December 2012 | Page 4 of 22 | 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.

Dwyane Morgan’s recruitment is heating up.

The 6-foot-7 small forward out of Baltimore St. Frances will take unofficials visit to Maryland, possibly Jan. 5 for the Virginia Tech game, and South Florida and also has several officials planned.

“He’ll take an unoffiical to Maryland coming up to one of the conference games,” his AAU coach, Dwyane Wise, told SNY.tv Wednesday.

Wise said Morgan will also take an unofficial to South Florida when he’s in Florida next month for the Montverde Invitational.

It is almost 2013 and St. John’s has yet to receive word from the NCAA on the status of senior forward Orlando Sanchez.

While the NCAA has already ruled on players like Rodney Purvis of N.C. State, Shabazz Muhammad of UCLA and Myck Kabongo of Texas, the 6-foot-9 Sanchez remains in limbo.

Sources said the main issue with Sanchez, a native of the Dominican Republic, relates to his age. He’s 24.

“With Orlando it’s related to eligibility,” St. John’s coach Steve Lavin said last month. “It’s age and eligibility are the two things that are being evaluated.”

Kaleb Joseph, one of the top point guards in the Class of 2014 out of the Mass Rivals AAU program and Cushing (Mass.) Academy, will be contributing periodically to ZAGSBLOG during his junior season. Here’s his first entry:

Christmas break has just begun, and it has started off on a good note. My prep school team is undefeated. We’re playing well, sharing the ball, and everybody is making shots. I couldn’t be happier.

It’s always great coming home to family and friends who I don’t get to see too often because I’m always so busy with basketball. I’ve got a new baby sister who was two months old on Christmas Day. So being around the family is just what I need right now.

NEW YORK — Count Tyson Chandler among those who wants to see Marcus Camby come back for the Knicks today against the Lakers.

“Absolutely,” Chandler said Sunday after the team beat the Wolves before it headed out on a three-game West Coast swing. “We need him. We need him right now. We’re short bigs and I could use him.”

The 6-11 Camby has missed 12 games with what the team is calling a “sore left foot,” but has been reported as plantar fasciitis.

He probably won’t be able to give the Knicks much today, but if he’s able to contribute some meaningful minutes going forward it could give Chandler a break at the center position.


Carmelo Anthony
says anything less than a trip to the Eastern Conference Finals for the Knicks is “unacceptable” and that Amar’e Stoudemire is willing to come off the bench to get there.

“Winning the division, getting out the first round, getting to the Eastern Conference Finals, ” Anthony, who scored a game-high 33 points as the Knicks came from behind to beat the Minnesota Timberwolves, 94-91 Sunday, told Stephen A. Smith on the Sunday Conversation on ESPN. “I don’t see anything less than that.”

Asked by Smith if anything less was unacceptable, Melo said, “It’s unacceptable. I’ll sit and tell you right now that it’s unacceptable. With the guys we have, with the team that we have, with the roster that we have, it’s unacceptable.”

http://web.sny.tv/media/video.jsp?content_id=25535461


NEW YORK
— If the Lakers are smart on Tuesday, they’ll pump heavy doses of “Jingle Bells” and “Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer” into the Staples Center when the Knicks come calling.

Why?

Because Carmelo Anthony says Christmas music puts his team to sleep.

The folks at Madison Square Garden pumped Christmas tunes into the building on a sleepy Sunday evening, and the Knicks trailed virtually the entire game before Anthony awoke from his slumber to dominate the final four minutes of the game against the visiting Minnesota Timberwolves.

Despite picking up his fifth foul late in the fourth quarter, Anthony scored 12 straight Knicks points in the final four minutes as New York rallied to beat the Wolves, 94-91, behind a game-best 33 points from Anthony. “MVP” chants reigned down on Melo as he went a perfect 7-for-7 from the line in the final 1 minute, 13 seconds.

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