Moe Hicks mentioned in THE U Scandal Story

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Moe Hicks mentioned in THE U Scandal Story
« on: August 16, 2011, 08:21:10 PM »
The booster said his role went one step farther with the basketball program, when he paid $10,000 to help secure the commitment of recruit DeQuan Jones. Shapiro said the transaction was set up by assistant coach Jake Morton in 2007 who acted as the conduit for the funds, and was later acknowledged by head coach Frank Haith in a one-on-one conversation.

Haith denied Shapiro’s claims through a University of Missouri spokesman. Morton, who is now at Western Kentucky, didn’t return a call seeking comment.

Shapiro also entertained then-prominent AAU basketball coach Moe Hicks in October of 2008, with a nightclub visit that was attended by both Morton and Fernandez.



http://sports.yahoo.com/investigations/news;_ylt=Aoqh1WlbNMb8wp7r6SDardo5nYcB?slug=cr-renegade_miami_booster_details_illicit_benefits_081611

kjd01067

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Re: Moe Hicks mentioned in THE U Scandal Story
« Reply #1 on: August 16, 2011, 09:23:58 PM »
Yikes the last thing we need is to be pulled into that shit

MCNPA

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Re: Moe Hicks mentioned in THE U Scandal Story
« Reply #2 on: August 16, 2011, 10:18:49 PM »
Geez... :down:  this is a big problem.  None of this looks good at all.  I'm waiting for somebody to come on board once again to apologize about my doubts about our hiring of Hicks.  Since Hicks has been hired, there has been nothing good that has come about, every time his name comes up.  This one has the potential to be the worst association and makes SJU look really bad. 

It's already being mentioned on several of the Big East sites and is certain to become fodder to drag our reputation down.  This was a bad hire any way you cut it.  Simply not worth it. 
« Last Edit: August 16, 2011, 10:47:12 PM by MCNPA »

Moose

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Re: Moe Hicks mentioned in THE U Scandal Story
« Reply #3 on: August 16, 2011, 10:46:24 PM »
Just throwing this out there but with SuperstarOne mentioning Moe being re-investigated.  Maybe did names get mixed up and this was the Moe that is being re-investigated?
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MCNPA

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Re: Moe Hicks mentioned in THE U Scandal Story
« Reply #4 on: August 16, 2011, 10:50:51 PM »
Just throwing this out there but with SuperstarOne mentioning Moe being re-investigated.  Maybe did names get mixed up and this was the Moe that is being re-investigated?

Good point.  Could be Hicks he was talking about.  Might be time to cut ties with him.  I'm tired of these Hicks sagas already.

Moose

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Re: Moe Hicks mentioned in THE U Scandal Story
« Reply #5 on: August 16, 2011, 10:53:56 PM »
Just throwing this out there but with SuperstarOne mentioning Moe being re-investigated.  Maybe did names get mixed up and this was the Moe that is being re-investigated?

Good point.  Could be Hicks he was talking about.  Might be time to cut ties with him.  I'm tired of these Hicks sagas already.

To clarify SuperStar mentioned Harkless specifically.  I'm wondering if maybe his source told him "Moe".
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Re: Moe Hicks mentioned in THE U Scandal Story
« Reply #6 on: August 16, 2011, 10:59:02 PM »
I agree this looks bad...we don't want to be anywhere near this thing.  The NY papers will be all over this. 

But another saga?  I would not consider the Harkless story a saga.

When you're a kid from New York and you do it in New York, that lasts forever!

Moose

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Re: Moe Hicks mentioned in THE U Scandal Story
« Reply #7 on: August 16, 2011, 11:01:10 PM »
I'm curious why Hicks was mentioned as almost a one liner in the story.  The story is so descriptive its just one line on Hicks going to a nightclub.  Not anything like the other details that were spelled out like the others.
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MCNPA

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Re: Moe Hicks mentioned in THE U Scandal Story
« Reply #8 on: August 16, 2011, 11:05:19 PM »
I agree this looks bad...we don't want to be anywhere near this thing.  The NY papers will be all over this. 

But another saga?  I would not consider the Harkless story a saga.

