With West Virginia’s win over Portland Sunday night in the final of the 76 Classic in Anaheim, Calif., the Big East has now captured four holiday tournament championships.
 
Unbeaten Syracuse (6-0) beat defending NCAA champ North Carolina last week to win the Coaches vs. Cancer event at Madison Square Garden.
No. 4 Villanova (6-0) — the Big [...]

GREENBURGH, N.Y. — Knicks coach Mike D’Antoni insists he won’t feel any twinge of emotion when he faces Steve Nash and the Phoenix Suns on Tuesday night at Madison Square Garden.
 
“No, I think I’m over that. I think I’ve got enough emotions going on right now with my team so I can’t worry about getting [...]

Doron Lamb is still mulling his college decision while trying to plan a visit to Arizona.
The 6-foot-4 Lamb out of Oak Hill (Va.) Academy has visited UConn, Kansas, Kentucky and Oklahoma. He is the No. 3 shooting guard in the Class of 2010.
“He likes the ones he visited,” his father, Calvin Lamb, said Monday morning. [...]

West Virginia established itself as a serious national contender  Sunday night by winning the 76 Classic in Anaheim with an 84-66 win over Portland in the final.
The Big East has now accounted for three major holiday tournament championships.
Unbeaten Syracuse (6-0) beat defending NCAA champ North Carolina last week to win the Coaches vs. Cancer event at [...]

NEW YORK — J.J. Redick is aware of the widespread perceptions of white basketball players.
They are generally described as slower, less athletic and less “talented” than their African-American counterparts.
“I don’t buy into all that,” he said after scoring 7 points in the Magic’s 114-102 victory Sunday over the Knicks at MSG. “There’s perceptions, obviously, if you’re a [...]

NEW YORK — Knicks coach Mike D’Antoni says Lawrence Frank was “doomed from the start” because of the Nets’ multitude of injuries.
“Lawrence was kind of doomed from the start in the sense of everyone got hurt,” D’Antoni said before the Knicks played Orlando Sunday night at MSG. “Thats a tough part of the business.”
The Nets fired [...]

NEW YORK — Coming off Friday’s 68-59 loss to Duke, the good news for No. 13 UConn is that Ater Majok will debut in three weeks.
The 6-foot-11, 233-pound freshman forward becomes eligible to play Dec. 20 against Central Florida. A native of the Sudan who served time in a detention camp in Egypt before living in [...]

NEW YORK — Jon Scheyer hears his Duke team getting criticized for its lack of athleticism and believes it may be because three of its five starters are white.
“That definitely could be,” Scheyer said after pumping in 19 points, 5 assists and 5 rebounds to lead No. 7 Duke to a 68-59 victory over [...]

A day before Rutgers earned a big 83-75 win over UMass in the semifinals of the Legends Classic, the Scarlet Knights got a big commitment.
 Gilvydas Biruta, a 6-foot-8, 240-pound senior forward from Lithuania now playing for Dan Hurley at St. Benedict’s Prep, verbally committed to Rutgers Thursday.
Biruta chose Rutgers over Maryland, Davidson, Harvard and Penn. Arizona and [...]

One Jersey coaching legend is helping out another.
Bill Parcells has donated $100,000 to St. Anthony High School in Jersey City, home of legendary high school hoops coach Bob Hurley.
“Coach Bill Parcells is a New Jersey native and has many years’ experience with inner-city kids,” read a statement released by Parcells. “He said “I get it. [...]