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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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Articles, Big East

Marquette senior forward Jae Crowder will be named Big East Player of the Year on Tuesday and St. John’s freshman forward Moe Harkless will be honored as the Big East Rookie of the Year, league sources told  SNY.tv.

Crowder is the first Player of the Year for Marquette since it joined the Big East in 2005, and Harkless is St. John’s first Rookie of the Year since David Russell in 1980.

It remains unclear who the Big East Coach of the Year will be, though Jim Boeheim of Syracuse, Stan Heath of South Florida, Mike Brey of Notre Dame and Buzz Williams of Marquette are considered the leading candidates.

The 6-foot-6 Crowder, a native of Villa Rica, Ga., finished third in the Big East in scoring (17.6 ppg), ninth in rebounding (7.9) and second in steals (2.4) for a Marquette team (25-6, 14-4 Big East) that enters the Big East Tournament as the No. 2 seed.

Syracuse

In response to today’s Yahoo! story, Syracuse has issued a statement saying the NCAA is conducting an “ongoing inquiry” into its drug testing situation.

“In accordance with NCAA regulations, it is the University’s practice to self-report possible violations to the NCAA,” the statement reads. “We self-reported issues with drug testing to the NCAA, and there is currently an ongoing inquiry. The inquiry does not involve any current SU student-athletes. To ensure the integrity of the ongoing process, we are unable to comment further at this time.”

The Yahoo! story cites “four sources with intimate knowledge of the Syracuse men’s basketball program”  who said “at least 10 players since 2001 have tested positive for a banned recreational substance or substances.”

Articles, Big East, Seton Hall, UConn

The way Jerry Palm sees it, Seton Hall is just one of several Big East programs that has some work to do this week at Madison Square Garden.

The No. 10-seeded Pirates, along with No. 4 Cincinnati, No. 6 USF, No. 8 West Virginia and No. 9 UConn all need to polish up their resumes at the Big East Tournament.

No. 1 Syracuse, No. 2 Marquette, No. 3 Notre Dame, No. 5 Georgetown and No. 7 Louisville are all safe.

Seton Hall once held its NCAA Tournament hopes in its grasp and needed to beat Rutgers and/or DePaul to assure a .500 mark in the league. Instead, they fell at home on Senior Night to arch-rival Rutgers and then got creamed, 86-58, on Saturday at DePaul.

Articles

SPRINGFIELD, Mass. — Rakim Sanders began his college basketball playing career at Boston College and Sydney Johnson started his head coaching career at Princeton.

Now both have united at Fairfield and are one win from leading the Stags to their first MAAC Conference championship since 1997 and an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.

After the 6-foot-5 Sanders scored 15 of his career-high 26 points in Sunday’s 85-75 semifinal upset of top-seeded Iona, Fairfield will play Loyola Monday night for the MAAC crown (7 p.m., ESPN2).

“The 15 points in the second half, that’s all cause of these guys,” Sanders said when he was seated next to Colin Nickerson (14 points) and Keith Matthews (14) on the dais. “It’s all my teammates and just them trusting in me and giving me the confidence to do what I do.”

Articles, Big East, Syracuse

Back in September, I wrote a column suggesting that Jim Boeheim might never coach a single game in the ACC because he could retire before Syracuse joins its new league.

Now, former Big East Commissioner Mike Tranghese says he hopes that’s the case.

“I have watched Jim Boeheim coach, and I can’t even comprehend Jim coaching in the ACC,” Tranghese told Bill Rhoden of the New York Times. “It’s like a foreign thought.

Articles, Coaching moves

Former Rhode Island and Boston College coach Al Skinner and Wagner coach Dan Hurley are among those who could be targeted for the Rhode Island vacancy created by the firing of Jim Baron, the Providence Journal reported.

“He will have interest,” one source close to Skinner said.

Skinner, 59, compiled a record of 138-126 in nine years at the school from 1988-97. Skinner twice took the program to the NCAA Tournament and later brought Boston College to the Big Dance seven more times before he and the school parted ways in 2010.

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