Mark WiedmerGood as Villanova looked in Saturday’s Final Four win over Oklahoma – and no NCAA tournament team has ever won a national semifinal by more than the Wildcats’ 44-point margin – North Carolina would still appear to have all it needs to be serenaded by “One Shining Moment” at the close of tonight’s championship game in Houston.
But will history eventually recognize that win, should it occur, as the Tar Heels’ sixth NCAA title or their fifth?
That question is posed as UNC braces for some ruling, finally, by the NCAA after a ridiculously long investigation into the school’s 18-year run of academic fraud involving athletes and other students.
Not that the Baby Blue Empire shouldn’t take some of the blame for the delay. For starters, in an inspired bit of legal chicanery, UNC self-reported additional charges last August. That backed up the whole investigative process to a point that all but assured this year’s basketball team would be able to compete for a title, which is exactly what’s taking place tonight.
Beyond that, initial investigations by the school into these charges were lazy at best, deceptive at worst. Not until attorney Kenneth Wainstein conducted an independent investigation that concluded in October 2014 – and found that academic counselors from football, men’s basketball and women’s basketball asked for players to be enrolled in bogus independent study programs in order to be academically eligible- did the school admit it had serious problems.