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.
Texas hoops fans should feel good knowing that future point guard Myck Kabongo is working on good friend Michael Gilchrist to consider Texas as a possible destination.
Both juniors were at Rutgers on Saturday for the Scarlet Knights 23-15 football victory over Florida International that was broadcast on SNY.
During the visit, Kabongo, who plays at Newark St. Benedict’s, used the opportunity to suggest to Gilchrist (pictured), the best player in the Class of 2011 and maybe all of high school basketball, that he should visit UT.
Trevor Releford, a 6-foot, 180-pound point guard from Shawnee Mission (KS) Bishop Miege, committed to Alabama Friday over Oklahoma.
“Yes. I liked the campus, the players and the coaches,” he said by phone.
Releford, the younger brother of Kansas guard Travis Releford, previously said he likes Alabama because of his relationship with new head coach Anthony Grant.
“Alabama is the top because they’ve been there the longest,” Releford said. “I talk to coach a lot and I was his first guy. He started recruiting me.”
ODOM ENJOYING ARIZONA VISIT
Rod Odom, the 6-8 wing from Concord (Mass.) Middlesex, is enjoying his visit to Arizona this weekend, his first official.
“We are still in the midst of the visit,” Rod Odom Sr. said by phone Saturday. “Everything is going fantastic. Rod loves Arizona, he loves the ‘Cats.”
After the Arizona visit, Odom will take an official to Harvard next weekend and then Boston College Oct. 3.
Darryl “Truck” Bryant has been reinstated to the West Virginia basketball program.
“Darryl has done everything that has been asked of him on all fronts,” Mountaineers head coach Bob Huggins said. “I believe he has earned the opportunity to be reinstated to our team.”
A sophomore from Brooklyn, Bryant started 28 games as a freshman at point guard after Joe Mazzulla was lost for the season with a shoulder injury. He averaged 9.8 points per game.
Bryant was suspended in July because of his involvement in a traffic accident outside of Morgantown, after which he left the scene. He was charged with four misdemeanors, including leaving the scene of an accident. No one was injured in the accident and Bryant was released on bond.
MARQUETTE’S CADOUGAN OUT FOR YEAR
Marquette freshman point guard Junior Cadougan suffered an injury to his Achilles tendon Thursday afternoon during conditioning and will more than likely miss the entire 2009-10 campaign.
Cadougan will undergo surgery on his right foot in the coming days and will immediately begin the 4-to-6 month rehabilitation process.
“We all know injuries are a part of sports,” Marquette coach Buzz Williams said. As a program, we are all hurt and disappointed for Junior. He will receive the absolute best care possible prior to, during, and after his surgery. Even though he will not be in uniform this year,
There has been a dramatic shift in the recruitment of Kyrie Irving.
Indiana is now out of the mix and Georgia Tech will get a fourth official visit.
Irving and his family are weighing whether to take his fifth official to either Seton Hall or UConn.
“Indiana is out,” said Sye Dean, Irving’s uncle. “We respect the program. We respect Tom Crean. We feel blessed that a University of that caliber would recruit Kyrie, but sometimes in regards to this recruiting processyou have to eliminate certain programs. That’s part of the process.
Rod Odom, the 6-foot-8 wing from Concord (Mass.) Middlesex, is on his way to Arizona this weekend for his first official visit.
“I’m in the airport waiting to go,” Odom, the No. 19 small forward in the Class of 2010, said Friday morning.
After the Arizona visit, Odom will take an official to Harvard next weekend and then Boston College Oct. 3.
Odom is also considering Vanderbilt, West Virginia and Georgia Tech but has yet to plan official visits to those schools. He has visited every school except Arizona unofficially.
“I don’t really have a favorite right now,” Odom said. “I’ll probably have one after this visit because this [Arizona] is the only school I haven’t been to.”
Memphis athletic director R.C. Johnson says the school’s first priority would be to join the Southeastern Conference — not the Big East.
“Quite honestly, the truth of the matter is the lifelong dream of Memphis is to get in the SEC,” Johnson said Thursday in a phone interview. “We’re surrounded by SEC country. When Arkansas got in Memphis thought they were going to get in.”
Johnson hired former Big East Commissioner Mike Tranghese on a six-month basis and gave him one overwhelming mandate.
“I told him, ‘It’s simple. There are six BCS conferences. Get us in one,'” Johnson said.
Memphis has been a member of Conference USA since the mid-1990s.
Texas hoops fans should feel good knowing that future point guard Myck Kabongo is working on good friend Michael Gilchrist to consider Texas as a possible destination.
