OT: Rashad McCants furthers academic fraud allegations against UNC
http://espn.go.com/espn/otl/story/_/id/11036924/former-north-carolina-b…
Rashad McCants, the second-leading scorer on the North Carolina basketball team that won the 2004-05 national title, told ESPN's "Outside the Lines" that tutors wrote his term papers, he rarely went to class for about half his time at UNC, and he remained able to play largely because he took bogus classes designed to keep athletes academically eligible.
McCants told "Outside the Lines" that he could have been academically ineligible to play during the championship season had he not been provided the assistance. Further, he said head basketball coach Roy Williams knew about the "paper-class" system at UNC. The so-called paper classes didn't require students to go to class; rather, students were required to submit only one term paper to receive a grade.
McCants also told "Outside the Lines" that he even made the Dean's List in Spring 2005 despite not attending any of his four classes for which he received straight-A grades. He said advisers and tutors who worked with the basketball program steered him to take the paper classes within the African-American Studies program.
You always wonder if it could happen at a place like UNC, could it happen at your school?
As a CAAS minor, I can confidently say our program is free from these classes
My wife was a TA at Michigan in the mid-90's. Basketball players were steered into the class she was a TA for (Intro to Urban Planning) b/c the prof made sure they would all pass. I know that failing grades on a mid-term and final for one specific basketball player in my wife's section were changed by the prof so that the player could maintain eligibility. Not quite giving him an A, or a "one paper" class, or even having a tutor do all the work, but academic fraud none the less.
I upvoted to offset another senseless downvote.
I generally do the samething,too...
Lies! burn the infadel!
I have to imagine there are much easier classes than "Intro to Urban Planning," which requires understanding of Geography, Law, Policy, Design and Economics, unless the professor of this course is just really bad. Not saying it is the most challenging of classes, but it seems like there are probably dozens that are much easier.
Why now? What does McCants have to gain by coming forth with this at this point, unless he really hates Roy Williams or something.
McCants has always seemed like a bit of a headcase if memory serves me right. Throwing his former team under the bus really doesn't surprise me.
he was a straight A student s/
My niece was a tutor for the athletic department at M and she has always said that (for papers at least) there was always a fine line between student work and tutor work.
Oh yeah, absolutely. I worked in the Math Lab while at UM for a bit, and while I didn't see it personally you'd hear stories from some of the other tutors that worked with the AD about how much "help" certain athletes received in order to stay eligible.
At least you didn't work in the Meth Lab.
it was just a typo?
;-)
Maybe he wants to be a part of a positive change for UNC and didn't really realize the value of a solid education until now (I assume he is out of the NBA and I am too lazy to Google it). Good for him, but yes, this could be more bad news for Roy Williams and UNC.
Pretty well-known around UNC circles. This is totally unrelated to the revelations - i.e., they may or may not be accurate - but he has blamed Roy Williams for his failures, and his father has frequently joined in (urged him?). For example, after Larry Drew left (purposely) in the middle of the season after Kendall Marshall replaced him in the starting lineup (there was pressure from Larry Drew's mother for him to continue starting), James McCants posted:
"He did what was best for him, simply because THE CURRENT COACH IS A PIECE OF (EXPLETIVE) (EXPLETIVE) AND i DON'T RECOMMEND ANYONE GET RECRUITED BY HIM HE WILL WRECK YOUR CAREER IF YOU ARE NOT AWARE OF HIS UNDERHANDED TACTIC AND INSINCERITY. BEWARE!!!!!!!"
Interested in what others around the league said about McCants? http://forums.realgm.com/boards/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=1037402&sid=459c01a…
Contrast what he's saying today with what he said in 2004:
In an interview that aired on WRAL-TV on Friday night, McCants compared playing college basketball to being in jail. He also said he considered his time in the program to be his job.
"It's to get up and go to school, get here and lift weights and play basketball," McCants said in the interview. "That's my 9-to-5. As my uncle said, I'm in jail right now. You're not allowed to do certain things, you're not allowed to say certain things."
http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/news/story?id=1905457
Many (including his teammates) always thought he was bi-polar.
