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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.

Coach K must really want Tony Parker for his 2012 recruiting class.

The Duke head coach was reportedly waiting for the 6-foot-9 Parker on Monday after the latter returned from his weekend official visit to UCLA.

“Coach Krzyzewski just reaffirmed that he’d like have Tony in a Duke uniform,” Miller Grove coach Sharman White told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “Colleges are allowed to see a player three times in the NCAA contact period. [Krzyzewski] said he rarely uses all three of them but he did with Tony because he’s a top priority.”

PISCATAWAY, N.J. — Kentucky coach John Calipari followed Kansas coach Bill Self onto the floor at the Brayden Carr Clinic last Friday at Rutgers.

After Self diagrammed several offensive plays to the more than 500 coaches in attendance, Calipari cracked, “You don’t think those are the plays he’s going to run against us, do you?”

Calipari was joking that Self was holding back on his full offensive arsenal, so as not to show it all to the Kentucky coach.

After all, the two legendary programs are slated to meet Nov. 15 in the Champions Classic at Madison Square Garden.

PISCATAWAY, N.J. — Gilvydas Biruta has never played in the NCAA Tournament, but he feels he approximated the experience this summer.

Biruta played for Lithuania in the European U20 Championship in Bilbao, Spain in July, averaging 5.1 points and 2.7 rebounds.

“Every game is so important, It’s like NCAA Championship here,” the 6-foot-8, 248-pound Biruta said last week at Rutgers. “You lose a game, you’re losing chances to go further. You go for preparation for two months, you lose two or three games and that’s it, your summer is done. Every game is like your last game.”

The Big East Conference will “aggressively pursue [expansion] discussions,” but Louisville basketball coach Rick Pitino says Memphis is not ready to join the league.

“Memphis, it’s a shame because their football program is so down right now,” Pitino told SNY.tv last week in an exclusive interview at Hudson Catholic High School. “I don’t know why it’s down, but it is down and that’s what probably’s taking away from it.”

The Memphis football team is 1-3, 0-1 in Conference USA after Saturday’s 38-31 loss to Middle Tennessee.

Memphis has made no secret of its desire to join a BCS conference. Tigers AD R.C. Johnson told SNY.tv last year, “I don’t want to lie to you. In the ideal world, the SEC would call and we’d go tomorrow.”

Hofstra coach Mo Cassara is reeling in a strong recruiting class for 2012.

Dallas Anglin, a 6-foot-1, 175-pound combo guard from Seton Hall Prep, is the latest to join the Pride, committing Sunday.

“They show a lot of love and they are a family!,”Anglin said by text. “I’m going there to win and I’m bringing athleticism.

“I learned how to lead a team and become a point guard so I’ll be there to do what I do.”

Eron Harris, a 6-foot-3, 170-pound shooting guard from Lawrence (Ind.) North, verbally committed to West Virginia after a weekend visit.

“It felt like home,” he said by text. “Coach [Bob] Huggins was a very real and straight up person. He told me he needed me and I aw them practice and they need a shot-maker/ball-handler/defender.”

He also had offers from Wisconsin, Dayton, Loyola, Evansville, Georgia State, Buffalo and Jacksonville.

“I can put the ball on the floor and have a quick first step,” Harris told WVGazette.com. “I think what they like is I’m a consistent scorer. I’m not the best shooter, but I can get hot. Also, defensively, I’ve put a lot of work into my game. I take pride in it now.”

Andrew White, the No. 12 small forward in the Class of 2012 per Rivals, also enjoyed his visit this weekend to West Virginia.

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