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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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Sunday / December 22.

  • NEW YORK — Carmelo Anthony
    sat at his locker in the corner of the Knicks’ locker room, battered and bruised, just like his team.

    Anthony took five stitches above the left eye after a mid-air collision with Celtics’ guard Rajon Rondo as both jumped for a 50-50 ball with about two and a half minutes remaining in the Celtics’ 96-86 victory at Madison Square Garden.

    “I thought I was cool until I got in there and I guess it started seeping into my eye or whatever,” Anthony said, referring to the blood. “I couldn’t open my eye after that.”

    NEW YORK –Donnie Walsh wants the Knicks to turn it around sooner.

    Doc Rivers is hoping for later.

    Either way, Walsh is taking responsibility for the team’s uneven play since the Carmelo Anthony trade.

    Entering Monday’s game with the Celtics, the Knicks were 7-8 since the trade and 1-6 against teams with losing records. They had lost two straight and five of six.

    “I take more responsibility than the players or the coaches because I made a monumental trade in the middle of the season and it appears to me they’re having a hard time getting together, which is understandable,” Walsh said before the game.

    Torrel Harris is now in the unique position of having two sons whose coaches are out the door.

    Tennessee fired head coach Bruce Pearl on Monday, five days after N.C. State coach Sidney Lowe resigned.

    Tobias Harris just completed his freshman season at Tennessee and Tyler Harris has signed a National Letter of Intent to play at N.C. State next season.

    “Two coaches get fired, you don’t want that to happen but what can you do,” Torrel, who lives with his family in Dix Hills, N.Y., said Monday by phone. “I always have a belief if you’re a person that walks with God, you’re at where God wants you to be. For Tyler and Tobias, God has them where he wants them to be. We’re all in this world for a purpose. My kids are God-fearing so we approach it as it comes.”

    Torrel said Tobias, who averaged 15.3 points and 7.3 rebounds this season, would definitely test the NBA waters.

    The Big Beast has become The Big Least.

    The Big East Conference, which at one point this season had nine teams ranked in The Associated Press Top 25 and placed a record 11 teams in the NCAA Tournament, now has just two teams in the Sweet 16.

    UConn and Marquette are still alive.

    Pittsburgh, Syracuse, Louisville, Georgetown, St. John’s, Notre Dame, Villanova, Cincinnati and West Virginia are all on spring break.

    “You know how when your friend tried to set you up with a girl and he said she has a good personality?” Turner and CBS NCAA analyst Charles Barkley asked The New York Post. “That’s not good. The Big East has a good personality.”

    Jeff Lubreski knows the odds are against his team Monday night.

    After all, Plainfield (24-8) is the last team standing between St. Anthony and another miracle season.

    The two teams will meet in the last high school game of the season in New Jersey — the Tournament of Champions final at 8 p.m. at the Izod Center in East Rutherford.

    “We want our kids to stay in the moment and play every possession,” Lubreski, coach of the Group 3 state champions, said Sunday night by phone. “We want them to pay attention to our offensive possessions and attention to our defensive possessions, try to limit their runs and play to try and hang around until the fourth quarter.”

    Led by Naismith Hall of Famer Bob Hurley, St. Anthony (32-0) is seeking its 11th Tournament of Champions crown in the event’s 23-year history and fourth mythical national championship (1989, ’96, and ’08). A public school has not won the T of C since Camden in 2000.

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