Rashad McCants' academic fraud claims put UNC's Roy Williams under scrutiny

In the fall of 2004, Rashad McCants failed half his classes at the University of North Carolina  F's in algebra and psychology. Yes, algebra … in college. Whatever, maybe it was tough.
Still, McCants was well known as an uninterested student, with a difficult personality and a mercurial way about him. He was there to play basketball, an off-court headache requiring dedicated babysitting. It was only worth it because McCants, undeniably, could really play the game.

His coach at UNC, Roy Williams often referred to him as selfish and a challenge. McCants would later compare his time with the Tar Heels to being in "jail."
Sean May, top, celebrates with Rashad McCants after the Tar Heels won the national title in '05. (AP)
It was what it was, an age-old and uneasy marriage built on the fact McCants was looking to use UNC as a springboard to the NBA and UNC was looking to use McCants to win it a national title, which he helped do in the spring of 2005.

Another thing happened that spring, though. Rashad McCants, despite the grind of a lengthy NCAA tournament and a spring preparing for the NBA draft, came off a semester where he flunked half his coursework to post straight A's in all four of his classes, winding up on the Dean's List.

This would be considered the academic version of a No. 16 v. No. 1 upset. This was a guy who showed little interest in education, who was prickly and overconfident, and listened to almost no one even before he became a champion, at least according to the UNC basketball program itself. This was someone whose disposition and work ethic made scouts wary despite his prodigious talent even back in high school.

And then he miraculously became a dutiful and indeed perfect student during the one semester of college where it would actually be quite understandable if he didn't work so hard since he was focused on the Final Four and the NBA draft.

Rashad McCants? Four A's?

McCants on Friday told ESPN he received those grades because North Carolina placed him in four garbage no-show classes, the latest headline in an ongoing scandal first uncovered by The News & Observer that's humiliated the athletic department. This time he becomes the link to the school's storied basketball program. He called his academic career "almost a tragedy." He even says he's "100 percent" sure Roy Williams knew about it and was just trying to keep him eligible.