"Many (including his teammates) always thought he was bi-polar."
Yeah because all athletes and laypeople are familiar with the symptoms of BPD. This is just character assasination.
... I've seen some of the papers for classes like communication of Michigan basketball players when I was in school in the 90's. They received Bs for what I would generously call average middle school quality writing. it happens at every major program...
“College was a great experience, but looking back at it, now it’s almost a tragedy because I spent a lot of my time in a class I didn’t do anything in.”
What McCants says here makes me feel sad in a way because it seems like he has seen what appears to be the truth of the matter - he was brought to a very good university to do one thing, and it had precious little to do with the mission of the university. I know that North Carolina is at least taking the cursory first steps towards ensuring that this stops (they've shown as much in numerous articles), but you have to wonder how many former student-athletes from Chapell Hill and other schools are wandering about with no effective Plan B, if you will, for their lives because of systems like this. I have to think it is a discouraging number.
The independant investigation is not even looking at this time frame. They've been dirty for a long time, and Carolina is really good at managing crisis otherwise this would be known as the biggest athletic scandal ever. An entire department conspiring to keep people eligible to the extent that the athletes themselves resent not being allowed to participate in their own education. Amazing.
Same thought I had with Calipari getting PAAAAIIIID yesterday.
I don't know why, but I believe him.
I don't know why, but I don't believe you.
locked down Khloe Kardashian while he had the chance. Talk about financial stability.
but I think it would be naive to think that the boundaries have never been pushed here. For example, when I got to UM in '71 I learned about Hazel "Doc" Losh, whose astronomy courses were reputed to be cake, especially for athletes. This was even referenced in a 1964 SI article:
"Dr. Hazel Losh is a slight, bright-eyed woman who teaches astronomy at the University of Michigan and, according to an underclass in-group exaggeration, grades on an A-B-C curve: A for athletes, B for boys, C for coeds. This is not so much an injustice to Dr. Losh's considerable teaching ability as it is a tribute to her avocation—she is some red-hot football fan... She concluded, "Remember this. Scholarship is not the only important thing at Michigan. Go, Blue!"
The article calls it an "exaggeration," but from what I heard from fellow students at the time, that A-B-C grading thing wasn't far off from the truth.
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1076667/inde…
"Remember this. Scholarship is not the only important thing at Michigan. Go, Blue!"Not sure how to even respond to that. If I were a dean, I'd be give that prof a stern talking to not just about saying that but about proclaiming it publicly. You certainly don't want your professors running around bragging that they're openly favoring athletes
At some game while I was a student they brought her out onto the field at halftime to great fanfare and applause. It might have been after she retired, but the football people certainly seemed to think she was great, and I think it was sorta obvious why.
Apparently that's her in the center (you know...the only old lady amongst a crowd of 20-something guys)
I'm more offended by an automatic C from a female prof to all "coeds" than I am by anything else in this post. WTH? I'm sure most of those women were smart and capable of earning an A.
schools recognizes that it is simply too much to ask ((some,not all)) athletes to jump into a tough schedule of pratice and games plus keep up classwork. Especially,if they're already academically behind.
I'd say...the NCAA grad rate must be flawed then ((among student-athletes)) because they don't reflect when a sudent is being helped TOO much by academic support...in cases similar to McCants. Ppl who commit these crimes ((yes,CRIMES)) should be arrested.
Didn't former buckeyes Robert Smith,MoC13 and some fullback ((who latered trans to cuse,only to findout his credits weren't worth nothing)) make similar claims too??
Smith never transferred but he did publicly criticize the OSU coaching staff for pressuring him to focus more on football and less on academics as Smith wanted to be pre-med.
However,the fullback ((his name escapes me,and I'm to lazy to research it)) he did.
My Psych 111 class had this big project that counted for like 50% of our grade. Our group consisted of 3 pre-meds...and then magically, we had a 4th member added to our group after all groups were put together. He happened to be the starting running back at the time. This guy's involvement in our group consisted of telling us stories about football while we were trying to research our project at Grad, UGLI, and Taubman.
