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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.
  • Kentucky coach John Calipari paid a visit to 2014 point guard Tyus Jones of Apple Valley (Minn.) on Monday.

    “He flew up and watched a practice,” Apple Valley coach Zach Goring told SNY.tv.

    “This is his third time up now. They’re really interested in him. ESPN has him as the No. 1 kid in the country. I know [Calipari] likes him, that’s for sure.”

    With likely one-and-dones Andrew and Aaron Harrison coming in next season, Kentucky will likely be in the market for a point guard come 2014.

    The 6-foot Jones recently cut his list to eight schools —  Baylor, Duke, Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan State, Minnesota, Ohio State and North Carolina — and Goring said all the schools are equal.

    BROOKLYN — Across the long, long history of sports rivalries, there may never have been a case where one player enjoyed the chants of the opposing team’s fans the way Carmelo Anthony did on Monday night.

    Melo grew up in the nearby Red Hook Houses and so the chants of “Brook-lyn, Brook-lyn” during the Nets’ 96-89 overtime victory over the Knicks at Barclays Center didn’t bother him the way chants of “Yank-ees suck” or “A-Rod sucks” might have bothered, say, Alex Rodriguez at Fenway Park.

    “It felt good,” Anthony said of the chants that occurred during a game in which he scored a game-high 35 points to go with 13 rebounds but missed a potential game-winning jumper at the end of regulation. “Just as a Brooklyn guy, it felt good to hear that.”

    BROOKLYN — Knicks starting shooting guard Jason Kidd will miss tonight’s historic first game against his old team, the Nets, in Brooklyn due to back spasms.

    Our man, Tommy Dee of The Knicks Blog, had it at about 6 p.m.

    In typical Knicks style, the team made no pre-game announcement about Kidd’s status.

    Knicks coach Mike Woodson told reporters he didn’t know who he would start, but the team later announced a starting lineup of Raymond Felton, Ronnie Brewer, Carmelo Anthony, Kurt Thomas and Tyson Chandler. 

    Top 2013 prospect Julius Randle will miss three months with a fractured right foot suffered this weekend at the Thanksgiving Hoopfest and will undergo surgery Tuesday.

    “It’s a minor setback, but Julius is a fighter,” his mother, Carolyn Kyles, told USA Today. “We’ve already begun to set up rehabilitation for him and he’s a naturally a little down now, but he’ll be back before you know it. We’re just staying positive about everything. We know he’ll come back stronger than ever.”’

    Randle, a senior power forward at Prestonwood Christian, sustained the injury during the first half of the team’s loss to Duncanville (TX) on Saturday.

    “He’ll be ready for the postseason all-star games if not sooner,” said Randle’s Godfather, Jeff Webster. “It’s all a part of the game. These things happen. Now the hard work begins, and it’s a challenge for him. The doctor says three months, but he’s the type of player that will work hard to be ready before that. We’re not rushing anything, but we’ve got work to do.”

    Randle is considering Kentucky, Kansas, Texas, Oklahoma, Florida and N.C. State and said he had initially planned to visit Texas and Kansas in December and N.C. State in January. It remains unclear if those visits will go forward as planned.

    UCLA, Arizona, Tennessee and Florida State are among the schools courting point guard Emmanuel Owootoah of Cordia High School in Kentucky.

    The 5-foot-10, 170-pound Owootoah is a native Canadian who was originally in the class of 2014 but is likely to reclassify to 2013.

    “I’m going to be 2013,” he said in a phone interview.

    Brandon Bender and Canadian AAU coach Ro Russell are among those mentoring Owootoah.

    “Ro is deciding whether or not Emmanuel is mature enough for 2013 and we are starting to believe he is ready now,” Bender said.

    Owootoah said his favorite schools were UCLA and UConn, but that he hasn’t heard from UConn.

    Bender said UCLA has offered a scholarship and that assistant Korey McCray planned to come in and see Owootoah this week.

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