“It is a great experience playing over here, in a different country and being a professional basketball player,” said Mitchell, according to ScarletKnights.com. “Coach Rice prepared me for this, and although I couldn’t see it while I was there, I am grateful for everything he did for me last season. I wish I could have learned more from him.”

“In one season, Jonathan Mitchell’s mental and physical toughness developed incredibly,” said head coach Mike Rice. “J-Mitch learned he was too perimeter-oriented during his junior season, and he worked at not being a one-dimensional player. Not only was he more versatile for us last year, but he was a leader on this team and I think that will help him succeed on the next level.” 

Mitchell was officially announced as the newest member of Tarragona Basquet 2017 on Aug. 15. The team plays in the Gold division of the Spanish Basketball League.

Mitchell is averaging 17 points and eight rebounds to lead CB Tarragona. The Mount Vernon, N.Y. native has shot over 48 percent from the field, including 8-of-13 from behind the arc. A Second Team All-MET selection last season for the Scarlet Knights, Mitchell averages nearly 30 minutes per game and pushed his team to an 80-76 victory over Palencia Baloncesto Friday.

While at Rutgers, Mitchell averaged 13.1 points and 5.8 rebounds for the Scarlet Knights. The forward was among the 2010-11 Big East leaders in scoring, free throw percentage and three point field goal percentage. Mitchell averaged 15.3 points-per-game in conference contests and provided college basketball the most dramatic finish of the regular season with his game-winning four-point play versus No. 9 Villanova.

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Kobe

According to reports, Bryant has agreed to play the first 10 games — or 40 days — of the Italian league season with Virtus Bologna. The Associated Press reports the deal is worth $3 million. He can return to the NBA as soon as the lockout ends.

“We have reached an economic deal,” Virtus president Claudio Sabatini told a Rome radio station, according to The AP. “There’s still some things to arrange but at this point I’m very optimistic. I would say it’s 95 percent done.”

The AP said Bryant is expected to get a work visa and return to Italy next week.

“Kobe should be in Bologna by Wednesday or Thursday with his visa in hand for medical visits and then we can deposit the contract with the league,” Sabatini said. “I want to make clear that right now there are still no signatures. We’ve got to write the contract, which will then be read over and over again.”

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DeAndre Daniels

“DeAndre did go to Kentucky and was there for the Indiana-Kentucky basketball game,” Trigonis said. “The kid went to Kentucky alone this weekend. From what he told me today [Sunday], he had a nice visit.”

Trigonis said Laron Daniels, DeAndre’s father, did not attend the visit and an Internet quote attributed to Laron (and briefly used on this site) was inaccurate.

Trigonis said he believes two or three schools lead for the 6-foot-9, 197-pound Daniels, who transferred from Woodland Hills (Calif) Taft to IMG Academies before this season.

“The teams that have the best chance of getting him right now are Kansas, Texas and maybe Kentucky,” Trigonis said. “Those three schools are probably the leaders in my mind.”

Daniels recently took officials to Kansas and Oregon and had previously taken unofficials to UCLA and Florida.

Trigonis said Daniels was also planning an upcoming visit to Texas, perhaps within the next week.

“He’s going to visit Texas I would say within the next seven to 10 days,” Trigonis said. “He may have one more visit [after that].”

Trigonis said Daniels planned to enroll in college in January but would not suit up until the fall.

“He’s not going to play this year,” he said. “He’s going somewhere with the purpose of sitting out the second semester, working out with the team and getting adjusted academically,” he said. “He’ll be a freshman in the fall of 2011.”

We hope to have more on this story in the coming days.

MEMPHIS’ GARCIA GOING PRO; PASTNER SHUFFLES ROSTER

Memphis junior Angel Garcia plans to sign a professional contract to play in Spain at the conclusion of this semester and begins play overseas immediately, head coach Josh Pastner announced Sunday evening. Before he leaves, the 6-foot-11 forward will finish his 2010 fall semester final exams.

“This is and was a very difficult decision for me,” said Garcia. “Memphis has been my home the past three years, and I love the city, my teammates and coaches. However, I received an opportunity that can help my family financially, and it was an offer I couldn’t refuse.

“I love all the Tiger fans and appreciate all their support during my time here, and hope they continue to support me in my pro career. I bleed blue, and I will always follow the Tigers.”

Garcia played in all eight games this season and averaged 6.1 points and 3.0 rebounds. He was shooting 35.1 percent from the field, 31.3 percent from the three-point arc and 85.7 percent from the free throw line.

“Angel is a sweetheart of a person and a terrific basketball player,” said Pastner. “We fully support Angel in his decision to play professional basketball in Spain, and will continue to follow his career.

“Angel is a true gentleman, and he will always be a Tiger. We wish him all the best and happiness as he pursues his basketball career at the professional level.”

