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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.
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Wichita State

By AMAN KIDWAI

Despite losing the top three scorers from 2016’s NCAA Tournament at-large qualifier, this year’s Wichita State Shockers have developed into a formidable squad.

They’re ranked No. 21 in the AP Poll, No. 22 in the Coaches’ Poll, 10th in the KenPom efficiency rankings, and now have a 30-4 record after defeating Illinois State in the Missouri Valley Conference Tournament championship game, 71-51.

It has been a down year for the MVC, with Illinois State being the only solidly top-100 team. The Redbirds and Shockers went a combined 36-0 against the rest of the conference and both won their home regular season meeting against each other.

Iona

Iona is headed back to the MAAC championship game — and they won’t have to face Monmouth for the league’s automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.

No. 3 Iona will face No. 4 Siena in Monday night’s championship game (9 p.m., ESPN 2) after the two teams took out the top two seeds in the semifinals on Sunday.

Iona downed No. 2 Saint Peter’s, 73-65, after Siena stunned top-seeded Monmouth, 89-85, in the first semifinal at the Times Union Center in Albany, N.Y.

Coach Tim Cluess and the Gaels will play in their fifth straight MAAC championship game and sixth in the last seven years. They won the tournament in 2013 and ’16, beating Monmouth last year.

Tennis

NEW YORK — When Roger Federer first began winning Grand Slam titles and establishing his dominance over the tennis world in the early 2000s, Andy Roddick and Lleyton Hewitt were among his chief rivals.

Now both men are retired and awed by Federer’s longevity at the top of the game.

“I think Lleyton and I are the last people who should be surprised by anything Roger does on a tennis court,” the newly-minted Hall of Famer Roddick told me during a press conference Sunday to introduce the The 10th Anniversary of the BNP Paribas Showdown on Monday at Madison Square Garden.

“But I’m still just sitting back in awe. If you tell me that at his age he goes off of surgery and hasn’t played in six months and goes and just wins a Grand Slam where he’s beating great players in five sets, it’s just amazing. A lot of words have been said about how great it is and I don’t know that they’re enough.”

Georgia Tech, N.C. State, North Carolina

North Carolina junior wing Justin Jackson, the best player on the ACC’s best regular-season team, was named the ACC Player of the Year on Sunday.

Jackson, a junior from Tomball, Texas, was the choice of 24 members of the voting panel (15 head coaches, selected media) that cast ballots for this year’s postseason honors. Wake Forest’s John Collins placed second with 15 votes.

“It’s an honor and a blessing by my God,” said Jackson. “My teammates are a huge part of this award and I can’t thank my coaches and them enough.

“Justin has been really good from day one,” UNC coach Roy Williams said. “To have the kind of success shooting the ball and making big plays in key situations like he did against Duke is a credit to him and the amount of work he put in to improve his game. We went through a very difficult ACC schedule and Justin gave our players a lot of confidence knowing that he would consistently be putting up 18-20 points, about five rebounds and some key assists each game. He listened to our coaching staff last spring about how to improve as a player and was determined to get better and stronger, which through his hard work and sweat, he is now reaping the benefits.

Breaking News, Missouri

By: MIKE McCURRY

Add Missouri to the list of programs that will be searching for a new head coach this offseason.

Kim Anderson was officially let go by the SEC institution on Sunday. Anderson was 26-67 in his three seasons at the helm, including a 7-23 record this year.

“This decision has been very difficult for me personally because of the tremendous respect I have for Kim,” Missouri Athletic Director Jim Sterk said in a statement. “I know how hard he and his staff have worked to turn the program around over the last three years, however, the lack of on-court success has resulted in a significant drop in interest surrounding our program, and we could not afford for that to continue another year.”

When Frank Haith left for Tulsa back in April 2014, Missouri went the unconventional route in hiring a successor in Anderson, who at the time was a Division 2 head coach at Central Missouri.

Baylor, Kansas, West Virginia

For the first time in Big 12 history, three schools have captured all of the major men’s basketball postseason awards. Frank Mason III (Player of the Year), Bill Self (Coach) and Josh Jackson (Freshman) of Kansas have been recognized, with West Virginia’s Jevon Carter (Defensive Player) and Tarik Phillip (Sixth Man) also earning honors. Manu Lecomte of Baylor is the Big 12 Newcomer of the Year.

Mason, a leading candidate for national player of the year who is averaging 20.5 points, is the first Kansas player to lead the Big 12 in scoring since 2004-05. He was also first in the conference in 3-point field goal percentage (.493) while ranking fourth in assists (5.1 apg).

Jackson is the top-scoring freshman in the Big 12 with 16.4 points per game. Along with Mason, he is a candidate for both the Naismith and Wooden Awards after earning a combined nine weekly league awards (two player, seven newcomer) during the 2016-17 campaign.

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