLICK HERE to read the full piece and to watch part of the interview.

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