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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.
  • [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AHSafc4uK2A&w=560&h=315]Billy Joel opened his 13-month, 13-show residency at Madison Square Garden on Monday night before a sold-out crowd and I was in the ninth row.

    At one point the 64-year-old Joel looked up at the big screen and said, “‘I didn’t think I was going to end up looking like that. I thought I was going to look like Cary Grant.”

    Joel holds the record for the most number of Garden sellouts in a single year (12 in 2006) — and has a banner in the Garden rafters for that accomplishment. His 46 sellouts dating back to 1978 is also a Garden record.

    For years, Syracuse has made a habit of seemingly never leaving New York State for its non-conference schedule, although the Orange did play in Maui this year.

    This year, it’s entirely possible the Orange won’t have to leave the Empire State during the NCAA Tournament until the Final Four in Arlington, Texas.

    Both Joe Lunardi and Jerry Palm have the Orange as the No. 1 seed in the East and opening in Buffalo for the first two rounds. Buffalo, by the way, is only about 1 hour, 20 minutes from point guard Tyler Ennis’ home near Toronto.

    Elijah BurnsElijah Burns is one of the top small forwards in the Northeast in the Class of 2015. He will be contributing periodically to ZAGSBLOG going forward. Here is his first Player Blog.

    Hey, what’s up, everybody?

    My name is Elijah Burns. I was born and raised in Troy, N.Y., which is small city in upstate New York. I attend school at Blair Academy in Blairstown, N.J., and I am in the class of 2015. For the past few summers I have played on the Nike circuit with the Albany City Rocks.

    This past summer was very eventful because I reclassed and that brought more schools into the mix of my recruitment. Before I reclassed I had offers from Siena, Holy Cross, JMU, Boston U, and Albany and interest from other mid-major schools. Once I got to Blair I started to here from the likes of Temple, Georgia Tech, Northwestern, Georgetown, Kansas State, and more. Recently, I have received offers from Seton Hall and Boston College. 

    Myles Turner is one of the last big-time uncommitted recruits in the Class of 2014 and he will take his next official visit this coming weekend to Oklahoma State, as previously reported by SNY.tv.

    “I’m definitely excited to get down there to see the campus and see everything they have to offer,” the 6-foot-11 big man from Trinity (TX) Euless wrote on his USA Today blog. “I’m looking forward to hanging out with Marcus Smart and Phil Forte. We’re all from the same area so we should have a good time hanging out.

    Turner has also taken an official to Ohio State, but has not yet decided where else he will take officials. He is also considering Kansas, Arizona, Duke, Texas and SMU, among others.

    Australian point guard Dante Exum will enter the NBA Draft and  hire agent Rob Pelinka.

    “We felt that it was the right decision for Dante,” Cecil Exum, Dante’s father, told SNY.tv by email.

    The news was first reported by Chad Ford of ESPN.com.

    The 6-foot-6 Exum is No. 4 on Ford’s Big Board and No. 5 on the DraftExpress.com Mock Draft.

    “It will be interesting to see if he gets in the Top 4 ahead of Julius Randle on Draft day,” one veteran NBA scout told SNY.tv.

    Bryce Aiken of The Patrick School in Elizabeth, N.J., is one of the top point guards in the Class of 2016. He will be contributing periodically to ZAGSBLOG going forward. Here is his first Player Blog.

    Hey, what’s up?

    So far the season has been going well even though we got off to a rough start. During Christmas Break, we traveled to California to play in the Torrey Pines Tournament. We battled some of the top teams in the country and we were able to hold our own. We, as a team, spent a lot of time together in California which has helped our team chemistry and it definitely shows on the court.

    We’ve added a few pieces with [Seton Hall signee] Angel Delgado and Dupree McBrayer and they are both terrific

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