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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 / November 23.
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John Wall, Memphis

Will Coleman, a 6-9, 265-pound power forward from Miami-Dade Community College who has drawn comparisons to Joey Dorsey, has verbally committed to Memphis.

“I feel excellent,” Coleman told the Memphis Commercial Appeal. “Just the whole environment up there, the team, the staff, the whole environment. I loved it.”

Coleman joins Nolan Dennis, a shooting guard from Dallas, among Memphis recruits for 2009. He was named to the FCCAA All-Southern Conference First Team this year, when Miami Dade College went 18-9. He was also named NJCAA player of the week for the week ending Jan. 27.

Hurleys, Indiana, St. Anthony

Indiana head coach Tom Crean hired former St. Anthony standout Roshown McLeod to fill the last vacancy on his staff.

Look for McLeod to at least take a shot at St. Anthony senior wing Dominic Cheek, as well as South Atlanta power forward Derrick Favors — both of whom he has connections to. The 6-9 Favors and the 6-5 Cheek are ranked No. 3 and 11 respectively in the Class of 2009 by Rivals.

Favors will reportedly visit Georgia Aug. 28 and Georgia Tech Sept. 27. Cheek has listed Kansas, Villanova, Wake Forest, Tennessee, UConn, Rutgers and Seton Hall, among others.

McLeod played at Duke and St. John’s and also spent four years in the NBA. He played for a slew of Hall of Famers in Bob Hurley (St. Anthony), Mike Krzyzewski (Duke), Lenny Wilkens (Atlanta) and Larry Brown (Philly.)

While Indiana still has a long way to go before digging itself out of the Kelvin Sampson Mess, this has got to be considered a strong hire by Crean.

High School Transfers, John Wall

John Wall is getting some big help next year at Word of God Academy in Raleigh, N.C.

Keith “Tiny” Gallon, a 6-9, 290-pound forward from Humble, Texas, will play with Wall at Word of God.

“Yeah, me and J-Wall,” Gallon said in a text message written from a plane bound for Brazil for a Nike event. “That’s like my brother and I’m happy playing with family. He’s a good passer and scorer and I’m the same thing, so we ain’t gonna lose.”

Gallon spent last season at Oak Hill Academy alongside Brandon Jennings but Oak Hill coach Steve Smith said he will not return there.

Maryland, Pittsburgh, Recruiting, Rutgers

Isaiah Epps tells Alex Schwartz that Pittsburgh and Maryland are his leaders at this point.

“My cousin goes to that school, Travon Woodall,” the 6-foot-3 Epps, a junior at Plainfield (N.J.) High, said of Pitt. Epps is high on Pitt “because they [are in the] Big East and I want to start. They told me I can start as a freshman.”

He also took an unofficial visit to Maryland this summer.

“It was real good, I liked the campus,” Epps told me. “I like how they said that as soon as I go in there, I’m going to be starting right away. I like the academics, the schoolwork. I like all of it.”

“This is the guard they’ve targeted in the Class of 2010,” former Plainfield coach Pete Vasil said. “They’re looking for him to play major minutes.

Dominic Cheek, Lance Stephenson, Villanova, West Virginia

Fans of New York City area hoops will get to see several local sons play at Madison Square Garden when West Virginia meets Davidson and Texas plays Villanova in the 14th annual Jimmy V Classic doubleheader on Dec. 9 at Madison Square Garden.

Bob Huggins’ team features New York-area freshman Devin Ebanks, Kevin Jones and Darryl “Truck” Bryant.

“We’re counting on Dev to come in and kind of take up a little bit of the slack of what we lost with Joe (Alexander),” Huggins said. “We’re not foolish enough to think he’s going to come in and take up where Joe left off because Joe was pretty good at the end of the year and he had such great strength. I think as Devin gets stronger, he’s the same kind of guy. He can play inside and he can play outside. He scores over smaller guys and can take big guys off the bounce like Joe did, so we’ll do a lot of the same things for Dev that we did with Joe.”

Hofstra, Recruiting

Kansas State commit Jordan Henriquez is headed to prep school.

The 6-foot-11, 220-pound big man out of Port Chester (N.Y.) High will spend next year playing for Mike Byrnes at the Winchendon (Mass.) School.

“Yes he is,” Byrnes said. “Jordan has been in summer school at the Winchendon School since July 3. He went home from summer school home this past Saturday and he’ll be back Sept. 7. He signed a Letter of Intent to go to Kansas State the following fall.

“He needs to get stronger. He came here to work on his core. He brought his core up over a 2.0 and did a nice job this summer.”

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