Joel Embiid won’t play in either of the first two games this weekend in the NCAA Tournament.
“He’s not going to play,” Kansas coach Bill Self told KansasCity.com. “I’m not saying there couldn’t be a miraculous act occur, but we’re certainly not planning on that or expecting that.”
Kansas is the No. 2 seed in the South and opens against Eastern Kentucky on Friday afternoon.
BUFFALO — DeAndre’ Bembry’s afro doesn’t have its own Twitter account, but maybe it should.
Just as former Murray State standout Ed Daniel’s hair has its own Twitter, @ed_hair, Bembry’s would seem to be a prime candidate, too.
“Somebody told me I should get a Twitter account for it,” he said here as St. Joe’s prepared to play UConn Thursday in an East Regional game.
JaQuan Lyle is finally off the board and headed to Oregon.
The 6-foot-5 Huntington (W.V.) Prep guard announced he has chosen the Ducks over Memphis.
“Next year, I will be attending the University of Oregon,” Lyle said at his press conference Wednesday evening.
Lyle is the fifth player to chose the Ducks, joining point guard Casey Benson, small forward Dwayne Benjamin, power forward Ray Kasongo and big man Michael Chandler.
BUFFALO — When the Syracuse basketball team walked out to practice on the floor of the HSBC Arena Wednesday afternoon, one particularly vocal Syracuse fan yelled from the stands, “Yo, Ennis. Shine, dude shine.”
Carlton Hickey is a former public safety officer at Syracuse and said he wants to see freshman point guard Tyler Ennis step up and be more aggressive in what could be his lone NCAA Tournament run with the Orange.
“I think he’s a helluva talent and he’s going to the NBA and I just want him to not be timid on the road to the Final Four because they need him to just step up and be a man about it,” Hickey, who has no inside information about Ennis’ future plans, told SNY.tv from his courtside seat.
BUFFALO –– Based on the eye test through his own glasses, Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim thinks Michigan State and Louisville are the most “dominant” teams entering the NCAA Tournament.
“There’s not just that much difference between the teams,” Boeheim said here in advance of No. 3 Syracuse facing No. 14 Western Michigan in a South Region game Thursday. “That’s why I was impressed so much with Michigan State. They didn’t just win the [Big Ten] tournament, they dominated the tournament. That’s the difference.
Jackson Davis is now listing seven schools after adding Florida to his original six.
The 6-foot-8 Lexington (Ky.) Lafayette power forward is down to Alabama, Arizona State, Butler, Columbia, Creighton, Florida and Vanderbilt.
“After much deliberation Jackson has narrowed down his list,” his father, Johnathon, told SNY.tv.
“They all have an immediate need for his skill set. There is no one like him on their rosters. He can play right away and make mistakes without looking over his shoulder.”
By JOHN PAVIA
Special to ZAGSBLOG
TOMS RIVER, N.J. — With a resounding 98-80 win over Newark Tech in the quarterfinal round of the Tournament of Champions at Pine Belt Arena, Roselle Catholic is focused hard on attaining a second consecutive TOC title and their lead guard, Isaiah Briscoe, will do anything on the court to achieve that goal.
For Briscoe, it would be his first TOC title after transferring last summer from St. Benedict’s Prep, which does not compete in the state tournament.
“I think we’ve been playing like this since it’s been win or go home,” Briscoe said. “You know, I think everybody, well, the core group [of our team] wants to repeat and I want to get my first [TOC title]. I just think that everybody just clicked. Win or go home, nobody wants to go home, we want to win the TOC just like everybody else so we have to do whatever it takes.”
