Obama Scrimmages With UNC Tar Heels; But Did it Violate NCAA Rules?

Democratic Presidential hopeful Barak Obama took some time to scrimmage with the North Carolina Tar Heels basketball team yesterday.

Obama spent the night in Chapel Hill following a rally late Monday at the Smith Center, then scrimmaged with the team on Tuesday morning after touring the Coach Bill Guthridge Locker Room with coach Roy Williams and his wife, Wanda.

Obama played team members that included Tyler Hansbrough, Marcus Ginyard, Marc Campbell, Surry Wood and Deon Thompson. He kept up with the run-and-gun pace for at least five minutes before benching himself.

When he got back in the game, Williams, who was watching from a chair on the sidelines, called out: "You've got the future president of the United States wide open."

There is one problem: coaches aren't allowed to watch their players in pick up games during the exam period. Exams started Monday at Chapel Hill.However, the NCAA compliance office doesn't see any problem with Roy Williams taking part in the scrimmage and deemed it "a unique situation". Since this wasn't something the players had to attend and, well, unusual in nature, the NCAA says everything is cool.

Asked if the event had violated any NCAA rules, Erik Christianson, director of public and media relations for the NCAA, said in an e-mail: "This was a unique situation and not an NCAA issue. It certainly was a great opportunity for the student-athletes to interact with a presidential candidate."

Under NCAA rules, coaches are not allowed to watch pick-up games during the off-season. UNC spokesman Steve Kirschner said Williams knew that he wasn't supposed to be there under the letter of NCAA rules, but that these were "extraordinary circumstances," and with the number of secret service personnel on site, the coach wanted to be on hand to make sure that everything went OK."