Thursday, October 7, 2010
Bad news for UNC basketball: Will Graves kicked off team; "huge blow," says Roy Williams
- File photo by D.L. Anderson
- Will Graves watches Kyle Singler stroke one during last year's 82-50 loss to Duke.
With Butch Davis' football team laboring under the cloud of NCAA and internal investigations, Tar Heel fans could be forgiven for starting to think about basketball.
But this afternoon, word arrived that fifth-year senior Will Graves has been booted off the team for unspecified rules violations. In a statement released to the media, head coach Roy Williams characterized it as a "huge blow."
Indeed, Graves, who averaged 9.8 points a game last year, was to be a key player for UNC's trip back to respectability after a dismal 2009-10 campaign that saw them become the first defending NCAA champion to fail to return to the tournament the following season. Only a late surge in the NIT tournament enabled the Tar Heels to finish above .500 with 20 victories.
Here's the full statement from UNC's athletic department:
Fifth-year senior forward Will Graves has been dismissed from the University of North Carolina men’s basketball team for failure to comply with team rules, head coach Roy Williams announced today.
Graves red-shirted in 2006-07 then played in 92 games over the past three seasons. He scored 513 points at UNC, including 353 last year, when he averaged 9.8 points per game and was the Tar Heels’ third-leading scorer.
The Greensboro, N.C., native made seven three-pointers and scored a career-high 25 points in the 2010 NIT championship game against Dayton.
“This is 100 percent not related to any NCAA matters on campus,” says head coach Roy Williams. “I hate this for Will. He worked extremely hard this summer to get himself physically in the best shape he’s been in years, but he did not do everything he needed to do to be a part of our basketball program. This is a huge blow to our team, but an even bigger blow for Will. Playing for the Tar Heels meant so much to him.”
Comments (5)
Showing 1-5 of 5
Sometimes you've got to weed out the bad seeds before the whole team goes to pot.
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dislike
Craven5: Let's give Will Graves our best wishes as he completes his degree from UNC and let's hope he'll continue to get the support he needs to do so.
Dean Smif: We had two photos, and believe me, we published the better one.
yep: I am not, nor have I ever been, a Duke student.
That picture is on there because David Fellerath was or is a Duke University student.
The news about William saddens me not only for him but for his mother who is a wonderful person that reared a wonderful son. Things happen with all our children. We all go through dissappointments in life. My prayer is that Big Will holds his head up and continue to shine in everything he do. God sends us through storms in order to bring us out a better person. I truly hope Roy Williams is not using this young man as an example for all the other mess that is going on at UNC. For those of you that love to gossip instead of supporting this young man take a look at your own kids, they may be doing well today and making you proud but somewhere down the road they too will do something that dissappoint you,so be careful how you judge Will. If this thing whatever it is is not so bad why can't we band together and protest this young mans future. Think about what you say before you say it. I support William Graves! SHC
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