The law firm is expected to examine the quality of medical care for players and whether Hatchell had warned her team that “nooses” would await them if they turned in a poor performance against Louisville. U.N.C. officials were also told that Hatchell had urged her players to perform a “tomahawk chop” war cry to fire them up — a suggestion the women resisted — and that she had described players as “old mules.” Some people perceived the comment as a reference to female slaves.

Smith, Hatchell’s lawyer, said the coach “doesn’t have a racist bone in her body.”

He said some players had misconstrued Hatchell’s words, but he acknowledged that she had apologized after an internal uproar about the episode in which people recalled that she had referred to nooses.

“She said words like, ‘They’re going to hang us out to dry. They’re going to take a rope and hang us out to dry,’” Smith said. He added that Hatchell, who did not believe she had said anything improper, initially apologized by saying something like, “I’m sorry you took it that way.”

“The team did not see that as an apology,” Smith said. “I think she thought she apologized.”

But a furor still built, and the university, whose trustees declined to comment or did not respond to messages, will soon have to decide the fate of the coach, who cultivated the modern women’s game and has been known more for her fiery courtside coaching than personal controversy.

“I never encountered any kind of racial slurs or racism,” said Nikki Teasley, a former U.N.C. point guard who went on to a long career in the W.N.B.A. “My experience with Coach Hatchell was very heartfelt, very loving, very kind.”

Teasley, who is African-American, said she did not recall any racially improper comments but did say Hatchell was fierce and demanding.

“After playing and then becoming a coach myself and then a mother,” she said, “you understand that sometimes things do get overheated, and in the heat of the moment you do say some things.”