December 2011 | Page 22 of 28 | Zagsblog
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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.

The shooting death of a police officer Thursday at Virginia Tech was especially painful for basketball coach Seth Greenberg because he knew the man.

“It’s tragic,” Greenberg, a New York native, told SNY.tv by phone Friday morning. “I knew the officer. It’s senseless.”

Deriek W. Crouse, 39, was married with five children and step-children. He had given Greenberg a speeding ticket a year ago as the coach was rushing to get back to his office, and had also worked security at Virginia Tech basketball games.

Julius Randle could have a very busy New Year’s Day.

The No. 1 power forward in the Class of 2013, Randle says he plans to attend games at both Duke and North Carolina after the Beach Ball Classic in Myrtle Beach, S.C., Dec. 27-31.

On New Year’s Day, Carolina hosts Monmouth at 3 p.m., while Duke hosts Penn at 5.

“I know that I’m gonna visit Duke after I leave the Beach Ball Classic later this month,” Randle said on his ESPN.com blog. “My plan is to go to the Duke game then go to the North Carolina game in the same day so I know that will be a crazy experience. I’m really looking forward to getting down there.”

With training camp on the brink of opening Friday, the Knicks have somehow vaulted ahead of the Golden State Warriors into the lead to land 7-foot-1 center Tyson Chandler of the NBA champion Dallas Mavericks.

“New York is Tyson’s first choice,” one source told ESPN.com, confirming a Thursday report from Ken Berger of CBSSports.com.

“It’s 98 percent sure that Tyson is going to wind up with the Knicks.”

To afford Chandler, the Knicks will reportedly dump the contracts of Chauncey Billups ($14.2 million)  and Ronny Turiaf ($4.4 million) via either trades or the new amnesty clause.

The St. John’s roster will get even smaller now that sophomore guard Nurideen Lindsey will transfer.

The Johnnies currently have just seven recruited scholarship players, plus a former walk-on, and will be down to six recruited scholarship players after the transfer.

St. John’s hopes to add 6-7 wing Amir Garrett at the semester break, which would increase the number to seven true scholarship players.

Lindsey said via Twitter he had no intention of trying to go pro at this time:

“I am looking forward to moving on to another school. Will not be taking any steps towards any professional move. I like school, and feel as though I still have so much more to learn and much more room for improvement. So once again, sincerely apologize. I’ll be moving on to another program.”

In a statement released through the school, he said he wanted to be closer to his mother.

Paris (Texas) College coach Chuck Taylor says big man Raymon Austin will sign with Seton Hall during the spring.

“He’s going to sign with them in the late period,” Taylor told SNY.tv by phone Thursday.

The 6-foot-8, 230-pound Austin verbally committed to the Pirates in August but did not sign in the fall period because he was working on his academics, Taylor said.

Just as there are sometimes games of musical chairs among managers and coaches in the NBA, NFL and Major League Baseball, the same exists in journalism.

Recently there has been a lot of turnover in terms of which writers cover the major hoops beats in the New York/New Jersey area.

Here’s a quick rundown of what we know:

**NBA writer Jonathan Abrams left The New York Times for Grantland.com. That leaves Howard Beck — who had this interesting piece today on covering the NBA lockout — as the Times’ primary NBA writer, although former Bergen Record Knicks (and tennis and golf) writer Steve Adamek has been contributing pieces to the Times.

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