Ellis Focal Point of Investigation : Syracuse: Report questions circumstances around ex-Mater Dei star’s transfer from Kentucky.

Syracuse officials were mum today on alleged improprieties in the school’s basketball program as a newspaper questioned the recruitment of LeRon Ellis, the team’s starting center, and former center George Papadakos.

In a story stemming from its seven-month investigation of the Syracuse program, the Syracuse Post-Standard reported today that Ellis’ father, former NBA player LeRoy Ellis, received a job from a Syracuse alumnus at about the time LeRon Ellis decided to transfer from Kentucky to Syracuse.

And Papadakos, a 7-footer from Toronto, told the Post-Standard that he back-dated his letter of intent to attend Syracuse in 1982 and concocted a story to hide the alleged impropriety.

Today’s story followed by a day a lengthy report in the Post-Standard in which past and current players said they received cash from team boosters, free meals and merchandise from community businessmen and cut-rate automobiles.

The Post-Standard said that LeRon Ellis appeared ready to transfer from Kentucky to UNLV in June, 1988, after Kentucky was hit with NCAA probation.

“On the phone he told me he was coming,” said UNLV Coach Jerry Tarkanian, whose national championship program also is under fire for alleged improprieties. “He told everybody that. He told all our players. He told our coaches that. In fact, his high school coach (at Mater Dei High in Santa Ana) called and told us that the kid had committed, was coming with us.”

But in July, 1988, Ellis said he would attend Syracuse instead.

According to the Post-Standard, Ellis’ father received a license about a week later to work as a real estate salesman for The Hicker Co. Inc., a company that does business as the Cardinal Co. in Sherman Oaks. The Hicker Co.’s owner, George Hicker, was a teammate of Orangeman Coach Jim Boeheim’s at Syracuse during the 1960s.