The Toa Baja, Puerto Rico, native sat out his first season in 2008-09 at Memphis as a result of NCAA Clearinghouse issues. Entering his sophomore campaign in 2009-10, the coaching staff was counting on Garcia to play a huge role for the Tigers, but suffered a right ACL injury in preseason individual workouts in early September of 2009. After an accelerated rehab, Garcia returned to the court in early February of 2010 and played in 12 games. He averaged 6.8 points and 1.2 rebounds, while shooting 52.6 percent from the floor, 41.4 percent from the three-point arc and 75 percent from the free throw line.

With Wesley Witherspoon’s surgery and Garcia’s decision to play pro, Pastner decided Sunday evening to take the redshirt off freshman Hippolyte Tsafack.  The 6-foot-8 forward played in the Tigers’ two exhibitions, but had not seen action in the regular season.

“Hipp will be dressed and ready to play Thursday versus Austin Peay, and he’s excited about the opportunity,” said Pastner. “When we made the decision to redshirt Hipp, it was mainly because of a numbers game and not finding enough minutes for him. At that time, I didn’t want him to waste a year with very limited playing time. However, as in most seasons with many teams, plans change, and that’s what happened with us.

“Hipp has continued to work hard in practice, and before home games, he’s usually the first one on the court at the arena working on his game. It may take him a couple of games to get back in the flow of things, but we’re looking for him to give us some help on the frontline.”

Tsafack played in both of the Tigers’ exhibition contests this season. Against LeMoyne-Owen, he came off the bench and played 11 minutes, scoring two points and pulling down five boards against the Magicians. In the second exhibition versus Christian Brothers, the Yaounde, Cameroon, native played eight minutes and had three points and two rebounds.

HURLEYS LAND 2012 BIG MAN

Mike Aaman, a 6-foot-8, 210-pound junior forward from Raritan (NJ) High, verbally committed to Wagner and head coach Dan Hurley Sunday night.

“The coaching staff. You won’t find much better between the Hurleys and they know people,” said Aaman, who averaged 12 points and 12 rebounds last season. “They’re going to extend my game the most and get me to the next level. I’m not saying the NBA, but maybe Europe. I feel no one else can do that besides them.”

He’s averaging 26.5 points and more than 18 boards in four scrimmages this preseason.

“Right now I’m playing really well,” said Aaman, who also considered St. Francis (Pa.) and New Hampshire.

Aaman can sign a Letter of Intent in November.

FREE THROWS

Dajuan Willams, a 6-8 wing forward from Hill College in Texas who’s originally from N.J., will visit Iona unofficially Dec. 22.

Photo courtesy IMG)

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NEW YORK (AP)

Allen Iverson? He’s headed for Turkey.

“My whole thing was being wanted, being accepted by a ballclub. That was the most important thing,” the former NBA MVP said Friday, after signing a $4 million, two-year contract with Turkish club Besiktas during a news conference at the upscale St. Regis Hotel in Manhattan.

“I had a great time playing in the NBA. Who knows if I ever will again?” Iverson said. “But I wanted to show everybody I can play at a high level, not just the NBA.”

The 11-time All-Star waited all offseason for an NBA team to come calling, though none ever did. So while the Miami Heat stocked up with star power, and the Knicks added some front-line muscle, Iverson told his manager, Gary Moore, to begin looking at other leagues.

He ultimately decided the Istanbul-based club was the best fit.

“I feel like it’s a fresh start for me, and I just thank all these guys for giving me the opportunity,” Iverson said, “a chance to get back on track with my basketball career.”

Iverson is 17th on the NBA’s career scoring list with 24,368 points, winning the MVP in 2001 when he led the Sixers to the finals. He spent 10 seasons in Philadelphia before bouncing through Denver and Detroit, ending up in Memphis last season.

He only played three games before returning for a second stint with the Sixers, where he averaged 13.9 points in 25 games. He took a leave of absence toward the end of the season to deal with some family matters, which he said Thursday have been resolved.

“If those situations weren’t better at this point in time, there’s no way I would have made this decision,” he said. “It was hard the last couple years to concentrate on basketball.”

Iverson mostly blamed himself that no NBA teams were willing to give him a shot.

One of the most instinctive scoring guards in league history, Iverson’s prolific talent was offset by numerous run-ins with coaches and team officials, including his infamous “We’re talking about practice” diatribe directed toward former Sixers coach Larry Brown. He’s also had several legal problems that landed him on probation.

“A lot of not being on an NBA roster is my fault,” Iverson said. “I made a lot of mistakes in my life that I’m not proud of, but I have to move on.”

Wearing a black New York Yankees cap and decked out in diamonds Thursday, Iverson almost seemed to be forcing a smile as he held up a Besiktas jersey along with team owner Yildirim Demiroren and executive board member Seref Yalcin. Dozens of members of the Turkish media took photographs while Turkish music pounded inside the small hotel ballroom.

