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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 / December 19.
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    • Articles


    By ADAM ZAGORIA & JOSH NEWMAN

    NEW YORK — Rick Pitino and his Louisville Cardinals were named the No. 1 overall seed in the NCAA Tournament on Sunday, but even Pitino knows something wild and crazy could be brewing in this year’s Big Dance.

    With all the parity in college hoops this season, and all the instability at the top of the rankings, will a No. 16 seed finally beat a No. 1, thereby spoiling brackets from Maine to Oregon?

    “I do think a 16 seed can beat a 1 because if TCU can beat Kansas [during the regular season],” Pitino said after his team won back-to-back Big East Tournament titles Saturday night over Syracuse at Madison Square Garden.

    Articles, Recruiting

    Aaron Gordon, one of the top uncommitted players left on the board, will announce his college choice on April 3 at the McDonald’s All-American Game in Chicago.

    The 6-foot-9 Gordon is considering Arizona, Kentucky, Oregon and Washington.

    “Yes, he’s kind of had a good idea when he was going to do it and he’s letting everybody know it’s during the McDonald’s Game,” Tim Kennedy, Gordon’s coach at San Jose (Calif.) Archbishop Mitty, told SNY.tv Sunday by phone.

    Articles, Big East

    NEW YORK — Jay Bilas is a former Duke basketball player, an attorney and maybe the smartest man in the room when it comes to college basketball.

    So when he says it’s inevitable that the ACC Tournament will eventually come to Madison Square Garden, we should probably pay attention.

    “I always thought the ACC Tournament was the best tournament,” Bilas told SNY.tv prior to calling Louisville’s 78-61 victory over Syracuse in the Big East championship for ESPN.

    “This is the best tournament,  the Big East.

    Articles, Louisville

    http://web.sny.tv/media/video.jsp?content_id=25754987


    NEW YORK     — Let the record reflect that the Big East Conference as we know it officially died at 10:52 PM EST on March 16, 2013.

    It ended with Rick Pitino’s Louisville Cardinals completing a dominant second-half comeback fueled by Peyton Siva and Montrezl Harrell that swept them to their second straight Big East Tournament championship compliments of a 78-61 blowout of Syracuse after they had trailed by 16 points early in the second half.

    It would have been customary and celebratory had Pitino — a native New Yorker and former coach of the Knicks — and his players ascended ladders and cut down the nets at Madison Square Garden.

    But the coach instructed his team not to do so.

    Articles, Indiana, Louisville

    NEW YORK — Louisville and Indiana have discussed a three-year series that would alternate locations, sources told SNY.tv.

    The series is not finalized yet, sources said, but Louisville coach Rick Pitino told a small group of reporters Friday night that his team would play a “big school” in the series.

    “We have this team we’re going to play and it’s not announced,” Pitino said in advance of tonight’s Big East championship game against Syracuse.

    Articles, UMass

    By JOSH NEWMAN
    Special to ZAGSBLOG

    Derek KelloggNEW YORK – UMass, which has not been to an NCAA Tournament since 1998, was right there on Saturday afternoon in a 71-62 Atlantic 10 semifinal loss to Virginia Commonwealth.

    Trailing the entire second half, the Minutemen hung tough, chipped away at a deficit that reached as many as 10 and had opportunities to at least tie the game, but in the end, they will wake up Sunday morning at the mercy of the NCAA Tournament selection committee.

    “The question I would have is, do we pass the eye test, because that’s one of the main things that they’re talking about,” UMass head coach Derek Kellogg said. “When you watch us play against GW, Temple, Xavier, those teams and then a team that’s in the top 25 (VCU) on a neutral site after three days, you pass the eye test.”

    Articles

    By DAN KELLY AND JOSH NEWMAN
    Special to ZAGSBLOG

    Brad StevensNEW YORK — Brad Stevens coached his last game in the Atlantic 10 Conference on Saturday.

    And what a short stay it was.

    After a one-year stint in the A-10, Butler is reportedly headed off to the new-look Big East next season.

    According to multiple reports late Friday and early Saturday, an announcement that Butler, Xavier and Creighton will be joining the Catholic 7 in the new Big East could come as early this coming week. A year from now, Butler is expected to play in the postseason a few subway stops away at Madison Square Garden.

    “I don’t know about that, but I know this, this was a heck of a challenging year,” Stevens said after Butler lost to St. Louis, 67-56, in the A-10 semis at the Barclays Center on Saturday afternoon, “This is a heck of a league. To win 13 games (it was actually 11) and to win seven away from home  (it was actually six) against the teams that we had to beat against our schedule?”

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