Matt Hicks

Mathew Hicks (born ) is an American former professional basketball player. He played part of the 1973–74 NCAA Division I men's basketball season for the DePaul Blue Demons men's basketball before being discovered to be academically ineligible. He immediately transferred from DePaul University to Northern Illinois University to join Northern Illinois Huskies men's basketball. At Northern Illinois, he was a two-time All-Mid-American Conference first-team selection and 1977 Mid-American Conference Player of the Year. He had played for West Aurora High School in Aurora, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago, before college.

High school Matthew Hicks barely made his school's 8th grade "B" basketball team. When he was a high school junior, he only scored 72 points for the varsity team. As a senior, in 1973 he tallied 718 points. Although Hicks contributed 20 points, the final margin in the 50–48 contest was a tipin by teammate Craig Hardy. In an early-round Illinois High School Association (IHSA) Class AA playoff game, Hicks had a storied face off against Ernie Kent of Rockford West High School, in which he outscored the foul-plagued Kent 29–17 as part of a 60–52 victory. In the 1973 IHSA Class AA state championship tournament, Hicks, who went by the nickname Skip at that time, went 5–16 (3–12 in the second half) in scoring 13 points in the semifinal 39–33 upset loss to New Trier High School. Hicks rebounded in the consolation game with 30 points to defeat Lockport Central High School 67–45 for third place, the highest finish for West Aurora since the 2nd place 1959 team. Hicks finished with a tournament high 87-point four-game total. He made the All-Tournament team along with future NBA All-Star Rickey Green, Alvin Green, future MLB Rookie of the Year John Castino, and Bob Bone.

DePaul As a freshman for , Hicks started some early-season games. Hicks averaged 11.8 points and 8.9 rebounds in DePaul's first 10 games.

Hicks' high school grades were below the 2.0 GPA meaning that he should have been ineligible to play as a freshman, but he was on the roster due to an oversight by head coach Ray Meyer. Even though he had a B− average during his first quarter at DePaul, when another Chicago area school reported that he should have been ineligible, the National Collegiate Athletic Association investigated and ruled him ineligible. However, he was sidelined pending a meeting to consider his eligibility before DePaul's January 6 game against . In his January 14, 1975, debut for Northern Illinois, he contributed 13 points off the bench including 2 overtime baskets in the 87–86 victory over Weber State. At Northern Illinois, he was a two-time All-Mid-American Conference first-team selection as a junior and as a senior in 1976 and 1977 earning Mid-American Conference Men's Basketball Player of the Year honors in 1977. He led the conference in scoring (25.0 and 25.3) and rebounding (12.8 and 13.0) as both a junior and a senior. He was an honorable mention All-American by the Associated Press (1976, 1977), Sporting News (1976, 1977), and Converse (1977).

After his 2.5 season career at NIU, Hicks left the school as its all-time leader in career points (1,513) scored, single-season points scored (682), single-MAC conference game points (42, March 7, 1977), single-MAC conference game rebounds (23, March 3, 1976) and career double-doubles (50). The single-MAC conference game rebounds record was still listed as the current record in the 2019–20 school record book. Paul Dawkins eclipsed some of Hicks' records including career points in 1979. He was named MAC player of the week twice as a junior (January 28 and March 2, 1976) and three times as a senior (Jan 2, Feb 1 and 8, 1977).

Personal life Hicks' younger siblings and his son Theo played high school basketball for West Aurora. His younger brother, Ron, played basketball at George Williams College.