The University of North Carolina women’s basketball coaching staff has been placed on paid administrative leave due to “issues raised by student-athletes and others,” according to the school’s athletics department.
North Carolina head coach Sylvia Hatchell at the NCAA Tournament last month in Waco, Texas.
A law firm, Parker Poe Adams & Bernstein, will lead a review of the program’s culture and the experience of the student athletes, according to a statement from the UNC Athletics Department. While it’s not known how long the review will take, the department said it would be “thorough and prompt.”
“The University of North Carolina is committed to the well-being of our student-athletes and to ensuring that they have the best experience possible in and outside of competition,” according to its statement.
Sylvia Hatchell, the head coach of the women’s basketball team, has coached at UNC for 33 seasons. She was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2013.
Hatchell, in a statement via her attorney, said she would “cooperate fully in this review.”
“I’ve had the privilege of coaching more than 200 young women during my 44 years in basketball. My goal has always been to help them become the very best people they can be, on the basketball court and in life,” she said in the statement.
“I love each and every one of the players I’ve coached and would do anything to encourage and support them. They are like family to me. I love them all.”
