I'm not even sure that this rule takes effect for this year. Also, like you pointed out, he doesn't even coach so I doubt that he woudl be subject to this rule. Do you really think we'd be going after him if we couldn't get Jack or Lamb b/c of it? It took a 30 secodn phone call to the STJ compliance office who then called the NCAA and got approval.
Mo Hicks would be a fantastic hire. Rice and the Gauchos in one. Wow.
Unfortunately, nothing in recruiting is a sure thing.
Kimani Young is a nice story of a reformed life, but they hired him, at least in part, to get access to his great class of Pinkston, Collier, and Williams and it didn't pay off.
Hicks would've been a great hire under Roberts to get access to players like Walker, Scott, Lamb, Kelly, Jennings, etc. These things can be cyclical and the Gauchos pipeline isn't as deep as it was.
The local program that is just stacked this year and, as long as we're not going to recruit nationally, Lavin has to be all over are the Playaz-Kyle Anderson, Jr., Desmond Hubert, Randall, Myles Davis and Mack. If they are going to pay a coach for access, this is certainly one-right now.
At Rice, Hicks has got Jack, Saunders, and Suber.
With the Gauchos, he's got Derrick Wilson (who I doubt will come to St. John's from Hotchkiss), Shaquille Stokes (who's now a Lincoln player-see Morton, Tiny) and sometimes Omar Calhoun (the city's best sophomore, but let's say don't bet the house on him coming here). The next generation, the 16s, got destroyed by Baltimore Elite in the first round of the Boo playoffs.
Hinds-will play for either the Westchester Hawks or the Metro Hawks
Mike Taylor-Metro Hawk (HoopScoop #1 Junior in NYC)-got smoked by a kid, Levi Randolph, from Alabama on Saturday night-he's got to be no more than 6'1", but at least he can shoot that baseline jumper
The MetroHawk kid, Sidiki Johnson, who verballed early w/ Arizona, would probably be the best junior prospect in NYC. He certainly played the best of any of the NYC kids. If they could get Book out of that Arizona program, they could probably get him to switch.
The positive is we now have a coach that can recruit nationally and, although the talent locally may be down (compared to what it has been historically), there is plenty of available talent out there in America. The country is loaded and that Nike affiliation won't hurt. I certainly hope that Coach Lavin will be prepared to go to battle for some top 50 talent, be it from Oakland, Georgia, DMV, Houston, Detroit, or NJ.