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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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Saturday / December 21.
  • NEW YORK — Following perhaps his team’s final game of the season, a fired-up Jim Boeheim went off on a number of topics, ranging from the location of the ACC Tournament to his team’s chances of making the NCAA Tournament with an at-large bid.

    After John Gillon missed a potential game-tying three-pointer in the final seconds, Syracuse lose to Miami, 62-57, in the second round of the ACC Tournament at Barclays Center, leaving the Orange firmly on the bubble.

    Jerry Palm of CBSSports.com told ZAGSBLOG that he has Syracuse out of the Big Dance with the loss. ESPN’s Joe Lunardi said on Twitter that Syracuse appeared to be out going into Selection Sunday a year ago, but ended up getting a bid and making the Final Four.

    “I know our profile is better this year than it was last year in terms of top wins,” Boeheim said. “And I think the [NCAA Selection] Committee, from what I’ve gathered over my years, is looking for a team or teams that could win games in the Tournament. I think we can.

    “I think to look today and say we lost to Miami. Well, Miami was Top 25 in the country last year….One game, that shouldn’t mean anything.”

    LaVar Ball isn’t backing down from Charles Barkley.

    Or from his strong support of his son, Lonzo.

    “If Charles thought like me, maybe he’d win a Championship,” the elder Ball said on the Colin Cowherd radio show.

    Barkley had earlier chimed in on LaVar Ball’s recent comments about his son.

    “Just because you say some s—, doesn’t make it right,” Barkley said. “He’s gonna be better than Steph Curry? That’s what he said. Steph Curry has won a couple MVPs, he’s pretty good. Man, let me tell you something. That’s that AAU s—. You can’t say a guy is going to be better than Steph Curry, a guy who has played 30 college games. I know you can be proud of your son, but at some point, it becomes stupidity.”

    NEW YORK — Johnny Jones and Mark Gottfried are living proof that coaching NBA lottery picks without producing results can have dire consequences.

    Jones coached the No. 1 pick in the NBA Draft last season in Ben Simmons. Now he’s reportedly about to lose his job at LSU after failing to make the NCAA Tournament last year with Simmons — and this year with a solid, if unspectacular, roster.

    On the same day the Jones news was reported by the New Orleans Times-Picayune, Mark Gottfried coached his final game at N.C. State, losing to Clemson in the first round of the ACC Tournament at Barclays Center.

    Like Jones, Gottfried recruited and coached a projected Top-5 pick in point guard Dennis Smith Jr., who is headed to the NBA Draft after one non-NCAA Tournament season with the Wolfpack, as first reported on FanRagSports.com. (N.C. State has a second projected NBA pick in big man Omer Yurtseven, now projected in the 2018 Draft by DraftExpress.com.)

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