UPDATE 7:45 p.m. The Washington Post has reported that North Carolina women's basketball head coach Sylvia Hatchell is under investigation over allegations of racist remarks and forcing players to play through severe injuries.
According to the Washington Post, Hatchell remarked that her players would get "hanged from trees with nooses" in their next game if their performance did not improve and attempted to have her players participate in a "war chant" to "honor" the Native American ancestry of an assistant coach.
The Washington Post received the information through interviews with seven people, including six parents of players.
Parents raised concerns at a meeting with University administrators last Thursday evening. At the meeting, according to those in attendance, parents discussed situations in which three players reported feeling pressured by Hatchell to play through injuries.
According to the Post, one player later learned she needed corrective shoulder surgery and another found out she'd had a torn knee tendon. Hatchell was also accused of doubting that a player had suffered a concussion. Parents placed the blame on Hatchell and a team doctor for those instances, according to those who attended the meeting.
Hatchell declined an interview with The Washington Post. In a phone interview with the Post on Thursday, her attorney Wade Smith said, "She said, 'They're going to take a rope and string us up, and hang us out to dry.'"
Smith also said that Hatchell is not racist and did not recall the incidents regarding injured players.
