UNC suspends women's basketball staff, begins review of program
Posted April 1, 2019 2:18 p.m. EDT
Updated April 1, 2019 7:48 p.m. EDT
Chapel Hill, N.C. — The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill has asked for an external review of the women's basketball program after, according to a statement, "issues raised by student-athletes and others."
UNC hired Charlotte-based Parker Poe Adams & Bernstein to "assess the culture of the women’s basketball program and the experience of our student-athletes," the university statement said.
The women's basketball coaching staff, including head coach Sylvia Hatchell, a member of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame with more than 1,000 victories, is on paid leave for the course of the review.
The 18-15 Tar Heels played and lost to California, 92-72, on March 23 in the NCAA Tournament.
Hatchell is one of the winningest coaches in women's college basketball history, the ACC all-time leader in wins and a cancer survivor. She was named national coach of the year in 1994, 2006 and 2008 and has led her teams to 23 appearances in the NCAA Tournament and the 1994 national title.
She released a statement through her lawyer Monday afternoon asserting her love for all of her players and pledging to cooperate with the review.
"I’ve had the privilege of coaching more than 200 young women during my 44 years in basketball. My goal has always been to help them become the very best people they can be, on the basketball court and in life," she wrote.
The women's basketball program at UNC last came under scrutiny as the university dealt with the fallout from an NCAA investigation that a lack of institutional control for a period of 18 years when the then-Department of African and Afro-American Studies offered classes that never met and manipulated grades for those who enrolled.
Of 169 student-athletes who benefited from the scheme, eight were women's basketball players, and a former counselor for that team was mentioned specifically by the NCAA and fired by UNC.
In the months that followed and in anticipation of NCAA sanctions, at least four women's basketball players sought release from their UNC scholarships.
Ultimately, the NCAA, which had issued five allegations against UNC, found only two violations – a lack of cooperation from Julius Nyang’oro, the long-time chairman of the Department of African and Afro-American Studies, and his assistant, Deborah Crowder.
The organization took no action against UNC teams, coaches or athletes, concluding that, while the years of so-called "paper classes" likely offered an easier option to the student-athletes who took them, that benefit was not reserved for student-athletes alone.
The NCAA Committee on Infractions found that it was more likely than not that student-athletes benefited from paper classes, earning grades which kept them eligible, and that it was likely that some UNC personnel knew about those courses and used them to keep athletes eligible.
But, because the courses, when offered, did not violate UNC's internal standards, the NCAA could not find academic fraud.
