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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.

By JOHN F. SILVER

Special to ZAGSBLOG

HARTFORD, Conn. – In the old days Louisville coach Rick Pitino could have kept the secret to himself when his Cardinals moved up to No. 1 in the Associated Press Top 25 poll on Monday.

He could have shared it to his players in the locker room as part of a pregame speech and used it as a motivating tool.

Alas, Pitino has no control of the information anymore.

http://web.sny.tv/media/video.jsp?content_id=25554937

By MATT FALKENBURY

Special to ZAGSBLOG

GREENBURGH, N.Y — For Knicks guard Iman Shumpert, London is callling.

Coach Mike Woodson made it clear that only an unforeseen setback will keep Shumpert from making his season debut across the pond in the clash against the Detroit Pistons on Thursday.

“He looks good, we’ll take it a day at a time,” Woodson said Monday. “We will see how he feels [Tuesday]. We just got to make sure that he doesn’t have any setbacks. If [there are no setbacks], he will play Thursday against the Pistons.”

By MATT FALKENBURY

Special to ZAGSBLOG

GREENBURGH, N.Y. — One day after Carmelo Anthony revealed he had been fasting for the past 15 days, his diet was a hot topic among his teammates and his head coach.

“I just got wind of it, but Melo’s playing great,” Knicks coach Mike Woodson said following practice Monday as the team embarked on its trip to London for Thursday’s game against the Detroit Pistons.

“I’m not concerned about what Melo eats as long as he is ready to play. He is going to eat the right foods and do all the necessary things to be ready to play basketball. I got that much faith in him.”

Louisville is the new No. 1 team in the land.

But even Cardinals coach Rick Pitino doesn’t figure that his club will stay there for the rest of the season.

Louisville (15-1) was one of five teams to receive a first-place vote this week.

“I think the top teams will play musical chairs for No. 1 for the next two months and it will be really significant at the end of the year,” Pitino told the AP Monday, hours before the Cardinals beat UConn, 73-58. “We played a tough nonconference schedule and I’m really happy the way our guys have battled through injuries. We’ll try to hold the musical top as long as we can.”

NEW YORK — Anthony Davis lost only two games all season last year at Kentucky en route to winning an NCAA championship and National Player of the Year honors.

During his rookie season with the New Orleans Hornets, the No. 1 draft pick and his teammates have already lost 26 games.

“It doesn’t matter [how I played], we lost,” Davis said after putting up 13 points and eight rebounds in the Hornets’ 100-87 loss to the Knicks Sunday at Madison Square Garden. “So them stats doesn’t even matter.”

For the season, Davis is averaging 13.2 points and 7.8 rebounds for a Hornets team that is 11-26.

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