November 2012 | Page 13 of 24 | 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.

Three of the top players still left on the board for 2013 are on the brink of announcing.

Big men Beejay Anya and Kennedy Meeks — the Rivals No. 4 and 5 centers in 2013 — are set to announce Friday, as is No. 7 small forward Tyler Roberson.

The 6-foot-8 Anya out of DeMatha Catholic is expected to pick N.C. State, as that is the lone school left on his list.

Anya visited the ACC school in late October and told SNY.tv the coaching staff told him: “It’s the perfect place for me. I’m going to be able to play a lot right off the bat because C.J. Leslie and Richard Howell are leaving.”

NEWARK — Can Tyler Ennis get Andrew Wiggins to Syracuse?

It might be a long shot, but remember that the Syracuse-bound Ennis is Wiggins’s teammate on both the CIA Bounce AAU team and the Canadian junior national team.

“He’s early in his recruitment,” Ennis told SNY.tv Wednesday when he and five St. Benedict’s Prep teammates signed Letters of Intent.

By DAN KELLY

Special to ZAGSBLOG

What if you were an NBA GM and I told you that there was a 6-foot-11 power forward who runs like a cheetah and jumps like a scared kangaroo?

Then I told you that this same big man has nice face-up game and looks comfortable putting the ball on the floor. I know you’re interested now but I’m not done.

This kid is also a willing passer from the post who has a knack for finding open shooters and has spent the last three years of his life with maybe the best basketball coach in all of recorded history. I tell you that he averaged 11 points and 9 rebounds last year and that this season those numbers will increase.

UCLA continues to make news related to their top two freshmen talents, Shabazz Muhammad and Kyle Anderson.

On Wednesday, head coach Ben Howland announced that the school had filed an appeal with the NCAA on behalf of Muhammad, who on Friday was declared ineligible for the season.

“This afternoon, UCLA filed an appeal of the violations that were presented last Friday,” Howland said.  “That appeal will be heard by the NCAA this Friday, and we hope to have an answer shortly thereafter.  We cannot comment any further on the process at this time.”

NEWARK — If a college basketball coach at a start-up program was looking for a new team of players, all he might have needed was to stop by St. Benedict’s Prep on Wednesday afternoon.

That coach could’ve filled out his entire starting five — and added a bench player — simply by grabbing the six Grey Bees who signed Letters of Intent in the school’s gym.

That won’t happen, of course, and instead the six players are headed to half a dozen universities.

Karl Towns won’t step onto a college campus until the fall of 2015, but he apparently knows which college campus that will be.

The 6-foot-11 sophomore from St. Joe’s-Metuchen (N.J.) will announce his college choice at 10 a.m. Dec. 4 at the high school.

“I think he’s ready,” Karl Towns Sr. told SNY.tv Wednesday evening.”I think he has mind made up. He has a school that’s right, he’s not talking to us. He says everybody will know, but I know he’s really been doing his research.”

Towns Sr. said his son was considering Kentucky, Duke, Florida, N.C. State, North Carolina, West Virginia, Michigan State, Villanova, Rutgers and Seton Hall, among others.

Three former Northeast college stars are headed to the NBA D-League.

The Houston Rockets on Wednesday assigned former Iona point guard Scott Machado to the Rio Grande Valley Vipers., their D-League affiliate.

Undrafted out of Iona in 2012, Machado appeared in six preseason games with the Rockets, averaging 3.5 points, 5.3 assists, 1.7 rebounds and 13.5 minutes.

Houston previously sent Royce White to the D-League and he skipped Monday’s game and Tuesday’s practice for reasons that went unexplained.

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