North Carolina Tar Heels: Villains Again?
The North Carolina Tar Heels enter the Final Four in a familiar role.
The North Carolina Tar Heels have returned to the Final Four once again. For yet another time they have entered onto the scene as a villain of sorts. In 2005 they were the enemy of team ball, only succeeding because of superior talent. Illinois, on the other hand, was said to be the exemplar of team ball.
In 2009 they were the enemy of the site choice. Detroit was hurting from economic problems and Michigan State had grabbed the mantle of hero of the wretched people of Michigan. They were going to win one for Detroit. Naturally that made the Tar Heels the oppressors of Detroit and defenders of keeping them down.
So now in 2016, why should it be any different? Already the articles are being written about the UNC-Syracuse matchup as the worst thing that could have happened to the NCAA. One school punished recently and another school awaiting punishment for old offenses. Syracuse sacrificed Rakeem Christmas to be here while North Carolina may have sacrificed women’s basketball to be here.
So is it fair? The answer is yes and no. On the one hand North Carolina did not do itself any favors by allowing (or supporting depending on your perspective) a rouge independent study curriculum under the aegis of the African-American Studies Department. It was dumb to do it and dumb to let the counselors buy into it. Yet that is a problem that was theoretically eliminated in 2011.
The Roy Williams regime in basketball actually worked to get off of that problem earlier than that. While a number of 2005 team guys were African-American Studies majors (Rashad McCants certainly claims that he spent some time not being a student and passing), players were steered away from that so that by 2009 it was not an issue.
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One thing to note here is the presence of Sean May on the coaching staff. If May (an African-American Studies degree holder) was truly guilty of some of this stuff, he would not be near this program.
Because of that, it is really unfair to the 2016 Tar Heels to pay for the sins of their not recent predecessors. This is a team with Marcus Paige, an Academic All-American. In that way they are not much different from their Final Four predecessors. The 2005 team was a team that believed in sharing the ball. The 2009 team had no interest in oppressing the people of Detroit.
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Yet this team will once again have to fight wrongs that it did not commit. The next team may even have to pay for those wrongs next year.
Even if you think the university was fraudulent in the past, at least give these guys their due. They were not part of that. For four years Paige, Brice Johnson, and Joel James have played hard to get to this point and they have done so the right way. They deserve the current story to be about them and not about McCants.
Next: Marcus Paige and Indiana
I doubt that it will let up though. Between ABCers in the conference footprint and fan bases looking for reasons to hate future opponents, it won’t go away. It will have to be handled on the court. Perhaps playing Syracuse is a blessing in disguise. At least the Heels will have company in the discussion.