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Adam Zagoria covers basketball at all levels. He is the author of two books and an award-winning journalist whose articles have appeared in ESPN The Magazine, SLAM, Sheridan Hoops, Sports Illustrated, Basketball Times and in newspapers nationwide.
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Wednesday / December 25.
  • Xavier Henry poured in a game-high 29 points, hitting five 3-pointers, to lead a Nike select team to a 126-50 victory over a Brazilian team in Brazil.

    Avery Bradley and Jamal Coombs-McDaniel, who committed to UConn, scored 20 points apiece and junior Phil Pressey added 19 points and 6 assists. Oklahoma commit Tommy Mason-Griffin had 10 assists and UConn commit Alex Oriakhi posted a team-high 14 boards. Tiny Gallon, who will play with John Wall at Word of God Academy this year, added 12 points and 10 rebounds.

    **Henry will make an official visit to NCAA champion Kansas the weekend of Sept. 19 and national runner-up Memphis the weekend of Sept. 26. He is also considering Texas and UCLA, but reports have him down to Kansas and Memphis. Wall has yet to set a visit date.

    **Watch out for Providence on the recruiting trail under new head coach Keno Davis. The Friars just got a commitment from 6-2 Baltimore shooting guard Antoine Allen, who will prep this year at Notre Dame Prep. Allen chose Providence over Miami, Central Florida, Towson, Rutgers and Maryland.

    I’m still tracking down this Derrick Caracter story, but I have confirmed that Oklahoma City University is recruiting the 6-foot-9, 270-pound Caracter.

    OCU became the first school since Life (Ga.) in 2000 to win consecutive NAIA crowns when it beat Mountain State (W. Va.), 75-72.

    Ollie Bailey, a senior from Chicago who played at Rutgers before transferring, was named to the all-tournament team and became OCU’s first NAIA player of the year award winner.

    After a long summer on the AAU circuit in which he endured a series of injuries, Tevin Baskin is back home in Stamford, Conn. and working on trimming his list of schools.

    The 6-foot-7, 205-pound Baskin plans to visit Providence, Rutgers, Xavier, Auburn, St. John’s and UMass.

    “Those are six schools that I’m definitely going to visit because I have interest in them,” Baskin said Monday by phone. “It can change at any moment because people are calling and things happen. You can wake up the next morning and they have someone signed in your position.

    Will Harris, a 6-foot-5, 230-pound shooting guard originally from Queens, has committed to Albany, choosing that school over Marist and Valparaiso. The Virginia transfer will have two years of eligibility remaining after sitting out the 2008-09 season.

    “I feel like I chose Albany because they have a great staff over there with Coach (Will) Brown and coach (Jeremy) Friel,” Harris said Sunday by phone. “When I went on my visit, I felt very comfortable over there. There’s a real good opportunity for me over there. They’ve been to the (NCAA) tournament two out of the last three years, and they’re starting to build a real tradition over there and that’s something I want to be a part of.”

    Harris played in 32 games and started three as a freshman in 2006-07 when he averaged 3.6 points and 3.2 rebounds a game. He hit for 14 points against N.C. State.

    Rumors out of Louisville have Derrick Caracter leaving the program for an NAIA school in Oklahoma City, but I haven’t been able to confirm anything just yet.

    “As long as he’s in New Jersey and I am here, I don’t know what he’s going to do,” said Stacy Brooks, a professor in the Pan-African Studies Department at Louisville who has become an adviser to the 6-foot-9, 270-pound Caracter, a native of Fanwood, N.J.

    “I don’t know anything. I know his mom really wants him to be playing right now.”

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