Roy Williams Has A “Sense of Relief”!

From a new article today by Dana O’Neil of ESPN:

The school is accused of five major violations, including lack of institutional control, but the basketball coach’s name appears just once in the 59-page document, and he is not included in any part of the actual allegations.

“I’ve said I felt very comfortable for a very long time because we’ve been investigated by 73 people and all 12 disciples of the Lord, it feels like, and every one of them has said Roy Williams didn’t know anything about this; he didn’t do anything,” Williams said Tuesday during an interview with ESPN.com and Yahoo! Sports. “So there was a sense of relief, but it’s what I expected. It wasn’t a big relief, because it’s what I thought was going to be there.

“But how can you say it’s a relief when there are five allegations against your university, very serious things? How can it be a lot of relief?”

Good for Roy!

One of the more interesting quotes from the article was in regards to possibly vacating the 2005 national title:

Five members of the 2005 national championship team were listed as African and Afro-American studies majors, taking classes that have since been revealed to be fraudulent.

Some have speculated that could mean the championship will be vacated, but Williams argued that despite the paper classes, his players were, in fact, eligible.

“Even if you give a guy four Fs in that spring semester, he’s still eligible,” he said. “We didn’t have ineligible players. They took courses that the university offered.”

Essentially, we have Roy throwing “the university” under the bus for offering the now infamous “paper classes”. Roy would have us believe that these classes would have somehow existed at a university with the reputation of UNC if there were no athletes at all. You know…it is quite common for people at top rated universities to risk their entire careers to create “paper classes” so non-athletes can slide through college.

One of the central figures of the scandal, Jan Boxill, has quite an impressive list of accomplishments in her career(see here). AfAM Department Head Julius Nyang’oro was forced to resign and was charged with fraud over his part in the scandal.

Why would these two, and others, destroy everything they have worked for their entire lives if the “paper classes” weren’t about athletic eligibility? What was their motivation if it wasn’t to keep athletes eligible?

Today’s comments from Roy triggered my memory of an earlier article by Dan Kane from 11/14:

>During the season that the UNC men’s basketball team made its run to the 2005 NCAA championship, its players accounted for 35 enrollments in classes that didn’t meet and yielded easy, high grades awarded by the architect of the university’s academic scandal.

The classes, some advertised as lectures but that never met and others listed as independent studies, were supervised by Deborah Crowder, a manager in African and Afro-American studies who a report from former U.S. Justice Department official Kenneth Wainstein says graded required end-of-semester work leniently as part of a “paper class” scheme to keep athletes eligible. Crowder was not a professor and admitted to investigators that she assigned grades without reading the papers.

Of the 35 bogus class enrollments, nine came during the fall semester of 2004, when eligibility for the spring was determined. Twenty-six were during the spring semester, when the season climaxed with a victory over Illinois in St. Louis.

One of the basketball players, Rashad McCants, had previously told ESPN he took nothing but paper classes in the spring 2005 semester. His transcript showed he was in three independent studies plus one lecture class that had no instruction. He received straight A-minuses, making the dean’s list.

Obviously Roy’s mention in today’a article of giving a player 4 Fs in the Spring semester was in reference to Rashad McCants taking 4 bogus classes and making the Dean’s List during the Spring of 2005 during the national title run. I wonder why Roy made no mention of the 9 paper classes his basketball players took in the Fall of 2004 or the 22 other bogus classes taken by basketball players in the Spring of 2005? Would these players have been eligible if they had been given 9 Fs the previous Fall?

Roy…speak up please.

Maybe Roy didn’t mention these other 31 paper classes his 2005 title team took because he has learned to keep his comments to a minimum due to his many conflicting statements in the past. An 11/14 article by Dane Kane highlights his prior conflicting statements:

Williams’ changing story

The N&O’s reporting revealed the scandal in 2011, but Williams, for a long time, provided little detail as to what he knew about the classes. Numerous times he said he was proud of the academic experience his players received.

“Our track record is pretty doggone good,” Williams told a Charlotte radio station on Aug. 15, 2012. “And our track record has been pretty doggone good for 15 years at Kansas, nine years at North Carolina. And we know how much we emphasize the academic side in the basketball office. We know what our guys are majoring in. We know – every day we’re in touch with those kids. So it’s something, again, that I’m very proud of.”

