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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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Wednesday / November 27.
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Articles, USA Basketball

DiamondBy JOSH NEWMAN

Training camp for the United States U19 National Team opened Saturday in Colorado Springs, but it did so minus three players expected to attend.

Maryland freshman Diamond Stone, 2016 Michigan commit Tyus Battle and uncommitted 2016 star Malik Monk all withdrew from consideration for the National Team, citing family and health reasons, sources confirmed to SNY.tv.

According to InsideSportsMD, Stone is already on the Maryland campus.

“[USA basketball] is good for his development … He gets to play against top competition; it seasons him [but] I don’t think anything will make Diamond nervous,” Maryland head coach Mark Turgeon said at an athletic department tour stop in Baltimore last week. “Personally, I’d rather have him around. I’d rather have him in the weight room with Kyle and lifting with the guys and practicing with me, but you can’t get hold kids back. If that’s the best thing for him, then that’s what they should be doing.”

Articles, Louisville

VJ KingV.J. King, a 6-foot-7 2016 small forward from Paul VI (Va.), is headed to Louisville.

Ranked No. 25 by ESPN.com and No. 16 by 247Sports.com, King chose the Cardinals over Kentucky and UConn on Friday. He is Louisville’s first 2016 pledge.

“I think probably the main reason I picked that school was the conference,” King told Scout.com. “I’ve always wanted to play in the ACC, the top conference in the country. Plus with the roster they have, I fit right into that system. They have a bunch of bigs and guards and not really that scoring factor and I can fit that.”

King, who is averaging 14.2 points and 5.5 rebounds a game for Team Takeover on the Nike EYBL circuit, took an official visit to Louisville May 15-17 and then visited UConn May 29-31. He never visited Kentucky officially.

Articles

medium_Daquan_MarquetteBefore Thursday, there were three days that stood out as especially memorable in the life of Jim Engles.

“No. 1, getting married to my wife, No. 2 and 3 were having my two daughters,” the NJIT men’s basketball coach said by phone on Friday morning.

And now there’s a Day No. 4.

“Getting into a conference,” Engles said ahead of a press conference announcing that NJIT would become the eighth member of the Atlantic Sun Conference beginning in 2015-16.

The Highlanders, who last year caused a stir by knocking off then-No. 17 Michigan at Michigan and reaching the CIT semifinals , were previously independent and not affiliated with any conference. NJIT was the last remaining independent team in Division I basketball.

Articles

10436645Penn State announced that sophomore guard Geno Thorpe will transfer and will have two years to play after sitting out the 2015-16 season.

“We thank Geno for his two years at Penn State and wish him well,” head coach Pat Chambers said.

A 6-foot-3 native of Pittsburgh, Thorpe saw action in 66 games during his two seasons with Penn State, averaging 6.0 points and 2.1 rebounds.

Thorpe initially chose Penn State over Wisconsin, Pittsburgh, Seton Hall, Rutgers, St. Joe’s and Kansas State in 2011.

Articles, Recruiting

142879825321Canadian point guard Jamal Murray may visit Michigan and several other schools following trips to Kentucky and Oregon, according to comments from ESPN’s Paul Biancardi.

“He visited Kentucky, he just visited Oregon, he’s thinking about visiting Michigan and a couple of others. Will he do that? He’s not sure,” Biancardi told KentuckySportsRadio.com. “Right now, it’s a two-and-a-half horse race, Michigan being the half. If they get the visit, you have to consider them a full-fledged threat. Handicapping it, how do you not pick Kentucky out of those three right now? But John Beilein has had a lot of success and Dana Altman’s doing a lot of great things up at Oregon, and they’ve got a Canadian up there already in Dylan Brooks.”

Those comments are consistent with what Roger Murray, the player’s father, recently told SNY.tv about his visit plans.

“We’re taking a couple visits, I’m not sure the date yet or exactly how we’re going to do it but we’ll be taking some visits for sure,” Roger said before the Kentucky and Oregon visits.

Following the Oregon visit, Jamal Tweeted that he had taken two of his five official visits.

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