Players Dealt With, Full Steam Ahead For UNC

CHAPEL HILL – North Carolina has moved on from the swell of bad press that seemingly enveloped the program this past week and caused the postponement of Monday’s home game versus Miami.

The Tar Heels are set to visit No. 9 Virginia on Saturday, and they will with their full roster available for the game, UNC Coach Roy Williams said Friday on a zoom call with the media.

News broke last Monday morning that UNC players Day’Ron Sharpe and Armando Bacot were on video maskless at a party several hours following the Tar Heels’ win at Duke. Some other Carolina players and team managers were also at the party, but not on video.

Miami Coach Jim Larranaga and his team learned about the video while eating pregame meal in Chapel Hill several hours before Monday’s scheduled tipoff and were uncomfortable playing the game out of concern the UNC players may have come in contact with people who were COVID positive, so it was postponed.

The ensuing firestorm went national, and Friday was the first time Williams has been available to the media since.

“I can’t ever remember anything that frustrated me like this. I've never had a game postponed like that, so it was not my favorite moment, I can tell you that,” Williams said. “From midnight Saturday night when I stopped thinking about our game against Duke and started focusing on Miami from that time, until the last 24 hours or so, was something I did not enjoy, did not like, don't ever want to go through it again.

“But you’ve got to move on and that's what we're trying to do is move on, put it behind us.”

The next prong to this situation was how Williams might handle it internally and the effect on the Tar Heels moving forward. Williams said in a statement released by the school on Tuesday the players would “pay a significant price” for their transgressions. So, what was that significant price?

“It came out, and this will be the only statement. So, if every one of you, and I’m seeing 15 faces up there, if you want to ask another question about what happened this weekend, just forget it because I'm not answering anything after this,” Williams said. “But it was not at a fraternity house, it was not on Franklin Street, it was within our group of players and managers and a few, very few, other people got involved…

“I was upset about it, I’m still upset about it, but let's not make it out like we charged the Capitol Building or anything like that. That's not what it was. It was not a freestanding party at some fraternity house or in the middle of Franklin Street. And I've handled it what I think is very appropriately.”

The public backlash has been heavy, something Williams also noted.

“I didn’t like some of the things that happened to say the least,” he said, “but also didn't like some of the things that our kids were portrayed as.”

As for the players’ availability for Saturday’s game in Charlottesville, it is full steam ahead for the Tar Heels. Everything has been handled internally and the matter is closed. And no game suspensions are being levied.

“We will be full personnel unless somebody gets an earache or something like that today,” Carolina’s coach said.

UNC (12-6, 7-4 ACC) and Virginia tip at 6 pm at John Paul Jones Arena. The Tar Heels have lost their last six times in Charlottesville and have failed to reach the 50-point mark in their last three trips. UNC is coming off a win at Duke and has won seven of its last nine games but has played just twice in the last 18 days.

The Cavaliers (14-3, 10-1) are coming off a win at Georgia Tech and have lost once since Dec. 26.