Four months later, at a press conference, an N&O reporter asked Williams why his players had stopped taking AFAM paper classes by the start of the fall 2009 semester. Was it because Crowder had retired, or did someone in the program notice something wrong?

Williams responded: “You say we either did something, or we didn’t do something. Maybe guys, girls, just decided not to take certain classes.”

The athletic department later adopted that same position, with spokesman Steve Kirschner saying in a statement on Nov. 16, 2012: “Different players have different interests.”

When Wainstein’s report came out, it included new information from Williams that provided a possible explanation why his players weren’t enrolling in AFAM classes.

He told Wainstein’s investigators that shortly after he arrived at UNC, he was concerned that so many of his athletes were majoring in AFAM; the 2005 team alone had 10 of 15 players with that major. He said he told one of his assistant coaches, Joe Holladay, to make sure they weren’t being steered to the major.

The report also said Williams knew McCants took “three or four” independent study courses in the spring 2005 semester. McCants took three that were listed as an independent study. The fourth was identified as AFAM 65, Topics in Afro-American Studies. That, too, was a paper class. In the Wainstein report, Williams said he told Holladay to emphasize that his players should be in lecture classes instead of independent study.

After the Wainstein report came out, Williams said in two news conferences that he was concerned about his players clustering in a major. Records show they continued to cluster in another popular major, Communications, while many others were listed as undeclared.

Kirschner said in an email that Williams would not be made available for an interview. Kirschner stood by his November 2012 statement.

So first he knows about players’ majors, then Roy makes comments suggesting he wasn’t worried about clustering. Then in the Wainstein report it claims Roy was worried about clustering in Afro-American Studies, but he failed to concern himself with the later clustering in Communications. Makes sense right?

But don’t worry, Roy now has a sense of relief!

General

Home Forums Roy Williams Has A “Sense of Relief”!

Viewing 25 posts - 1 through 25 (of 44 total)
  • Author
    Posts
  • #87437
    Daily Update
    Keymaster

    From a new article today by Dana O’Neil of ESPN: The school is accused of five major violations, including lack of institutional control, but the bask
    [See the full post at: Roy Williams Has A “Sense of Relief”!]

    #87441
    graywolf
    Participant

    It’s my hope that Roy’s since of relief comes at his new mountain retirement home very soon after being humiliated by the general public. Better yet. I hope that the men’s basketball team is left as a shell of its former self and they go through 30 years of purgatory just like we did.

    One can dream.

    #87442
    PackofMac
    Participant

    I’ve said it and I’m saying it again….the slap on their hands will sting far less than the slap in the face the rest of us get when their “punishment” is handed down. After all these years the fact anyone thinks or is still hopeful for some marvelous punishment to be sent the tar holes way is a bit sad.

    SOOOOOOOO Ready for NC State Football!!!!

    #87443
    wolfbuff
    Participant

    Others have said it, and I’ll say it. The NCAA has no interest in killing one of its golden geese. The UNCheat men’s basketball team brings in a considerable amount of revenue for the university and the NCAA. And the NCAA is all about making as much money as possible, not creating an environment of fairness or enforcing rules. They’re in this together.

    The NCAA relies on the institutions to police themselves and, failing that, the court of public opinion. To some degree the embarrassment this has caused UNCheat at least wipes the smug grin off their faces and makes “the Carolina way” a punchline.

    So, the NCAA will throw the women’s team under the bus because they don’t generate revenue for the NCAA (and possibly slap the football around a little – because they’re irrelevant anyway) and claim that they are “upholding the foundational values of college athletics” or some other such pompous statement. But they won’t touch the men’s basketball or women’s soccer or baseball programs, all of which benefiited from the academic fraud.

    #87444
    ryebread
    Participant

    The NCAA is going to do nothing. Be ready for it.

    This Dean Smith award is another example. What does that award really mean? Systemic cheating?

    And Roy’s as dirty as it gets. I really dislike him.

    #87445
    Wulfpack
    Participant

    Roy and the men’s basketball program will (mostly) skate. Nothing substantial. I’m sure of it.

    #87446
    VaWolf82
    Keymaster

    The UNCheat men’s basketball team brings in a considerable amount of revenue for the university and the NCAA.

