CHAPEL HILL, N.C. ? The University of North Carolina is conducting a review to determine whether the school committed a secondary recruiting violation during a basketball prospect’s campus visit last weekend.

Guard Iman Shumpert of Oak Park, Ill., told the Charlotte Observer he spoke with and played pickup basketball against NBA players and Tar Heel grads Raymond Felton, Sean May and Marvin Williams during his official visit.

“They were just using different ways to try and persuade me to go there, especially Sean May,” Shumpert told the InsideCarolina Web site, whose report led to the school’s review.

Felton and May play for the Charlotte Bobcats, Williams the Atlanta Hawks. NCAA rules forbid representatives of a school’s athletics interests from making recruiting contacts.

North Carolina assistant athletic director for compliance Amy Herman, who is conducting the review, told the Charlotte Observer the NBA players are considered athletics representatives because they have promoted North Carolina.

NCAA Rule 13.02.3.1 states that once someone is identified as a representative of athletics interests, they retain that identity indefinitely.

May and Williams are enrolled in classes, so Herman said they’re allowed to talk to recruits just like any other student.

Felton is not enrolled, and Herman said she plans to talk with him to determine the extent of his involvement.

In Felton’s case, NCAA rules allow only for “unavoidable incidental contact” involving “normal civility.”

If a violation occurred, North Carolina would follow normal procedure and self-report it to the NCAA as a secondary (not major) violation.

Schools often self-report violations of this type, which never require sanctions.

Shumpert attended North Carolina’s football game during last weekend’s visit. Previous NCAA rulings do not prohibit prospects from playing in pickup games against former players. Coach Roy Williams was on a recruiting trip and not available for comment.

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NBA players at other schools also have talked with recruits the past couple weeks.

Former Kansas University player Julian Wright of the New Orleans Hornets was in Lawrence the weekend Mario Little, his former Illinois Warriors AAU teammate, was on a recruiting visit.

The two went bowling on the visit with some current KU players.

“We’ve already discussed that with our compliance office. There’s no issue because both had an existing relationship being from Chicago and on the same AAU team,” KU associate athletic director Jim Marchiony said. “As an aside to that, nobody knew Julian was going to be on campus that weekend. He dropped in.”

The Baton Rouge Advocate noted that former LSU players Shaquille O’Neal and Tyrus Thomas chatted with recruit J’Mison Morgan at the LSU-Virginia Tech football game.

“Bobo (Morgan) was very impressed with what he saw at LSU,” Morgan’s AAU coach told the paper. “He couldn’t stop talking about the atmosphere at the game and meeting Tyrus and Shaq really had an impact on him.”

That may have fallen under the “incidental contact” rule as well.