No, the saga is coming when Hicks is implicated with Durand Scott heading to Miami the same time as he was being "entertained" by Miami staffers Fernandez, Morton and booster Shapiro.  The Harkless thing could start to look worse to people if Hicks is implicated and IMO he will be. We just don't need this from our DOBO.  We don't need the recruitment of Harless questioned again.  I have no doubts that when he was hired by Lavin, it was thought that he was a highly respectable local HS figure.  The fact that he was clubbing with Miami u boosters and coaches is enough for me.  Time to move him along. 

Re: Moe Hicks mentioned in THE U Scandal Story
« Reply #9 on: August 16, 2011, 11:06:46 PM »
Just throwing this out there but with SuperstarOne mentioning Moe being re-investigated.  Maybe did names get mixed up and this was the Moe that is being re-investigated?

Good point.  Could be Hicks he was talking about.  Might be time to cut ties with him.  I'm tired of these Hicks sagas already.

The only positive I can take from this is it seems, per the Yahoo article, Hicks wasn't mentioned of any wrongdoing nor is he under any investigation (Yahoo Sports interviewed Shapiro for more than 100 hours). 

OTOH, this is a serious matter for the "U" and for Hicks to even be mentioned is bad press for the Johnnies.  Frankly, we'll be alright with or without him.  Maybe, it is time to sever ties. 
« Last Edit: August 16, 2011, 11:08:26 PM by mjdinkins »

Re: Moe Hicks mentioned in THE U Scandal Story
« Reply #10 on: August 16, 2011, 11:09:52 PM »
I agree this looks bad...we don't want to be anywhere near this thing.  The NY papers will be all over this. 

But another saga?  I would not consider the Harkless story a saga.

No, the saga is coming when Hicks is implicated with Durand Scott heading to Miami

Unfortunately, I was thinking of Durand Scott going to Miami.

Re: Moe Hicks mentioned in THE U Scandal Story
« Reply #11 on: August 16, 2011, 11:10:49 PM »
I'm curious why Hicks was mentioned as almost a one liner in the story.  The story is so descriptive its just one line on Hicks going to a nightclub.  Not anything like the other details that were spelled out like the others.

Yeah...it is odd.  Was the dirtbag booster just name dropping?  If so wouldn't the writer leave Hick's name out and say a prominent AAU figure in NY?  He seemed to verify facts with some players and even left their names off but decided to put Hicks name in there...definitely can't be a good thing.
When you're a kid from New York and you do it in New York, that lasts forever!

Re: Moe Hicks mentioned in THE U Scandal Story
« Reply #12 on: August 16, 2011, 11:21:18 PM »
Look, bottom line, this has nothing to do with St. John's.

crgreen

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Re: Moe Hicks mentioned in THE U Scandal Story
« Reply #13 on: August 16, 2011, 11:31:18 PM »
Just throwing this out there but with SuperstarOne mentioning Moe being re-investigated.  Maybe did names get mixed up and this was the Moe that is being re-investigated?

Good point.  Could be Hicks he was talking about.  Might be time to cut ties with him.  I'm tired of these Hicks sagas already.

Is there any rule concerning an AAU coach getting perks from a Booster?   Seems like Shapiro was in lockup long before Moe Hicks took a job that would put him under NCAA rules and regulations...

MCNPA

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Re: Moe Hicks mentioned in THE U Scandal Story
« Reply #14 on: August 16, 2011, 11:54:16 PM »
Just throwing this out there but with SuperstarOne mentioning Moe being re-investigated.  Maybe did names get mixed up and this was the Moe that is being re-investigated?

Good point.  Could be Hicks he was talking about.  Might be time to cut ties with him.  I'm tired of these Hicks sagas already.

Is there any rule concerning an AAU coach getting perks from a Booster?   Seems like Shapiro was in lockup long before Moe Hicks took a job that would put him under NCAA rules and regulations...

He was a HS coach at Rice, not just an AAU coach. I'm not commenting about what the NCAA can or can't do about this.  I just think it looks awful to have our DOBO involved In Something like this. 

Re: Moe Hicks mentioned in THE U Scandal Story
« Reply #15 on: August 17, 2011, 12:03:05 AM »
Just throwing this out there but with SuperstarOne mentioning Moe being re-investigated.  Maybe did names get mixed up and this was the Moe that is being re-investigated?

