Indictment clouds former Indiana recruit's future

Jonathan Mackey led Scott County High to the Kentucky state title last season. Ford Phares

BRONX, N.Y. -- The call, Billy Hicks knew, would hurt then-Indiana coach Kelvin Sampson.

Shortly after 3 p.m. on Sept. 28, Hicks, the boys' basketball coach at Scott County High (Georgetown, Ky.) phoned then-Indiana assistant Rob Senderoff to inform him that Hoosiers recruit Jonathan "Bud" Mackey, was under arrest.

On school grounds, Mackey, 18, had been confronted by principal Frank Howatt and assistant principal Dwayne Ellison and found to have 1.6 grams of crack cocaine (broken into five pieces) and $29 in cash in one of his shoes. An affable 6-foot-4, 175-pound senior guard who had earned MVP honors in the previous season's state Sweet 16, Mackey told authorities that he was delivering the cocaine to an undisclosed person. He was charged with trafficking cocaine and with trafficking it within 1,000 yards of a school zone, both felonies.

"I thought it was a joke at first," says Hicks, who was driving his car when Ellison delivered the unsettling news.

Soon after, Hicks informed Senderoff and remembers the point man of Mackey's recruitment by Indiana being shocked. Senderoff then said it would be better if Hicks broke the news to Sampson, who had accepted Mackey's verbal commitment 11 months earlier. "That must have been like a brick through his window," said Hicks, who reached Sampson as he was driving to a coaches' clinic in Tennessee.

"[Mackey] was a 'Yes, sir'; 'No, sir' kid who seemed to play by the rules," said one Division I assistant who had recruited the guard. "In my years of college recruiting this was the biggest shock to find out about the drugs."

The arrest didn't blindside Hicks, though. Two weeks earlier he had sat down for a talk with Mackey, who had grown up in the nearby Scroggins housing projects. Through friends in the police department, Hicks had learned that his star was running with the wrong crowd. In particular, two former Scott County High students who had been in and out of jail worried Hicks.

"Bud's an all-time kid that you love," said Hicks, who in 2007 had watched Mackey lead the Cardinals to a Kentucky title and a 34-2 record that included a win against O. J. Mayo's Huntington (W. Va.) squad. "But I told him that you can't be getting in trouble and expect to play here."

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Mackey's initial visit to Bloomington, Ind. had been for an elite camp during August 2006, between his sophomore and junior years. He was offered a scholarship within the week and committed that October, after attending Hoosier Hysteria, the school's version of Midnight Madness.

But as Mackey's status rose, the number of friends and family members surrounding him also increased. Whether it was on the road with AAU teams or learning to deal with new-found fame, Mackey was introduced to life outside Georgetown. "There were people saying they were family of his all of a sudden," Hicks says. "A lot was new to him I'm sure."

When then-Kentucky coach Tubby Smith was ready to offer Mackey a scholarship while at a basketball camp on campus in Lexington that same summer, he asked Hicks about Mackey's family. Hicks explained to Smith that Mackey, who Rivals.com ranks as the No. 35 recruit in this senior class, lived with his mother, Erica, a teacher's aide, and that, to his knowledge, Mackey's father had never been around. A few moments later, Smith returned from the gym and approached Hicks. Smith said he just met a man in the gym who introduced himself as Mackey's father. "I told Tubby that was the first I ever heard of Bud's dad," Hicks said.

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The night of Mackey's arrest, Hicks, who had never set foot in a jail before, visited him at the Scott County jail. It was nearing midnight and Mackey, who looked scared, was wearing an orange jumpsuit. "You never want to see one of your kids in that situation," Hicks says.

It wasn't long before Indiana rescinded the scholarship offer. With the Hoosiers dream gone, Hicks helped Mackey enroll in Recovery Works, a drug and alcohol rehabilitation center in Georgetown. He gave Mackey a ride home when he needed one, and offered further help. "I told him if he ever needs anything to give me a call," said Hicks. (He has not heard from his former star since before Thanksgiving.)

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