UNC won't visit White House due to scheduling conflict

The national champion North Carolina Tar Heels men's basketball team will not be going to the White House, but it has to do with a scheduling conflict and nothing to do with President Donald Trump.

"The team and Coach [Roy] Williams wanted to go, but we couldn't find a date that worked for everyone," North Carolina spokesman Steve Kirschner told ESPN on Saturday afternoon. "We offered up eight or nine dates, but none of them worked."

Prior to and even after North Carolina beat Gonzaga in the national championship game in early April, Williams was noncommittal as to whether the Tar Heels would accept an invite to visit the White House. Williams had previously criticized Trump during the ACC tournament when responding to a question about social media.

"Now everybody's got social media, and we don't need the New York Times to find out what in the dickens is going on in this country," Williams said then. "You know, our president tweets out more bulls--- than anybody I've ever seen. We've got social media."

Kirschner said North Carolina has been trying for months to find a date that worked.

"We wouldn't have been working on a date if Coach Williams and the players didn't want to go," he said.

The Tar Heels traveled to the White House after titles in 1993 and 2009. They did not make the trip after winning the 2005 championship due to a similar circumstance in which a date could not be found.