Just about the only thing familiar was the No. 3 on the jersey.

Iverson will begin play with his new team the week of Nov. 8, in a home arena that seats about 4,500 fans for a club that hasn’t won the Turkish league since 1975.

The only other American on the roster is Mire Chatman, who played in college for Texas Pan-American, though Australian center A.J. Ogilvy recently finished his career at Vanderbilt. The rest of the team is made up of players from Turkey, Russia and other Eastern European nations.

“As far as I know, Allen is the first and greatest player to have a career in the NBA and come to Europe to play in Turkey,” Demiroren said through a translator. “I hope this contract will be wonderful for both sides.”

At least as long as it lasts.

Iverson said he still believes he can play in the NBA and hopes his performance in Europe will entice a franchise — any franchise — to give him another chance next season.

He also said he’d be lying if he thought 10 years ago that he’d ever be playing in Turkey.

“The NBA has been great for me, I made a ton of money, I can take care of my family for the rest of my life and the rest of their life. The NBA has been great,” he said. “I don’t even know what my role is going to be, and that’s the part that’s exciting as much as anything, having the chance to go in with a bunch of guys and help out and win some basketball games.”

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]]> http://www.zagsblog.com/2010/10/30/iverson-my-whole-thing-was-being-wanted/feed/ 0 http://www.zagsblog.com/2010/07/30/greedy-headed-to-greece/ http://www.zagsblog.com/2010/07/30/greedy-headed-to-greece/#comments Fri, 30 Jul 2010 14:42:06 +0000 Adam Zagoria http://www.zagsblog.com/?p=37518 Greedy Peterson is headed to Greece.

The 6-foot-6, 235-pound Brooklyn native and former Providence forward has inked a one-year, six-figure deal to play for the Rhodes Club of the Greek League.

Gerard Jones, Peterson’s advisor and the older brother of West Virginia sophomore forward Kevin Jones, said Peterson planned to return to the U.S. in 2011 with hopes of entering the NBA Draft.

“My game is multifaceted — scoring, rebounding and defending – whatever I am called on to do for my team,” Peterson, 21, said in a statement. “I welcome the challenge the international league brings and The Rhodes Club will see a player focused, determined and ready to step in and contribute right away. I would like to extend my heartfelt thanks to my family and  advisors for their support.”

Peterson leaves for Greece Aug. 23. He also had interest from clubs in Israel, Italy, Spain and Turkey, Jones said.

Peterson averaged 19.6 points and 10.2 rebounds a game last season as a sophomore.

Providence, which lost its final 11 games of the season, announced May 18 that he had been dismissed from the team.

Peterson said he planned to leave the program anyway in order to play professionally and take care of his family, including his mother, grandmother and siblings.

“Basically I had family problems financially and I’m trying to help them out,” Peterson said last month.

When Brandon Jennings played professionally in Italy two seasons ago, his mother and younger brother went with him. He was then chosen No. 10 in the 2009 NBA Draft and had a stellar rookie season.

As for how he might perform, one Big East assistant coach said Peterson was a tremendous athlete who needed to mature emotionally and get his body in better shape.

“He’ll score the ball,” the coach said. “He’s a freak athletically. He’s a human highlight film. He was arguably the most powerful athlete in the country last year, with some of his dunks.

“I think he would have to change his maturity and discipline and get some consistency to his game.”

(Photo courtesy Providence Athletics)

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Amar’e Stoudemire

But he is enjoying an overseas adventure just the same.

The new Knicks forward, who signed a five-year, $100 million deal with New York but was kept out of the World Championships because of insurance concerns, is currently visiting Israel after coming to believe that his mother has Jewish roots.

“I know there are some reports that he is Jewish, but he is not,” Happy Walters, Stoudemire’s agent, told TMZ.com.  “He thinks there may be some Jewish blood on his mother’s side and he is researching it.”

Still, Stoudemire says he’s learning Hebrew on the trip.

“Jerusalem is a beautiful city, I’m at a cafe eating a late lunch,” Stoudemire wrote on his Twitter feed. “I’m learning Hebrew by the min. Keep up !! Shalom.”

Stoudemire also Tweeted before he left Tuesday: “On the flight to Israel. This is going to be a great trip. The holy land. Learn about it. This ze ha’halom sheli. Shalom.”

The Hebrew translation means, “This is my dream.”

Numerous American players have competed in Israel, including 6-11 high school star Jeremy Tyler, who signed with Maccabi Haifa but left before the season ended.

Tyler just signed with the Tokyo Apache of Japan’s professional basketball league.

