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John Henson, Kendall Marshall and PJ Tucker React To UNC Scandal

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You may think that the story today revolves around the AT&T Center and its broken air conditioning in Game 1 of the NBA Finals. Perhaps the story is Miami Heat forward LeBron James succumbing to the heat—90 degrees—and falling victim to severe leg cramps only to watch his team give up a two-point lead and lose by 15 to the San Antonio Spurs. Maybe the story is Tim Duncan’s immaculate performance—scoring 21 points on 91-percent shooting.

Or, perhaps, they’re all wrong.

ESPN’s “Outside the Lines” broke the story on an investigation into allegations of serious academic fraud at the University of North Carolina brought on by former Tar Heels guard Rashad McCants.

McCants, who played a major role in the Tar Heels 2004-05 National Championship, told “Outside the Lines” that he took “paper classes” wherein he was not required to attend class, only being asked to submit one paper for course credit. He said that there were tutors who assisted with writing papers, if not writing them in their entirety.

I thought it was a part of the college experience, just like watching it on a movie from ‘He Got Game’ or ‘Blue Chips,’ … when you get to college, you don’t go to class, you don’t do nothing, you just show up and play. That’s exactly how it was, you know, and I think that was the tradition of college basketball, or college, period, any sport. You’re not there to get an education, though they tell you that.

“You’re there to make revenue for the college. You’re there to put fans in the seats. You’re there to bring prestige to the university by winning games.”

Milwaukee Bucks center John Henson and Los Angeles Lakers guard Kendall Marshall, both of whom attended and played for UNC, as well as Phoenix Suns forward P.J. Tucker, who grew up in Raleigh, North Carolina, all expressed dismay over McCants allegations.

They may not agree with McCants, and they may even think what he’s doing is wrong in some way, but this isn’t UNC’s first dance with allegations of academic fraud.

As ESPN has reported, his allegations only mirror those that have come out in the past. The NCAA has already levied sanctions against the UNC football team for academic misconduct, and an internal investigation has already shown that 54 classes in the department of African and Afro-American Studies were “aberrant” or “irregularly” taught from 2007 to 2011, during the time that Henson and Marshall would have been at UNC.

The AFAM courses were largely popular among basketball athletes—the Tar Heels’ National Championship team accounted for 15 of the classes’ enrollments.

The University of North Carolina hired former federal prosecutor Kenneth Wainstein in January to conduct an independent investigation into past academic and athletic irregularities.

If what McCants is saying rings true, and the reports seem to trend that way, the Tar Heels basketball team could expect some serious sanctions in the near future.

 

 

Previous Tweet Posts:

Players React to LeBron’s Injury and Air-Conditioning Issues for Game 1 in San Antonio

Tweet of the Day: NBA Finals Game 1 Anticipation from Around The League

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Michael Brumagin writes the Tweet of the Day for SheridanHoops.com and is also a correspondent for BleacherReport.com.

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