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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 26.
  • By NICK MEDLINE

    Special to ZAGSBLOG

    RIVERSIDE, Ill.— Nearly five months after committing to Illinois, Aaron Jordan still gleams about his decision.

    The Plainfield (IL) East shooting guard continues to build his game before the AAU season—one that figures to lack any drama.

    At the Riverside-Brookfield Shootout last weekend, Jordan validated his No. 79 spot on the latest ESPN rankings. An outstanding shooter with great defensive length, he also seems to play harder than everyone on the floor.

    By NICK MEDLINE

    Special to ZAGSBLOG

    Glynn Watson visited Nebraska on Friday and will travel to nearby Creighton for a Saturday trip, he confirmed to SNY.tv.

    “It went well,” Watson said of his Nebraska visit. “I like the whole coaching staff and the campus.”

    The Westchester IL (St. Joseph’s) point guard labeled Nebraska and Creighton as two of the schools most interested in him — with Purdue being the other.

    Eron GordonEron Gordon, a 6-foot-2 2016 guard from Indianapolis (IN) Cathedral, visited Louisville unofficially Friday and has several more visits on tap in the coming weeks.

    Louisville coach Rick Pitino is in Italy on vacation with his family, but Gordon visited with the rest of the staff and toured the School of Engineering, the practice facility and the outside of the KFC Yum! Center.

    “We’ll go back at a later date once [Pitino] is there but we wanted to make sure we got to the campus,” Eric Gordon Sr., the player’s father, told SNY.tv by phone of his youngest son’s visit. “He wants to take some time and get his visits done.”

    Eric Sr. said Eron also has visited planned to Duke (June 23), Michigan (June 29) and Kansas (TBD end of June). Eron will also visit Kentucky, Butler and Indiana at some point, Eric Sr. said. Until this point, he had only visited Purdue unofficially.

    Nadal-NoleWhen Roland Garros began two weeks ago, there were 128 men in the draw.

    Now there are only two — and it is the same two men who virtually everyone expected to compete for the title.

    Eight-time champion and No. 1 seed Rafael Nadal will meet No. 2 Novak Djokovic for the 42nd time in Sunday’s championship with still more history on the line.

    Either Nadal will win his ninth French Open title and become just the third man in the Open Era to win 14 Major championships — Roger Federer is the all-time leader with 17 and Pete Sampras owns 14 — or Djokovic will become the eighth man to win all four career Majors.

    The two men have split six Grand Slam finals, with Nadal winning their most recent encounter in four sets in last year’s U.S. Open.

    “Of course the tension is rising, the expectations, the desire to win this trophy,” Djokovic said on court after dispatching Ernest Gulbis of Latvia, 6-3, 6-3, 3-6, 6-3. “There is only one more match to go.”

    By MATT JESSEN-HOWARD

    Special to ZAGSBLOG

    MINNEAPOLIS — “Allonzo Trier Is in the Game.”

    That was the headline of a 2009 feature article in The New York Times. At the time, Trier was a sixth-grader in the Seattle area, popping eyes at tournaments across the country and receiving mail from John Calipari.

    More than five years later, that headline still reads true. The 6-foot-4 Trier out of Montrose Christian (Md.) and Athletes First is leading the Nike EYBL circuit in scoring at 29.4 points per game, and has seemingly an infinite amount of schools recruiting him.

    “Everybody’s recruiting me the hardest right now,” he told SNY.tv. “I’m pretty much everyone’s priority. My list is long. It’s Minnesota, Arizona, Memphis, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Georgetown, Maryland, Baylor, Kansas, Louisville, UConn. I could go on and on.

    robert_carterGeorgia Tech transfer Robert Carter Jr. committed to Maryland over South Carolina and St. John’s and believes the Terps will be major players on the national scene when he becomes eligible for the 2015-16 season.

    The 6-foot-9, 250-pound former Georgia Tech power forward averaged 11.4 points and 8.4 rebounds per game for the Yellow Jackets in his sophomore year.

    He will have two years of eligibility after sitting out the 2014-15 season.

    Maryland lost five transfers this offseason, but Carter Jr. joins an incoming group that also includes four 4-star players in centers Michal Cekovsky and Trayvon Reed and shooting guards Melo Trimble and Dion Wiley along with three-star small forward Jared Nickens.

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