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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.

Julius Randle and Aaron Gordon may not be the only 2013 superstars who sign in the spring.

Jabari Parker may join them  — and then he may not land on a college campus for a couple of years, if at all — if he takes a Mormon mission.

Sonny Parker, Jabari’s father, told the AP that his son may commit in December but wait until the spring to sign his Letter of Intent.

“We really don’t know for sure, for sure,” he said. “He has five visits. He might go on his first two visits and say, ‘Hey, this is where I want to go.’ You never know. I know all his visits are going to go past the (early) signing period. His last visit, probably BYU, is going to be the end of November.”

NEW YORK — Louisville is ranked No. 2 in the preseason Coaches’ Poll and No. 1 in the Sheridan Hoops Preseason Top 25.

Yet the way Cardinals coach Rick Pitino figures it, Manhattan will have a “major advantage” when the two teams square off in the season opener Nov. 11 in Louisville.

“I think it’s going to be a very tough game,” Pitino, whose team was picked unanimously to win the Big East, told SNY.tv Wednesday at Big East Media Day.

Ish Wainright, a 6-foot-6 wing from Montrose Christian, verbally committed to Baylor Thursday night after visiting last weekend.

The new was first reported by Alex Kline and confirmed to SNY.tv by Montrose Christian.

A onetime Missouri commit, Wainright had previously visited Ohio State and was to have visited Texas this weekend and St. John’s next.

“Ishmail is probably the most highly-recruited player we’ve had since Kevin Durant,” Montrose coach Stu Vetter told DMVElite.com. “He has offers from all over the country – some of the biggest names in basketball – and deservedly so; he’s one of the best players in the country. He’s a facilitator and makes everybody else around him better, and he’s going to be an outstanding player for us.“

Former Indiana commit Ron Patterson picked up an offer from Syracuse on Thursday, and he plans to take an official visit there Nov. 2.

“Yeah, they did,” the 6-foot-3 Patterson told SNY.tv by phone. “I talked to Coach [Jim] Boeheim and Coach [Gerry] McNamara over the phone.

“It felt like I’m a big-time player now.”

Patterson said Carmelo Anthony –whose Knicks play against the Philadelphia 76ers at the Carrier Dome Monday night — was his favorite player growing up..

 

Four-star power forward Johnathan Williams III is headed to Missouri.

The 6-foot-9, 210-pound forward from Memphis Southwind announced for the Tigers over Georgetown, Michigan State  and Tennessee during a press conference Thursday night.

“It’s just a great situation,” Williams told the Memphis Commercial Appeal. “I went to their workouts, saw their workouts, and they work extremely hard. I know they’re gonna do big things this year and then next year when I get there.”

http://web.sny.tv/media/video.jsp?content_id=25423829

NEW YORK — UConn junior point guard Shabazz Napier said he was so surprised and distraught when Jim Calhoun retired last month, that he briefly considered leaving the program.

“When I heard he was retiring I just felt inner disbelief and I felt kind of scared in a way, to be exact,” Napier told SNY.tv in the above video interview Wednesday at Big East Media Day. “I didn’t know what was going to happen.”

Napier said he found out about the retirement from the media — not from Calhoun himself.

“I was upset that Coach Calhoun didn’t actually tell us before the media found out,” Napier said.

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