Back in July, we connected the UNC basketball team to the school’s academic scandal that has engulfed the football program. A key figure we mentioned: Wayne Walden, also known as the right hand man for Roy Williams, the legendary basketball coach. Walden followed Williams to Chapel Hill from Kansas, and as the school’s “Associate Director of the Academic Support Program,” one of Walden’s key roles was helping the athletes pick classes. Well, the Raleigh News & Observer dropped a bomb on Walden, Williams and UNC last night – a story the NCAA will no doubt pay close attention to:

UNC-Chapel Hill’s Department of Naval Science exists to produce “highly qualified” officers who serve on ships, aircraft and submarines, or in the Marine Corps.

Enrollment records requested by The News & Observer show that the department had become a popular place for athletes. One class particularly stands out: Naval Weapons Systems, or NAVS 302, which met in the spring of 2007. Of 38 students in the class, 30 were athletes.

Six of those were members of the men’s basketball team. The class’s average grade that semester was 3.63, or better than a B-plus, and the class’ work requirements were deemed so difficult to assess that its structure was later changed.

When the paper spoke to a basketball player who took the class, Bobby Frasor, this is what former point guard said:

his teammates took the class after the class instructor discussed it with counselors in the Academic Support Program for Student Athletes, a program that helps athletes stay eligible academically to play sports.

“He told our academic advisers, but I had never heard of the class, and basically, our academic adviser recommended it and we enrolled in it,” Frasor said.

That’s Wayne Walden. Guess how many other Naval Science classes basketball players took over the last six years? Zero, according to the paper. It’s probably just pure coincidence that nearly half the basketball team – including Tyler Hansbrough – ended up in a class that had no quizzes or tests, right? [News & Observer]

Previously: North Carolina Academic Scandal: Why Did Basketball Players Stop Majoring in African and Afro-American Studies in 2009?
Previously: Mother of Tyler Hansbrough Involved in Fundraising Scandal That Has Cost Two UNC Employees Their Jobs
Previously: Check Out the Classes Julius Peppers Took in the Spring of 2001 to Be Eligible for Football in the Fall
Previously: Did the Agent for Julius Peppers Create a Website to Smear a Reporter Covering the UNC Academic Scandal?
Previously: UNC Screwed Up and Now Julius Peppers’s College Transcript is Online For Everyone to See: