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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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Saturday / December 21.
  • ***Memphis penalty not impacting recruiting. Read the story here***

    NEW YORK — Memphis commit Will Barton and Memphis target Joe Jackson don’t seem too worried about the program vacating its 2008 Final Four.

    The Rivals story on that is linked above.

    The 5-foot-11 Jackson, out of Memphis (Tenn.) White Station High, said he still considers Memphis his leader.

    “I like Memphis and Tennessee but Memphis, they kind of high right now,” Jackson said Thursday at the Madison Square Boys & Girls Club in The Bronx.

    He is here in New York for Friday night’s Boost Mobile Elite 24 event at Harlem’s Rucker Park.

    NEW YORK — Coming from Seattle, Tony Wroten doesn’t get to Madison Square Garden much.

    But the 6-foot-4, 180-pound junior point guard from Seattle (Wa.) Garfield laced them up Wednesday night for a run at the World’s Most Famous Arena.

    Wroten and his teammates in Friday’s Boost Mobile Elite 24 game competed alongside NBA players Brandon Jennings and Kevin Love, both of whom played in this game in year’s past.

    “It was crazy,” Wroten said Thursday at the Madison Square Boys & Girls Club in The Bronx, where the players did a community service event with a group of younger children. “It’s one of the most historical NBA arenas and to play in it was a dream come true. That’s the first time I’ve been in there.”

    Wroten is being courted by virtually every school in the Big East: Villanova, Syracuse, Georgetown, Louisville, Marquette, St. John’s and Seton Hall.

    “I just like the Big East style of play,” he said. “Most everybody in the Big East plays uptempo. That’s the type of style I like.”

    Who are his favorites?

    “‘Nova and Syracuse, they’re the top two,” he said.

    John Calipari will forfeit a Final Four appearance for the second time in his coaching career.

    The University of Memphis will forfeit its 2008 Final Four appearance and 38-win season, according to the Memphis Commercial Appeal, which cited a source close to the situation. The NCAA will release findings of its investigation into violations committed by the program Thursday.

    The NCAA investigated whether someone took the SAT for former Memphis guard Derrick Rose (pictured), now with the Chicago Bulls. That made Rose retroactively ineligible. His older brother, Reggie Rose, was also found to have accumulated $2,260 in unpaid trave expenses. Memphis was notified of potential violations in January and met with the NCAA in June.

    The father of one of the top prospects in the Class of 2010 says he is “disappointed” with the coaching changes at Rutgers that were announced on Tuesday.

    Torrel Harris, the father of 6-foot-8 Long Island forward Tobias Harris, had established a close working relationship with Craig Carter. Rutgers was the first school to offer Tobias, when he was in 8th grade.

    But Rutgers announced that former Lehigh and East Stroudsburg head coach Sal Mentesana had been hired as an assistant coach and Carter, the captain of the last Rutgers team to make the NCAA Tournament (1991), had been shifted from assistant to the new job of “recruiting coordinator.”

    “We are very disappointed that Craig will not be [an] assistant coach at Rutgers,” Torrel Harris said. “We feel he was a great person who’s honest, respectful and full of basketball knowledge.

    “He has spent lots of games following Tobias. Besides myself, Craig was the next person who saw all of Tobias’ game.

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