What the hell is going on with Carolina, Duke, State?

North Carolina has been dealing with an NCAA investigation regarding players having papers done for them, an assistant coach dealing with an NFL agent and various other apparent infractions for a year now.

Now UNC Chancellor Holden Thorp has apparently illegally by NCAA standards spoken about a football recruit, former Coach Butch Davis’ son. Davis has been fired and AD Dick Baddour has announced he is leaving. Boosters are up in arms about Thorp’s handling of it all, mostly Davis’ firing.

Meanwhile, N.C. State has been dealing with an uncomfortable and ugly situation with former quarterback Russell Wilson, who was not allowed back on the team after opting to play professional baseball for a while.

Then Wolfpack AD Debbie Yow, former Maryland AD, talked trash about Terrapin coach Gary Williams at a press conference announcing Mark Gottfried as head basketball coach. Now Gottfried is among those who took part in a Ponzi scheme linked to Jim Donnan, who played at State and coached at Georgia. For his part, Gottfried lost $25,000 he invested with Donnan and he has declined to comment about it although he has not been charged for any wrongdoing.

The Wolfpack’s top basketball recruit Torian Graham, a top 25 prospect, has de-committed from State and will likely enroll elsewhere. The Pack’s starting guard Ryan Harrow has transferred to Kentucky.
Several current Carolina football players, including the No. 2 tailback Hunter Furr, have decided to transfer from a program that could have severe sanctions as a result of the NCAA investigation.

Even Duke’s Mike Krzyzewski is being investigated for apparently offering Alex Poythress, a forward from Tennessee, a scholarship while he was at a tournament in Florida recently. NCAA rules say that coaches cannot contact recruits before they are through playing in tournaments.

An online survey on USA Today shows that 71 percent of voters believe Coach K should not be given any slack despite apparently running a clean program for years.

All this negativity will pass.

Coach K may get a slap on the wrist for a very minor wrong. After all, Poythress’ team had been ousted from the tournament so the tourney was over for him even though the tournament itself wasn’t over.

Wolfpack basketball will get players who want to play for State and Carolina football will get players who want to play for the Heels.

Gottfried, while he better learn to avoid “no comment” when talking to ACC basketball media, will avoid any serious ramifications from the Ponzi scheme.

N.C. State football will adjust to a less athletic quarterback and should be fine. Most thought Wilson wasn’t coming back for this season anyway so the Pack had moved on without him.

That leaves the Carolina mess. It appears this one will linger for a while. Carolina had – until recently – handled the situation well, cooperating with NCAA officials and voluntarily holding out players last season. Firing Butch Davis at this point wasn’t helpful and only angered boosters who had funded stadium improvements under the impression given by Thorp that Davis would be back as coach.

I have no insight as to what the NCAA sanctions will be but it won’t be good even though the players who caused problems and the assistant coach who caused problems and the rouge tutor who caused problems are all gone. This was not a situation where University officials knew and turned a blind eye nor is it a situation where the institution itself was cheating or where boosters were paying players. Still, I don’t think the NCAA will be overly lenient.

I imagine the Heels will lose at least one bowl opportunity and will lose scholarships but who knows? Still, eventually, in a year or two, things should be back to normal although the program will inevitably – with a new coach – take a bit of a dip.

Hopefully this sort of news will be gone in a year or so and we won’t have to ask “What the hell is going on with Carolina, Duke and State?”