Syracuse Brings Young Team to Jimmy V
NEW YORK -- Wesley Johnson, Andy Rautins
NEW YORK -- Wesley Johnson, Andy Rautins
Ever since Michael Chandler decommitted from Xavier on the first day of the early signing period last month, not much has been heard from the 6-foot-10 center from Lawrence North in Indianapolis.
And according to his coach, Jack Keefer, there won’t be any significant movement in his recruitment until he gets his test score in order.
“He’s got to get a higher test score,” Keefer said Monday by phone. “If he can get that done, he’ll be fine.”
The No. 4 center in the Class of 2011, Chandler committed to Louisville as a junior, only to decommit. Then he surprised a lot of people by pledging to Xavier after a visit this fall.
Duke freshman guard Kyrie Irving is in a precautionary walking boot and could miss Wednesday’s game with Bradley.
“[He] sat out practice today [Monday] and [is] still being evaluated,” a Duke spokesman said by text. “Safe to say he could miss Wednesday’s game.”
Irving, a native of West Orange, N.J. who starred at St. Patrick, injured his right toe late in the second half of Saturday’s victory over Butler at the Izod Center. He appeared to get caught up with Butler’s Matt Howard on the wing.
“I think I stumped my big toe and I had to come out the game,” he said then.
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NEW YORK — While most everyone else on the Kansas basketball team took a road trip here to play in the Jimmy V Classic, Tyshawn Taylor is returning home.
“It’s great,” Taylor said Monday morning in an interview at the team hotel in advance of the Jimmy V Classic game Tuesday between No. 4 Kansas (7-0) and No. 14 Memphis (7-0) at Madison Square Garden. “A lot of my friends and family that don’t really get to see me play besides on TV will be able to come to the game.”
The 6-foot-3 Taylor said his mother, Jeanell Taylor, and his stepfather, Gerald Dixon, will be in attendance, as well as “a bunch of my guys from home.” Jeanell lives in Lawrence, KS now after moving from Hoboken, N.J., where Taylor grew up.
Villanova has suspended freshman forward JayVaughn Pinkston for the rest of the season after he was charged with assault.
School officials on Monday announced that Pinkston will be able to rejoin the school and the team in June. He still has to reapply to school next summer to regain student in good standing status.
“I am sorry,” Pinkston said in a statement. “This situation is my responsibility and I have learned from it. I am going to work extremely hard so that I can return to the Villanova family in June.”
Upper Merion Township police charged Pinkston with simple assault and harassment in November following an off-campus altercation. The top recruit had been held out of all Villanova’s games this season.
“This is an unfortunate situation for everyone involved,” said Kimani Young, Pinkston’s mentor with the New Heights AAU program.
When WFAN first came on the air in New York in 1987, Ed Burns and his best friend, both huge sports fans, couldn’t comprehend that Mike Francesa, Chris Russo and their colleagues were getting money for their “jobs.”
“We could not believe that you could get paid to BS about sports on the radio all night long,” Burns, a hardcore Knicks fan, said in a recent phone interview.
Now Burns, the director and star of The Brothers McMullen, has created a wonderful independent film for under $30,000 called Nice Guy Johnny that premiered at Tribeca and stars two up and coming actors Matt Bush (Adventureland) and Kerry Bishe (Scrubs).
Nice Guy Johnny centers on baby faced 23-year-old Johnny Rizzo, who is about to trade in his dream job in sports radio for some snoozeville gig that will pay enough to please his fiancé.