    This is simply not true. The NCAA gets most of its money from selling the TV rights to the NCAA tournament.

    Did you see any articles detailing the reduced viewership when Doherty was at UNC? I sure didn’t.

    #87447
    Hungwolf
    Participant

    Roy protecting his paycheck and legacy. He tipped the hand of his defense and UNC’s athletic department’s defense for now. The school offered the classes, we complied with school policy. The NCAA does not monitor academics, so they going to play that card. While the UNC BOG sits with their thumbs up their asses!

    #87448
    MP
    Participant

    “No, because it’s been so bad already. It can’t be any worse than it is,” he said.

    i.e. “Last year was like Katrina for us”.

    He is such a Grade A Douche Bag.

    #87449
    TheAliasTroll
    Participant

    If John Feinstein had his way the entire ACC would wear powder blue uniforms with a huge picture of Dean Smith across the chest. The balls on this guy.

    Feinstein originally came up with the idea for the award when talking with Rick Brewer, sports information director emeritus at the ACC tournament. He wished that all of the ACC teams were wearing “DES” on their uniforms, and Brewer suggested there should be something to honor Smith going forward.

    Source: article in the daily tarheely

    #87452
    MrPlywood
    Participant

    “Relief” as in “whew, they didn’t connect the dots”.

    #87453
    Lumpy
    Participant

    The new hot buzzword from all the UNC faithful in the comment sections of these articles is telling people who see through the baby blue line of BS to “educate yourself” which is rich. Considering that educating themselves was UNC athletes only option since 1993

    #87454
    JohnGalt78
    Participant

    I had always thought that the thick, hound dog stupidity thing was an act. But it’s not. He is really shockingly stupid.

    #87455
    TheCOWDOG
    Moderator

    Roy’s not stupid. He just happened to be born with an ego as big as a sombrero the size of Mexico.

    We cannot fathom. He is not having fun with all this. How could ya?

    …But he is compelled.

    …And the millions upon millions of Fat Cats’ money spent here, reflect the same.

    What is it they are really trying to protect?

    #87459
    Texpack
    Participant

    Roy’s relief is because they haven’t yet found any rogue emails that confirm his knowledge of the scheme.

    CD, I think they are really trying to protect Dean Smith. If Dean’s complicity can be documented beyond question, their entire world will have been exposed as a lie. As it stands now, the delusional fans can say that Dean did everything the right way and that a few rogues in one department (even though that isn’t true) went out and cheated when they didn’t need to. Dean had built such a model program that it would have all played out just as it did without the cheating.

    Just as history was rewritten after Valvano, it will be rewritten after this by all of the UNCCH “graduates” in the media. They will tell us to believe that Dean started signing more at risk players at the same time Warren Martin’s girlfriend started grading papers and it was all a giant coincidence. I’m sure the Tooth Fairy’s involvement will be uncovered as well.

    They seem to believe that since it was academic people who cooked this all up according to the NOA, that the punishment will somehow be minimized. I sure hope they are wrong and I believe that the LOIC charge and improper benefits charges are the NCAA’s way of making sure they can hammer them.

    #87460
    WolfBlood86
    Participant

    PR monster machine in full force. NEW NATIONAL DEAN SMITH AWARD!!!!!! Announced this week! They are going to milk the sh** out of that golden cow until the end of time…

    #87465
    PackerInRussia
    Participant

    Of course he didn’t expect to be implicated. That’s how it’s all been designed and meant to work. So far so good for now.

    #87467
    MrPlywood
    Participant

    Roy may well not have known the specifics, since he didn’t set up the plan. I can imagine that when he was brought in he was just told not to worry about the grades, that it was all taken care of. Hell, there might not have even been a conversation.

    Roy: “But what about…”
    Shadowy Figures: “Shhhhhh…”

    I might have written this before, but it still applies… Don’t write when you can talk, and don’t talk when you can nod.

    re:

    The new hot buzzword from all the UNC faithful in the comment sections of these articles is telling people who see through the baby blue line of BS to “educate yourself” which is rich.

    I’ve seen that dude, John Cooper, on the ESPN boards. Typical Hole fan who wants you to believe that it was all rogues. They’ll go to their graves believing in their own mythology.