Good point.  Could be Hicks he was talking about.  Might be time to cut ties with him.  I'm tired of these Hicks sagas already.

Is there any rule concerning an AAU coach getting perks from a Booster?   Seems like Shapiro was in lockup long before Moe Hicks took a job that would put him under NCAA rules and regulations...

He was a HS coach at Rice, not just an AAU coach. I'm not commenting about what the NCAA can or can't do about this.  I just think it looks awful to have our DOBO involved In Something like this.
Lets hear the whole story including Hicks side of it before we throw him under the bus. This might be a big deal for us and in regards to his job as our DOBO I think Lavin has many good reasons for hiring him

Re: Moe Hicks mentioned in THE U Scandal Story
« Reply #16 on: August 17, 2011, 12:34:50 AM »
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crgreen

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Re: Moe Hicks mentioned in THE U Scandal Story
« Reply #17 on: August 17, 2011, 02:16:44 AM »
Miami  maybe just the tip of a "Shapiro iceberg".   There's a companion piece to the  Robinson Yahoo story, this one by Dan Wetzel that has Shapiro saying the reason he felt he had to spend hundreds of thousands  in illicit benefits to the Miami players, is that he and the school didn't have the MILLIONS that SEC Schools are spending under the table BUYING players from the Florida area.   Sounds like Shapiro is naming names and providing evidence - and NOT just about Miami (the aforementioned iceberg tip)....

From the article: 

Shapiro knows he wasn’t the only fan doling out the under-the-table money. Maybe most damning for the sport is the fact that while he took care of current players, he says Miami coaches never asked him to buy a football recruit. Mainly because they felt it was fruitless.

“Miami is not the school where payouts are made to prospective student athletes,” Shapiro said. “Miami is a private institution, it’s in a transient city. We didn’t have the money to pay recruits. There is so much more money in big public universities. In the SEC, the money is an endless river.  “If Miami relied on cash payoffs for players to come to Miami, they’d be out of business. They’d lose every bidding war.


http://sports.yahoo.com/investigations/news?slug=dw-why_miami_is_in_trouble_081611

Moose

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Re: Moe Hicks mentioned in THE U Scandal Story
« Reply #18 on: August 17, 2011, 07:46:23 AM »
CBS' Gary Parrish's take on the basketball and Haith implications.

http://college-basketball-blog.blogs.cbssports.com/mcc/blogs/entry/26283066/31370807
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Foad

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Re: Moe Hicks mentioned in THE U Scandal Story
« Reply #19 on: August 17, 2011, 08:34:47 AM »
Maybe, it is time to sever ties.

Overreact much?

According to what I read, Hicks went out to dinner. Likely scenario: Hicks takes Durand to Miami, Haith sends Hicks out to dinner with dirty booster, which dirty booster tells Hicks what benefits are available to him and his players. If thats what happened its not even a venial sin. And if that's not what happened, then either Lavin knew or should have known - which seems impossible, since TGAPL is both pure and infallible.

What's described in the article happens everywhere, and has been happening eveywhere since the days of peach baskets and leather helmets. Sure, things are more heinous nowadays, but then our culture is more heinous. Nowadays even a petty tortured little dwarf like Nevin Shapiro can engage in debacheries that make the Marquis De Sade and Aleister Crowley look like parish priests. Okay, maybe not priests, that was a bad analogy. Pikers, look like pikers. Ours is a repulsive and vile society and the NCAA is but a microcosm of that. Obviously things are particularly awful at football schools, and sure, the SEC is a particularly fetid sewer, and yes, the availablity of cheap cocaine makes even small time criminals in Miami particualy brazen and seamy.   

Which being said, the minute a whiff of big time college athletics wafts under the door of the mom and pop store: panic!

Well, you can have either have a squeaky clean losing mom and pop program, in which case Coach Norm Roberts, or you can have bigtime winning program, in which case TGAPL. There's no in between: even the Mormons are fornicators. The bright side is that the NCAA is too busy investigating illegal summer conditioning workouts at Southeast Missouri State to notice a convicted felon pimping for the entire Miami football team on the yacht he bought bilking poor widows and orphans out of a hundred million dollars. So probably as long as Lavin keeps winning and no one's convicted, there's not a lot to worry about and no need to throw anyone under the bus.