North Carolina lets Graves go

Will Graves, North Carolina's most experienced basketball player, was dismissed from the team yesterday by Coach Roy Williams.

Williams didn't say specifically in a prepared statement released by the university what Graves, a fifth-year senior, had done to merit dismissal.

Williams would only say that Graves had failed to comply with team rules.

"This is 100-percent not related to any NCAA matters on campus," Williams said, referring to the two investigations into the North Carolina football program, one by the NCAA for possible illegal contact with a sports agent and the other by the school for possible academic impropriety involving a former tutor.

"I hate this for Will," Williams said. "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 for him."

Graves has now twice missed the standards that Williams sets for his players. Graves was suspended by Williams on Feb. 3, 2009, and missed the last 17 games of the season - an NCAA championship year - for an unspecified transgression.

Graves stayed on the team at that time, and practiced. He earned his way back onto the team last season.

Graves is a 6-6 forward from Greensboro, where he played at Dudley High School. David Price, Graves' high-school coach, didn't immediately return a call from the Winston-Salem Journal last night to discuss Graves' dismissal.

Graves had his best season at North Carolina last season, when he scored 353 points and averaged 9.8 points, the third-highest average on the team. He played in 92 games in his career and scored 513 points.

He would have been a key player for Williams this season, with the Tar Heels trying to bounce back from last season's 20-17 record, which included a 5-11 finish in the ACC and failure to make the NCAA Tournament as the defending champion.

Graves ended last season with the best game of his career, scoring 25 points, his career high, and hitting seven 3-point shots against Dayton in a loss in the NIT championship game.

Now the only scholarship senior with experience on the roster will be Justin Knox, a 6-9 transfer from Alabama. Knox graduated from Alabama in three years and enrolled in the summer under NCAA graduate rules to spend his final college season at North Carolina.