Dan Williams: UNC coaches weren’t paying attention

Several letters have suggested that UNC coaches were unaware of the academic fraud that served to maintain eligibility of athletes for which they were responsible.

My father was a championship-winning head coach of an Atlantic Coast Conference program in the 1980s. As an adolescent, I spent time occasionally helping with small chores in his office. One of my tasks was to collate and prepare the classroom reports that he and all other coaches received from the academic support group, once mid-semester and again at the end of the semester. Meetings were then held with each student-athlete to review progress and, if necessary, additional hours of tutoring were arranged. This was a very important function of the head coach, as well as of the assistants.

In addition, I recall seeing benchmark reports from department administrators showing academic performance of each team, including average GPAs, distribution of majors and other key indicators.

The defense argument from men’s basketball coach Roy Williams, athletic director Bubba Cunningham, women’s basketball coach Sylvia Hatchell and their supporters is quite problematic.

They either were aware of the 23 years of massive fraud, grade fixing and other nefarious activities and are lying or they were grossly derelict in their responsibilities. Either way they all should be relieved of their duties.

This story was originally published July 25, 2015 at 2:00 PM with the headline "Dan Williams: UNC coaches weren’t paying attention."