University of North Carolina men's basketball coach Roy Williams and his players from the 2005 national champion team have denied the academic allegations of former teammate Rashad McCants.
In a statement released Friday, Williams said via AP Sports: ''In no way did I know about or do anything close to what he says and I think the players whom I have coached over the years will agree with me. I have spent 63 years on this earth trying to do things the right way and the picture he portrays is not fair to the University or me.''
McCants, the second-leading scorer of that squad, said in an interview with ESPN that tutors wrote papers for him, and that the set-up at UNC allowed him to just show up and play. He also earned four A's and even made it to the Dean's List despite not attending classes.
McCants said that his tutors gave him answers to tests, while his teammates car-pooled to get the prepared papers from their tutors.
Williams' statements were refuted by 16 players from that championship team, including current NBA players Raymond Felton and Marvin Williams. In the statement, the players said: "With conviction, each one of us is proud to say that we attended class and did our own academic work."
They added that contrary to McCants' claims, Williams had no inkling of any academic impropriety and that he would never try to manipulate the schedule of his players.
"Rashad will always be our teammate and we wish him well in all of his future endeavors,'' the players added.
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