March 2012 | Page 25 of 28 | Zagsblog
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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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Thursday / November 21.
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    • Articles, Iona

    SPRINGFIELD, Mass. — Iona coach Tim Cluess says he isn’t sure whether he will gather his team a week from now to watch Selection Sunday on television.

    Understandably, he doesn’t want his guys to experience two major letdowns in the span of eight days.

    “You have to be a little bit realistic,” Cluess said after his top-seeded Gaels were sent packing by No. 4 Fairfield, 85-75, in the MAAC Championship semifinals at the MassMutual Center.

    “NIT [or] NCAA, we have to look at that as it’s a national tournament. We’re going to look at it as an honor. We would love to play in the NCAA, but if we don’t get that we’re thrilled to be going to the NIT because it’s still a reward for what these guys have done this year.”

    Carmelo Anthony, Old Knicks

    Harvey Araton has an absolute must read on the legend of Lenny Cooke in today’s New York Times. During a 2001 game against LeBron James at Sonny Vaccaro’s ABCD Camp in Hackensack, N.J., Cooke, then the presumed No. 1 prospect in America, was overtaken by James in a game in front of a slew of coaches, scouts and reporters.

    Here’s Araton with Carmelo’s take. The article also include Amar’e’s thoughts upon meeting a much-heavier Cooke last year at Madison Square Garden:

    It was the summer of 2001, weeks before 9/11, and Cooke returned to the popular ABCD Camp for the nation’s most prominent high school players at Fairleigh Dickinson University’s Teaneck, N.J., campus as the defending most valuable player, the presumed chosen one.

    “He was coming from being the No. 1 player in the country, and we all looked at Lenny like that,” said Anthony, who was born in Brooklyn but relocated to Baltimore. “It was his size, how strong he was, how he could pass the ball and play the point, kind of like Magic, I guess. He was really explosive.”

    Articles, Old Knicks

    GREENBURGH, N.Y. — The Knicks who faced the Boston Celtics in their last meeting on Feb. 3 are drastically different from the Knicks who will play at TD Garden Sunday on national television.

    This Knicks team is also deeper and more dangerous than the shorthanded, injury-riddled outfit that was swept last spring by the Celtics in the opening round of the NBA playoffs.

    “We feel confident about our team and how good we can be,” Amar’e Stoudemire said Friday at practice. “Boston obviously has had our number for the previous six games or so, but we feel good about the opportunity we have going to Boston and feel like we can get a win.”

    Articles, Big East

    On the last day of the Big East regular season, Syracuse beat Louisville, 58-49, to become the first Big East team to finish the regular season at 17-1.

    Marquette clinched the No. 2 seed by virtue of beating Georgetown, 83-69.

    Cincinnati earned the No. 4 seed in part by earning a 72-68 win at Villanova.

    Seton Hall dropped to No. 10 after losing at DePaul, 86-58, and having Rutgers beat St. John’s, 61-58.

    Rutgers secured the No. 11 seed and pushed St. John’s to No. 12 with its win.

    Here’s how the Big East Tournament shakes out.

    Kyle Anderson, St. Anthony, UCLA

    JERSEY CITY, N.J. –– On Friday, the day before his team was to play St. Anthony in the New Jersey state tournament, Dwight-Englewood head coach Eli Goldberger gathered his players and gave them a little window into the star player they would be facing.

    “In five years,” Goldberger told his kids, “you may see him in an NBA All-Star Game.”

    Kyle Anderson then went out and put up 26 points, 13 rebounds and 2 assists in less than four quarters of work to lead St. Anthony to a 69-30 rout of Dwight-Englewood in the North Non-Public B semifinals at the CERC in Jersey City.

    For the record, Anderson and the Friars are now 28-0 on the season and have won 61 consecutive games dating to last season.

    “DiMaggio-esque,” said Bobby Hurley, the former St. Anthony and Duke point guard who is now an assistant to his younger brother, Dan, at Wagner College.

    Articles, Recruiting

    Trivante Bloodman, a 6-foot point guard from The Bronx, has drawn a slew of coaches to the gym at Olney (Ill.) Central College in recent weeks.

    St. John’s assistant Tony Chiles was in on Wednesday and Johnnies coach Steve Lavin is expected back for the Region 24 tournament March 8-11.

    Rutgers, Fordham and Hofstra have all called on him.

    And Bloodman, a former standout at Wadleigh High, holds offers from Texas Tech, Cleveland State, Wisconsin-Green Bay, Missouri State and Utah State.

    “He’s got a bunch of offers,” Olney assistant Dan Matic told SNY.tv by phone. “He’s kind of all over the board.”

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