Said football player wrote nothing, researched nothing, and got the 100% for the project the psychotic premeds put together. He said after finals that the A- he got in Psy helped him keep over a 2.0.
So I guess this is your way of asking for our thanks...
Well fine, thank you for keeping our starting RB eligible.
Boom! Justificated!
but it wouldn't surprise me to find this happened at Michigan and numerous other FBS-playing academic powerhouses so I ain't throwin any stones
Why can't we all stop pretending and just allow these kids the option of majoring in their sport much the same way drama students major in drama? Athletics is every bit a learned artform and career path as drama is. These kids don't pick M or UNC for their academics and then take up their sport as an extracurricular. They come because these schools offer some of the top atheltic programs in the country and they plan on making a career in their sport either as players, coaches, trainers, or front office personnel. Have them take all the same 100 & 200 level classes as everyone else then let them load up on sport-specific teachings during their final two years and get credit towards their degree for practice, games, and team lectures/meetings.
Not sure if I agree, but +1 for the idea.
I had a girlfriend who lived with a drama major. She couldn't do math to save her life, and we aren't talking algebra. Addition was beyond her grasp- the whole carry-the-one business baffled her. But her talent was acting and I guess that is why she was at U of M.
Perhaps a new model for the major conference schools is to have athletes affiliated with the school similar to how Michael Phelps was associated with Michigan: use the facilites, receive coaching and just take a class or two. Those who want to use their athleticism to earn a degree can do so; those who are on campus because they are elite at something other than academics no longer need to fake the student part of the student/athlete designation.
Agreed - been pushing this a long time. Just like there are performance music majors - why not performance athletics? The professional lives of actors, musicians and artists of all sorts (painters, sculptors, etc) are easily as difficult as athletes - few ever make any big money, most are lucky to find a job that is creative/athletic yet many try - because they have the ability/talent to possibly do something great.
Once upon a time it was possible to be a great college athlete and do so as a passing hobby - a pleasant diversion after class. Today's standards are just too high - one has to be serious about it. No one in any Drama School would accept amateurish acting, no one in the Arts Colleges would accept crayon scrawlings so why can't people accept this notion?
If he really knew at all about this, I am very bummed. Calipari all day long, but Roy? Roy!!
This is the type of thing people talk about when they say in response to "B-b-b-but they're receiving a free education!"
Yeah, OK, but what sort of education are they really getting? Certainly not the same as you or I would get attending the school as an actual student. The free tuition they receive is totally valueless if this is the type of education athletes are receiving.
I've personally seen similar stuff happen at U of M. Players being in a class all semester and then not showing up for any of the tests because they get to take them with a tutor. What is the purpose of that if not for some, "So which is the answer to question 5? A, BBBBBBbbbbbbbbbbb, C, or D?" level of shenanigans?
We got help. As far as I know, no one wrote papers for anyone or took any tests in our stead, but we were steered into easier classes when our GPA slipped and we all knew which professors were easier on the ball players.
And we did have "paper classes". I once took an independent studies course during the spring term. It was a 1-credit class, I think, and I arranged it to meet the mandatory credit requirement for full-time students. I met with the professor twice (although we emailed frequently) and wrote a 10-12 page paper on the ancient Greek phalanx. I think I got an A, although I'm pretty sure I deserved it. There was nothing fraudulent about the course, but it did earn me a credit for very minimal work and almost no time dedicated to any thing outside of research and writing.
Are you telling me that Ojibwe is not a legitimate class? What about Board Games? What about the History of UofM where exams consisted of identifying buildings on campus?
I didn't take them, however I had friends on the football and baseball team who used Ojibwe to satisfy their foreign language requirement. A dude named Hep (most likely spelled wrong) used to teach it. Board Games was listed as a Logic course, you played board games and were supposed to learn the logic behind it. I think the History of UM was through the History Department. There were one credit geology classes (Rocks for Jocks). There was a one credit class on dinosaurs that a kid in middle school could pass. I don't know if athletes still get preferential registration slots, but many of these classes would fill up well before the majority of students had the opportunity to sign up.
Every school has incredibly easy classes. Some people take them because they are generally interested in the subject mattter, but most took them for the easy passing grade.