    #87468
    Wolfpackjack76
    Participant

    Seemingly roy did know specifics and actually helped initiate the whole afam farce…while he was in Kansas. My understanding (misunderstanding?) is that roy and his MOST important staff member, wayne walden, set this program up in their 15 years together at Kansas.

    roy shared the info with dean and dean started the program at unx. When roy came to unx everything was already in place. I cannot remember the source but when I read it I thought it reliable. I do not believe this is my lunatic fringe dream…if it is I apologize.

    And just where the hell is mr. wonderful wayne walden (tx hiding out!) The man who roy described as “the best I have ever seen about staying on top of things and on top of kids. He is totally devoted to our players and to what they are doing in the classroom.” Shouldn’t THE academic advisor for roy’s first 6 years at unx be consulted (or made to consult)?

    And I’m done. I remind myself over and over that the level of my serenity is inversely proportional to my level of expectations…which at this point I have none except for womens bb going under the bus. PacofMac said it “the slap on their hands will sting far less than the slap in the face…

    Enough stinging for me. Let’s just go out on the field/court and beat their asses and everybody else’s too. Go Pack!

    #87469
    MrPlywood
    Participant

    Regarding specifics I meant how the plan was set up at unx, as in the who, what, where, etc. I’m sure that Roy know the framework, but they were smart enough to build in plenty of plausible deniability for him.

    Regarding the people how are no longer around, either literally or figuratively, that’s another plank in the Hole fan platform… why punish if the perps aren’t here anymore?

    #87472
    Adventuroo
    Participant

    As JFK’s Daddy said about the 1960 Prez Election (Chicago voting irregularities)….The FIX IS IN….

    ORW will not be hurt. More importantly, recruiting will NOT be HURT.

    Larry (the Hat) Fedora has started to ambush recruits and win them over (Maybe they recruited the Grand Daughters or Daughters of the ORIGINAL Sweet Carolines’ gang from the late 70’s – early 80’s?). DES and his wife would be PROUD of what those young lady’s gave up and did for dear old UNC….they made Monica look like a Nun….

    SO, things are under control. Sylvia is loosing players quicker than NASCAR PO’ing their fans with their “NO Stars and Bars” rants….

    Word on the street in UNC Whoville is that Sylvia AIN’T going peacefully and she will be the 175 Lb Light Blue Canary in the room….and there will be more microphones than an Obama Photo Op news briefing. Time will tell….maybe UNC Medical System will threaten to take away her experimental meds? Stranger things have happened….as the folks on the Black List…

    No Banners coming down for ORW. He gets a raise. He gets to keep his rings. He gets to keep doing his combo routine where he morphs from Huckleberry Hound to Sgt. Schultz in the same sentence.

    Gotta hand it to UNC….they DID figure out HOW to FIX THINGS…..

    NOW, if the crimes against whatever and whoever that the Sweet Carolines committed to keep the “Athlete’s Satisfied and Content” were ever made public….then the NCAA would (because of Title IX) lay a punishment on them that even PSU said was Harsh and Cruel….

    SO, don’t get worked up into a tizzy….it is what it is. A few wrist slaps here….a few Schollies there….but nothing of any substance.

    You GOTT to go back to the 70’s when the NCAA sent one of Bill Gutheridge’s former College Roomies to NC to “look into” the DT pick-up BB game with Eddie Biedenbach….THEN, you should understand….

    Move along here….nothing to see….ORW’s will be doing his act for at least 5 more years and his ego will STILL be hurting as he is NOWHERE NEAR Mikey in the $$/game ratio….

    #87473
    Adventuroo
    Participant

    I did NOT double post….it were a System error….I only clicked SUBMIT ONCE…

    #87474
    Wufpacker
    Participant

    ORW is the new Zen Master

    #87475
    Fastback68
    Participant

    ^ I probably need that canine’s digits for his therapy dog services when the “punishments” are finally made public. Thanks Wuf, I expected zero reading enjoyment in this thread.

    #87478
    TheCOWDOG
    Moderator

    Good dog. Channeling dog.

    Despite the guy up there, what…mac and cheese?

    Ready for football, so he can troll the first questionable playcall…

    UNx are gonna get a new age wallop. Across the board.

    Sad says he?

Viewing 25 posts - 1 through 25 (of 44 total)
  • You must be logged in to reply to this topic.