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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.

When Midnight Madness tips off around the nation Friday night, many of the top New York-area prospects won’t be in the Big Apple.

They’ll be taking in the show at Kentucky.

“I’m excited, it should be good,” said Dix Hills (N.Y.) Half Hollow Hills West forward Tobias Harris, who leaves Friday for Kentucky’s “Big Blue Madness.”

“I heard it’s a really great atmosphere at the Midnight Madness so it should be fun.”

Some 24,000 Kentucky fans are expected at the event and tickets were reportedly selling Thursday for an average of $177.59 on eBay.

Led by first-year coach John Calipari, Kentucky is loaded with talent and could make a Final Four run.

happyjazz

EDITOR’S NOTE: I’m going to leave this parked at the top of the blog for a while. Check below for basketball news.**

In May of 1994 I was living in Bridgeport, Conn., and my friend, Kim, had a dog that had given birth to nine puppies.

I had just come off a relationship with a woman who had a regal old Golden Retriever named Rusty, whom I had grown attached to.

Though I had always grown up with (black) cats around my house, I thought it was time for me to get my own dog. I was 25 at the time.

The curious case of Enes Kanter gets more curious every day.

Kanter, a 6-foot-10 Turkish citizen born in Zurich, Switzerland, is now at his third American school in the span of two months.

Kanter has surfaced at Simi Valley (Calif.) Stoneridge Prep after brief stops at Findlay (Nev.) Prep and Beckley (West Va.) Mountain State.

“He legitimately wants to be here and go to college and Stoneridge is the only option,” said an industry source with knowledge of Kanter’s situation. “He would like to get eligibility by passing the [standardized] test. He might not even play at Stoneridge.

“He could enroll in college in the spring semester.”

UConn coach Jim Calhoun has found his latest big man.

Michael Bradley, a 6-foot-9, 210-pound forward/center out of Chattanooga (Tenn.) Tyner Academy, called Calhoun Tuesday night to tell him he was choosing the Huskies over Drake.

“He was excited. He was like, ‘Welcome to the family’ and stuff like that,” Bradley said Wednesday by phone.

Bradley, who owns a 3.5 GPA, visited UConn, Drake, VCU and Georgia and then narrowed it to the Huskies and Drake. He said Calhoun, who scouted him against 2012 big man Andre Drummond in Orlando last summer, told him he projects as a power forward.

“There’s a lot of stuff I like [about UConn],” he said. “Mostly because you get to compete and develop at a high level. The other thing I like is Coach Calhoun develops big men. We go against pros, great players every day.”

Rutgers could be reuniting with an old friend as early as next week.

Marvell Waithe, a 6-foot-8, 200-pound combo forward now playing for Tallahassee (Fla.) Community College, will decide on his college destination after visiting Rutgers this weekend.

Waithe will visit campus for the Pittsburgh-Rutgers football game Friday night (8 p.m., ESPN) and then spend the rest of his official visit on campus.

“After the Rutgers visit I’ll decide where I’ll be going,” Waithe, 21, said Tuesday by phone.

Waithe, who has been courted by Rutgers for several years since he emerged as a star in Canada, is also considering Arkansas, which he visited this past weekend.

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