Staff photo by Corey Lowenstein
North Carolina athletics officials said today the school did not break an NCAA rule when coach Roy Williams watched informal pick-up game with Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama at the Smith Center.
Asked if the event had violated any NCAA rules, Erik Christianson, director of public and media relations for the NCAA, said in an e-mail: "This was a unique situation and not an NCAA issue. It certainly was a great opportunity for the student-athletes to interact with a presidential candidate."
Under NCAA rules, coaches are not allowed to watch pick-up games during the off-season. UNC spokesman Steve Kirschner said Williams knew that he wasn’t supposed to be there under the letter of NCAA rules, but that these were “extraordinary circumstances,” and with the number of secret service personnel on site, the coach wanted to be on hand to make sure that everything went OK."
According to the NCAA Division I manual, student-athletes can participate in up to eight hours of activities per week with their team — including two hours of instruction.
However, the rules says "All athletically related activities outside the playing season are prohibited one week prior to the beginning of the final examination period for the applicable academic term through the conclusion of each student athlete’s final exams."
Monday was the first day of UNC's final exam period.
Kirschner said, however, that the morning scrimmage was a pick-up game that players were not required to attend, so it did not break the rule.
"These players play pick-up games every day, and that's what this amounted to. They were not told they had to be there," he said.
Obama spent the night in Chapel Hill following a rally late Monday at the Smith Center, then scrimmaged with the team on Tuesday morning after touring the Coach Bill Guthridge Locker Room with coach Roy Williams and his wife, Wanda.
Obama played team members that included Tyler Hansbrough, Marcus Ginyard, Marc Campbell, Surry Wood and Deon Thompson. He kept up with the run-and-gun pace for at least five minutes before benching himself.
When he got back in the game, Williams, who was watching from a chair on the sidelines, called out: "You've got the future president of the United States wide open."
Kirschner said UNC's compliance office looked into whether there were any violations after a query from the News & Observer.
— Robbi Pickeral
