Well, maybe the Tar Heels aren’t so bereft after all.
There’s been a lot of talk the last few years about the scandals at North Carolina adversely affecting player recruitment in the high-profile sports. Football coach Larry Fedora complained opponents were using the uncertainty of pending NCAA sanctions – pending as in waiting and waiting and waiting and waiting – to discourage players from casting their lot with UNC. Men’s basketball coach Roy Williams was more circumspect, but conceded encountering similar barriers.
Yet North Carolina is in this weekend’s ACC football championship game, boosted by talent recruited since the Butch Davis-John Blake show was canceled and the NCAA cracked down on violations related to agents and tutors.