NEW YORK — Shavar Newkirk already has a fistful of Division 1 scholarship offers, but he’s not satisfied.
The 6-foot Cardinal Hayes junior point guard holds offers from Seton Hall, Providence, Iona, Manhattan and Hofstra, among others.
“I hope to get more offers by continuing to put in the hard work,” Newkirk said this weekend after averaging 19.5 points as Hayes went 1-1 in two games at the SNY Invitational.
Hakim Saintil is the point guard at Roselle (N.J.) Catholic. He will be contributing periodically to ZAGSBLOG during his senior season. Here’s his first post:
As many of you may not know, I am Hakim Saintil from Roselle Catholic.
I am a senior point guard this year and I am undecided as to where I am going to college.
I would like to give a shoutout to Adam Zagoria for letting me do this blog of my season.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BQFaKo4T-l4&w=560&h=315]
Like many young Canadian basketball prodigies, Ray Kasongo came to the United States to further his basketball career.
The 6-foot-8, 230-pound power forward models his game after Knicks’ star Amar’e Stoudemire. He left his home in Scarborough, Ontario about two years ago and now plays at Pikeville (Ky.) High, where he lives with a host family.
“I always wanted to move down to the U.S. to better my chances of getting a scholarship,” Kasongo told SNY.tv by phone. “There isn’t much exposure out in Canada.”
In recent years Canadians like Tristan Thompson, Cory Joseph, Myck Kabongo, Andrew Wiggins, Xavier Rathan-Mayes, Tyler Ennis and others have come to American schools to further their basketball careers.
North Carolina and Kentucky have agreed to resume their men’s basketball series beginning with a game in Chapel Hill next season.
The two schools did not schedule a game this year, ending a 12-year stretch in which the teams met annually in the regular season.
Carolina leads the series, 22-13, with the Tar Heels winning six of the last nine meetings.
“I think it’s a great series for both schools and our fans as well as college basketball fans period,” says Carolina head coach Roy Williams. “North Carolina and Kentucky have great traditions and, regardless of who you pull for, fans mark this as a must-see game on the schedule.”
They aren’t ranked in today’s Coaches’ Poll, but did anybody have as good a week last week as Villanova?
For the first time in program history, the unranked Wildcats knocked off two top five programs in the span of one week of the regular season.
On Tuesday, the Wildcats upset No. 5 Louisville, 73-64, and then followed that up four days later by beating No. 3 Syracuse, 75-71 in OT, thanks to a Ryan Arcidiacono 3-pointer that tied the game with 2.2 seconds left in regulation.
Fans stormed the court at the ends of both games.
And Arcidiacono was named Big East Player of the Week for his efforts. (See below for more).
NEW YORK — Perhaps lost in Carmelo Anthony’s 42-point outburst and game-winning three-point play Sunday night against the Atlanta Hawks was the continued progression of Amar’e Stoudemire.
Stoudemire went for 18 points, eight rebounds and one block in the Knicks thrilling 106-104 victory.
Stoudemire scored eight points in the fourth quarter, including six straight at one stretch and two key foul shots that gave the Knicks a 103-102 lead.
“It’s a matter of getting rhythm back,” Stoudemire said of his play in the low post. “Experience is the best teacher. The more I’m out there the better. My rhythm becomes easier for me. I am just trying to take my time and progress as the games build up.”
Much traveled point guard Kelvin Amayo is headed to Iona — and he hopes it’s his last stop.
“Yeah, I just committed,” Amayo told SNY.tv. “I talked to Coach [Tim] Cluess.”
The 6-foot-5, 210-pound Amayo recently left Marshall, as first reported by SNY.tv, because he said they did not have a scholarship for him. Before that, he had committed to Towson but was ruled academically ineligible by the NCAA.
Now he will enroll at Iona May 13 and the school will go through a waiver process for immediate eligibility and an additional year of eligibility. He will have at least three years of eligibility remaining.
