North Carolina Basketball: Tar Heels will not visit White House

North Carolina Basketball will forgo the usual post-National Championship White House visit — but not for the reason you think.

Last season was one to remember for the North Carolina Tar Heels, as they finished at the top of the ACC regular season standings before earning a No. 1 seed in the 2017 NCAA Tournament winning the National Championship.

With a 33-7 overall record, the Tar Heels deservedly won it all.

Usually, however, a National Championship win is followed by a visit to Washington D.C. and the White House. It has been reported that UNC will not visit the White House to celebrate the National Championship win.

While it is easy to draw a connection between the outcry over Donald Trump’s recent comments on Colin Kaepernick and his right to protest followed by his comments on Golden State Warriors’ point guard and NBA superstar Stephen Curry and the backlash from athletes across all sports, the decision by the university to forgo the usual National Championship White House visit has to do with scheduling issues and not a political statement.

As reported by Jeff Goodman, a UNC spokesman told ESPN that “the team and Coach [Roy] Williams wanted to go, but we couldn’t find a date that worked for everyone.” In fact, it seems as if it was a scheduling conflict with the White House and not UNC, as he goes on to say “We offered up eight or nine dates, but none of them worked.”

It is all about winning in college basketball these days, and, if the team does not have time to visit the White House, then the team should not have to visit the White House. Likewise, things are busy in Washington, and, although the press would be great due to recent events, sometimes things just do not work out.

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UNC heads into next season with high expectations and should once again be a contender for the National Championship.