Hawkins’ date discrepancy and other scandal odds and ends (now updated)

Folks, one sure sign that the mess in Chapel Hill has achieved full Gong Show status is that I have to write “odds and ends” columns like this one regularly to make sure we don’t miss anything.

First I will mention Butch Davis’ recent remarks as reported by WRAL.

When asked about the futures of the 12 UNC-CH players that sat out in their home loss to Georgia Tech, Davis responded:

“Those are things that are clearly out of my control…Those are decisions that will be made as part as the NCAA review.”

First of all, if I were Butch, I would not use any sentence in public that included the words “out of control.”  Second, what is with this quote-unquote “review” crap?  Do they really think anyone is still buying that?  But Butch’s funniest line of the day by far was in response to a question about Marvin Austin’s potential return to the team:

“I obviously have optimism…He’s working his way to get back on the practice field.”

I mean seriously, why do they keep up that particular charade? 

Next I need to cover a few things in the Kinston Free Press’ Chris Hawkins interview from this past weekend.

In response to an open-ended question, Hawkins replied:

I feel the NCAA considers me a threat because if I was doing something illegal, which I haven’t, they couldn’t punish me. Honestly, I think it all started with a trip to Miami and me having a Miami number. Once they started investigating players over the infamous Miami trip phone records showed players had been talking to me and agents would speak my name so I’m sure (the) NCAA thought I had something to do with it when I didn’t. I didn’t go on the Miami trip. At the time I was in (Las) Vegas for Memorial weekend. Once my name got out I’m sure some agents where bad mouthing me because they felt me as a threat or I would be steering players to Willie’s agent. You have to understand it’s a lot of agents that will try to take advantage of players and they’re knowledge or try to buy them with me around helping guys vet agents, really help keep the bad ones away and keep the guys from doing anything they will regret in the future.

(Emphasis added).  Maybe it is nothing, but I think Hawkins has his dates messed up.  He could have been on both the Miami trip and the Las Vegas trip.  Unless there was more than one, the “infamous Miami trip” was not over Memorial Day Weekend, as he asserts in that quote.  The “infamous Miami trip” (at least the one we know about) was in mid-May.  We know this because of the dates on the tweeted pictures:

We also know it was mid-May because other evidence shows the party to have been concurrent with the “Aquagirl Festival,” which was held May 12-16 this year.  One of the ladies in that picture is a “reality star” who was hosting a pool party for “VH1 Exotica” during that weekend.  Back in July I did an entry on the topic of these exact dates if you want to more details on that.

Now, regarding Hawkins’ Memorial Day Weekend, it is true that he was in Las Vegas.  We know this through tweets and facebooking of Kendric Burney.  “hawkEZ” is Chris Hawkins I gather.

I don’t know what to make, if anything, of Hawkins’ apparent error regarding the dates.  Maybe there was another Miami trip that took place on Memorial Day Weekend. (?)

That tweet makes it appear that Marvin could have been at “Club Liv” (a Miami hotspot) over Memorial Day weekend.  But then it was pointed out that those are the lyrics to a popular rap song so it could mean nothing.  But with Hawkins’ new revelation (?) that he was in Vegas during the “infamous Miami trip,” who knows!  Either way, Hawkins should be asked a follow-up question to explain the dates discrepancy.

[Update: alert reader “TEAdisonHokie” points out this SI article that clearly indicates that there were two agent-related parties in Miami.  So maybe the “infamous Miami trip” Hawkins is talking about was not the one where all the pictures were taken of Marvin, Little, etc., — but was in fact at Club Liv on Memorial Day weekend.  If that is the case — Wow!  What a life these guys had!  And what a mess UNC is in!]

Hawkins also should be asked about this.  Check out the top response listed on the Facebook page Marvin set up to promote  to the “UNC Playas Celebrity Spring Bash.” 

It can’t be a coincindence that this party was held on the same day as the UNC-CH spring game — on a weekend often used by programs to invite recruits for campus visits.  Hawkins was no doubt at that NFL “Playas” party given his response to party-promoter Marvin (and the fact that Hawkins was seemingly a program fixture over there), so perhaps he could tell us if any recruits were there, who else was there, and who paid for the party, among other things.

One more thing about the Hawkins interview and then I will move on.  Does anyone else find it strange that Hawkins goes out of his way numerous times to say that he is not an agent, but then explains:

 I also have my own management company, Elevated Performance Management LLC.

So he is not an agent, but has a “management company” with a name that sounds exactly like an agent’s business?

Next, Bill Friday recently made some comments to the Winston-Salem Journal in connection with the scandals.  We ran a great piece on it here so there is no need for me to go into great depth.  But something I don’t want to go unnoticed is in this particular quote:

“I think the more pervasive question here is the integrity of the institution,” Friday said. “If you get into academic fraud, that’s something irreparable. You see all these fake courses the NCAA unearthed recently. Those of us who care about sports should say: ‘This is it, and we’re not going to let this go on.’ ”

“[A]ll of these fake courses the NCAA unearthed recently”? (!!!!)  That’s the first I have heard of that!  How did someone not ask a follow-up about that bombshell?

Lastly, anyone following this saga is missing a great perspective if they are not reading BobLeeSays.  His columns on the scandals have been right on the mark.

That’s all I have time for today.  I will try to keep on top of as much of this as possible.