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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.
  • UK NumbersAccording to FiveThirtyEight.com, Kentucky has a 48 percent chance to win the NCAA Tournament and only a 26 percent chance to finish the season undefeated.

    The No. 1 Wildcats are now 28-0 after Wednesday night’s 74-56 destruction of Mississippi State.

    Freshman forward Trey Lyles went for 18 points, 6 rebounds, 2 assists, 1 steal and 1 block in the win.

    “I thought Trey Lyles was outstanding,” Kentucky coach John Calipari said on the SEC Network. “Trey Lyles is the X-factor, he’s been sick. He is good as any player in the country, but he’s going to have to fight and you gotta dominate when you can.”

    YakweKassoum Yakwe, a 6-7 2016 forward from Our Savior New American, will visit Iowa State Sunday-Tuesday for the team’s game against Oklahoma on Monday, sources confirmed to SNY.tv.

    Jeff Borzello of ESPN.com previously reported the visit.

    Yakwe is also planning other visits before the spring, sources said.

    St. John’s, Syracuse, Iowa State, Villanova and Kansas are working hardest for Yakwe, one source said.

    The source also said that Kansas called Yakwe this week to reiterate that they “their offer is still on the table.” 

    WigginsAt the start of the 2014-15 NBA season, there were 13 Canadians on NBA rosters.

    That group included back-to-back No. 1 picks Andrew Wiggins and Anthony Bennett, as well as other rising stars like Tristan Thompson, Cory Joseph, Kelly Olynyk and Tyler Ennis.

    The Canadian players eclipsed the highest previous international total of 11, achieved by France at the start of the 2010-11 season.

    Now as we move toward a critical summer that will include the Pan-Am Games in Toronto and Olympic Qualifying in Mexico, Canadian head coach Jay Triano tells SNY.tv he hopes to have all of the core young guys together at both events.

    “The plan is for all of our guys to play in the Pan-Ams so that we can use it for prep for the qualifying tournament,” Triano, also an assistant with the Portland Trail Blazers, told SNY.tv. “However, we haven’t had a chance to talk to the NBA teams yet so nothing is formal. We know some guys are going to have to play in summer league, some may not have contracts so insurance could be an issue. So as I say it is a goal to have them all play, but there are lots of variables that are in play.”

    malik-newman2Isaiah Briscoe wants Malik Newman to join him at Kentucky.

    Ben Simmons wants Newman to come to LSU.

    Newman says he could win an NCAA title at either school playing alongside either one of his boys.

    “My boy Briscoe hits me up about coming to Kentucky with him and my boy Ben  is trying to get me to come with him to LSU,” the 6-foot-4 Newman wrote in his USA Today blog.

    “It makes sense that they would because those are a couple of the schools that I’m considering, and I feel like if I team up with any one of those guys we can win the national championship. I really believe that!

    4_995450

    Burlington (N.J.) Life Center point guard Traci Carter has set two official visits.

    The 6-foot-1 Carter will visit Xavier Feb. 28 and Marquette March 7, his mentor Donnie Carr told SNY.tv on Tuesday.

    Carter is in the process of trimming his list to five schools and those two are among the five with the other three to be determined, Carr said.

    “We’re still in the process of setting up three more officials,” Carr said.

    Carter has seen his stock rise dramatically this winter with his strong play and is being courted by UConn, Memphis, Cal, Boston College, N.C. State, Seton Hall, Creighton, Penn State, Temple, La Salle, UMass and George Mason.

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