UNC Fan's Take On The Rashad McCants Scandal

I make no apologies about being a North Carolina Tar Heels fan.  I've written about then quite a bit on this blog and I've had my great times and my bad times talking about them.

This whole academic scandal is the worst.

The learn as much of the ins and outs you can, just Google it.  There's so much to digest and so much to sort out as lies and truths.  To be honest it just makes me sick.  Really, it does.  As a Heels fan, you always felt that the program was always held to a higher regard.  That other schools may resort to some shady business ... but not our Tar Heels!  Turns out we were wrong and the it isn't just that there was some rogue player, coach or agent that infiltrated the program, or the fact that it wasn't just that the programs itself was acting unethical -- it is the school.

Again, it makes me sick.  I'd love to believe that most of this isn't true, but I just can't.  We saw how this affected the football team.  Butch Davis was fired and the team was on a quick bowl ban.  A football program that hasn't really accomplished much on the field now looked like one of those that is depicted in a shady sports movie like The Program or Blue Chips.  While this was hitting the football team, the fact that this involved fake classes and fake grades, I honestly believe that this could extend over to the basketball team.  According to Rashad McCants, it did.

As for McCants, I can't put too much faith in his words.  He was a moody player, at best, during his three seasons in Chapel Hill (2002-2005).  Roy Williams didn't recruit him (Matt Doherty did) but Williams was his coach as a sophomore when McCants led the ACC in scoring and made him a National Champion as a junior.  McCants referred to his time at UNC as being in jail, which throws me off because now he's saying he didn't have to go to class or do anything and he was suddenly on the Dean's list.  Jail, huh?

McCants's attitude cost him an NBA career.  His third season in the League, with Minnesota, saw him average over 14 ppg.  But he just wasn't worth the drama for teams, so he bounced around before having to play overseas.

I'd love to keep on trying to debunk his claims by attacking his character, but the fact remains that these paper classes were there and I don't doubt if he took a few of them.  They were there and other athletes took them.  Why wouldn't basketball players do the same?

All in all, McCants got what he wanted: some shine.  He got to put his blame out there to Roy Williams and put his former school ... one known for always helping out former players ... on blast.