Roy Williams: NCAA won't sanction UNC Tar Heels basketball

When asked during an ESPN interview Sunday in Houston about the chances of the North Carolina basketball team getting hit by NCAA sanctions, Tar Heels coach Roy Williams was confident his program would be cleared.

"I don't think we're going to get hit in any way at all," Williams said. "Hard to penalize somebody when you have no allegations against them."

The NCAA served North Carolina with a Notice of Allegations and is currently investigating alleged academic fraud that involves students and athletes at the university over an 18-year period. The NCAA cites a lack-of-institutional-control charge, "particularly" in football, men's basketball and women's basketball

The release of the full notice of allegations is expected this spring.

"When the first notice of allegations came out, there were no allegations against men's basketball, and we tried to show that," Williams said. "People have to choose what they want to choose, but I knew that's what it's going to be because there was nothing there. We were not involved. But you know the NCAA has their process and they've got to go through.

"I think they feel we have cooperated as much as you possibly can and gone through five different investigations, two in-house, one by the former governor, one by a federal prosecutor, now the NCAA and every one of the them has said, you know, 'Coach Williams is telling the truth.'

"And so that makes me feel better, and each time they say it makes me, but still, it's still there, but it's something we've got to put up with.

"When I came here, and I've been criticized for this, when I came here I said, 'Guys, let's just please just focus on these Final Four teams and the kids and everything, and I've been criticized for that, and I think that's what we should be focusing on.'"

North Carolina plays Villanova for the NCAA championship on Monday.