GREENBURGH, N.Y. — Carmelo Anthony and his teammates know they are facing a must-win in Game 2 Tuesday night at Madison Square Garden or they could go back to Indiana down 0-2.
“We don’t want to do that, we don’t want to do that,” Anthony said Monday at practice. “We want to take care of business here on our court. We feel like we gave them a game yesterday, which we did. And we’ll redeem ourself tomorrow.”
Anthony said his injured left shoulder was “fine” and downplayed attention to his declining shot production. To read more of this story, click here
NEW YORK -- In this interview from the Jordan Brand Classic, Syracuse-bound point guard Tyler Ennis of St. Benedict’s Prep talks about St. Ben’s run to the ESPN NHSI final, the Orange’s future, fellow Canadian Andrew Wiggins and Saturday’s Jordan Brand Classic.
**For the SNY.tv documentary on Ennis and his voyage from Canada to Newark, click here.
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NEW YORK — New York native Dakari Johnson is returning home this week for the Jordan Brand Classic, which takes place Saturday at Barclays Center.
It’s been quite a week for the 6-foot-10 Johnson, who last weekend won the ESPN National High School Invitational with coach Kevin Boyle’s Montverde (Fla..) Academy team.
After the game, he guaranteed a Kentucky national championship in 2014.
In this video interview with SNY.tv, Johnson talks about the NHSI title, playing with five other Kentucky All-Americans in the Jordan Classic and his guarantee.
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NEW YORK — Rob Fulford coached a virtual Dream Team on Thursday.
At various points during practice for the Jordan Brand Classic, the Huntington (W.V.) Prep coach fielded a five of Andrew Wiggins, Julius Randle and Chris Walker up front, with Andrew and Aaron Harrison in the backcourt. Walker is committed to Florida, while Randle and the Harrisons are bound for Kentucky.
“That’s not a bad mix right there,” Fulford told SNY.tv in the above interview. “Obviously, there’s a ton of talented kids here.”
College coaches were not permitted at the practice, but a gaggle of NBA scouts watched from the stands. All 30 NBA teams have requested credentials to Saturday’s game at the Barclays Center, and with good reason. Five of the top 10 projected picks in the 2014 NBA Draft were in the gym on Thursday. To read more of this story, click here
I can’t say I ever thought we’d see Mike Rice and Rutgers basketball make Saturday Night Live.
But here we are.
And Melissa McCarthy is the perfect person to do it.
McCarthy plays Sheila Kelly, the coach of the Middle Delaware State’s women’s basketball team, who threatens her players with a baseball bat, forces them to serve her dinner in the gym and throws toasters at them.
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By GARRETT MILEY
Special to ZAGSBLOG
PHILADELPHIA — Sir’Dominic Pointer drained a game-winning jumper at the buzzer as St. John’s shot 55.2 percent after the break to erase a 12-point second half deficit and advance into the NIT Second Round with a 63-61 victory on the road against St. Joe’s.
“I’ve never hit a shot like that in college,” Pointer said after the game. “It just felt good and to celebrate it with my teammates felt even better.”
Pointer finished with 15 points, including a career-high three 3-pointers, seven rebounds and five assists to lead St. John’s (17-15), while JaKarr Sampson added a team-high 16 points to go with five rebounds. Phil Greene IV finished with 10 points, Jamal Branch had nine points and five assists, and Chris Obekpa added six points, eight rebounds and three blocks. After shooting just 36.4 percent (12-of-33) in the first half, the Red Storm fired at a 55.2 percent clip (16-of-29) in the final stanza. To read more of this story, click here
By MATT SUGAM
Special to ZAGSBLOG
NEW YORK – And now they wait.
Five weeks ago, Steve Lavin had a young and hungry St. John’s squad poised to make its second NCAA Tournament appearance in three years.
But the Johnnies lost key players down the stretch to suspensions and lost for the seventh time in eight games, falling to Villanova, 66-53, in the Big East Tournament at Madison Square Garden. The No. 7 Wildcats will face No. 2 Louisville tonight at 7 p.m.
Whatever bubble dreams the Johnnies (16-15) had of making the NCAA Tournament have popped.
Their hopes of continuing their season now hinge on an NIT bid, and the Johnnies must wait until Selection Sunday to learn their fate.
To read more of this story, click here
NEW YORK — A brutal season filled with injuries, losses and off-the-court distractions has come to a merciful close for Seton Hall.
The No. 12 Pirates went down swinging, giving No. 5 Syracuse all they could handle until the Orange went on a second-half run and put the Big East Tournament game away, 75-63, at Madison Square Garden.
Beset by injuries, he Pirates (15-18) lost 12 of their final 14 games and finished 3-15 in the Big East regular season.
Still, they summoned one last fight against the Orange, taking an early lead and then keeping it close until Syracuse used an 11-2 second-half run to take control.
“Seton Hall, they’re not a great team but they played great today,” Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim said. To read more of this story, click here
With the last Big East Tournament as we know it set to tip off today, here is a video and a few news updates to keep you posted.
**Above is the SNY Big East Tournament preview featuring Big East Commissioner Mike Aresco. The league also formally announced Tuesday that the Catholic 7 would get to keep the “Big East” name going forward, and said it would soon provide more information about “the expected broadcast media deal, season-ending tournament and additional members of the new conference,” which are expected to be Butler, Creighton and Xavier.
“We think it all worked out logically,” Aresco told SNY, “in terms of the name, the Garden and the finances.”
**At 5 p.m. today, the Big East will announce Player of the Year, Coach of the Year, Rookie of the Year and Scholar Athlete of the Year. Georgetown’s Otto Porter Jr. will be named the Player of the Year.
**For the Big East Tournament schedule, click here.
**Meantime, the Big East officially announced that Notre Dame will head to the ACC on July 1, joining Syracuse and Pitt, meaning that the 14 teams in this current Big East tournament will go to three separate leagues next year.
“This decision makes sense for the Big East,” said Aresco. “In view of Notre Dame’s expressed desire to join the ACC on an earlier timetable, the Big East and Notre Dame were able to arrive at an acceptable resolution. The Big East can now focus fully on its future alignment and rebranding efforts. I want to thank the Notre Dame administration and Athletic Director Jack Swarbrick for their efforts in moving toward this orderly transition. Notre Dame has been a valued member of the Big East and we wish them well.”
“From the time of our decision to join the ACC we have stressed our commitment to ensuring that our departure was achieved in a collegial manner,” Notre Dame vice president and director of athletics Jack Swarbrick said. “This agreement realizes that intention and we are very grateful to the members of the Big East and Commissioner Aresco for helping to facilitate this orderly and timely transition.”
Here’s how it breaks down: To read more of this story, click here
NEW YORK — The enduring image of the Knicks’ 99-93 loss to the Miami Heat Sunday afternoon was LeBron James stealing a J.R. Smith pass on the perimeter in the game’s final seconds and gliding downcourt for an uncontested dunk.
In the end, it was James, the presumptive NBA MVP, overcoming a third-quarter knee injury and putting up 29 points, 11 rebounds and 7 assists to will his team to its 14th straight victory before a capacity crowd at Madison Square Garden.
It wasn’t the Knicks making a statement by moving to 3-0 against Miami this season, and throwing some intrigue into the Eastern Conference playoff situation. To read more of this story, click here