The team announced the signing Thursday on its official website. The 19-year-old Tyler will play for former NBA and Fordham coach Bob Hill, who was hired by the team last month.

“We are extremely excited for Jeremy to join our team in Tokyo,” the team said in a statement. “His athleticism and size will be a major presence in our frontcourt this season.”

Tyler, who attended San Diego High School before leaving after his junior year, signed a one-year, $140,000 contract with Maccabi Haifa in August 2009. He was the first American-born player to leave high school early to play professionally overseas.

Some had seen Tyler as a potential No. 1 overall pick when he’s eligible for the NBA draft in 2011, but those projections have softened.

He left Haifa two months before the end of the season for personal reasons. In the 10 games Tyler played for Haifa, Tyler averaged only 2.1 points and 1.9 rebounds in 7.6 minutes.

(The AP contributed)

(Photos courtesy USA Basketball / NY Times)

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“He’s actually got offers from France, Turkey and Spain,” said Gerard Jones, the brother of West Virginia standout Kevin Jones and an advisor to Peterson.

He also has interest from clubs in Israel and Germany.

Jones said Peterson, 21, wants to make a decision “by the middle of July” before leaving for overseas in August.

Read the full story at SNY.

(Photo courtesy Providence Athletics)

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“That’s not true,” Efrem Knight, Brandon’s father, said Thursday morning by phone. “All that is is people trying to mess up Kentucky’s recruiting.”

The bogus story quoted Knight saying he would spend next season in Italy, following in Brandon Jennings’s footsteps, instead of going to Kentucky. Jennings skipped college at Arizona and played a year of pro ball in Italy before getting drafted by the Milwaukee Bucks, whom he helped lead into a Game 7 against the Atlanta Hawks in the first round of the NBA playoffs.

Unlike Jennings, Knight has no grade issues and carries a 4.3 GPA. Knight, a senior at Fort Lauderdale (Fla.) Pine Crest, is the two-time Gatorade National Player of the Year and No. 1 player in the Class of 2010, according to Rivals.

Told of the bogus report, Efrem Knight said, “It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see through that. I assure you, he’s not going to Europe.”

The 6-3 Knight did not sign a binding National Letter of Intent with Kentucky, but signed scholarship papers instead. He is therefore not bound to the school.

Knight will join Queens guard Doron Lamb, Florida wing Stacey Poole and Turkish forward Enes Kanter in John Calipari’s 2010 recruiting haul.

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Brandon Knight of Fort Lauderdale (Fla.) Pine Crest on Wednesday told the Orlando Sentinel he plans to announce “sometime soon.”

The 6-foot-4 Knight lists Florida, Kentucky, Kansas, UConn, and Miami as his final five.

“I’m pretty ready. I want to make sure I make the right decision,” Knight told the Sentinel after scoring 25 points in a 77-63 victory over Williston in a Florida Class 3A semifinal.

His father, Efrem Knight, recently told me there was no leader among the schools.

“Nobody’s leading. Brandon can flourish at any one of the schools that he’s going to,” Efrem Knight said by phone. “It still where it’s been. He’s considering all the same schools.”

Knight is part of a group of elite senior guards who has yet to  announce a school.

Fellow McDonald’s All-Americans Cory Joseph, Josh Selby and Doron Lamb remain uncommitted.

“I’ve never seen anything like this,” one Division 1 assistant coach said. “It’s just odd because all these guys are point guards.”

The coach said he believed Knight’s delay in announcing was holding up the other guards, who are waiting to see what he does.

“My thing is this, if you want to go to Kentucky then say you’re going there,” the coach said. “[Kentucky coach John] Calipari really wants Brandon Knight and I think Coach Cal is holding everyone up.”

Kentucky will lose John Wall to the NBA Draft and could lose fellow freshman Eric Bledsoe as well, meaning he would need at least one elite guard to  come in. Calipari recently went to scout Joseph at Henderson (Nev.) Findlay Prep, but Joseph’s top five schools remain UConn, Villanova, Texas, UNLV and Minnesota.

Lamb is considering UConn, Kansas, Kentucky, Arizona and West Virginia.

Selby lists Kansas, Kentucky, Arizona and UConn.

Knight, Joseph and Lamb have all taken their five official visits, but none has committed.

“Everyone’s looking at what [Calipari] does,” the coach said.

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The cover read, “Final 4 – Jennings, Holiday, Evans & Stephenson. Who’s the best guard in the country?”

Three years later, three of those four guys are in the NBA and the fourth, Stephenson, likely soon will be.

Before Jennings torched the Knicks for 22 points and 8 assists in a 114-107  Bucks’ victory at Madison Square Garden, he spoke about the NBA prospects of Stephenson, a freshman at Cincinnati, and Kentucky frosh John Wall.

“I haven’t heard much about [Stephenson] so in that case probably when you don’t hear a lot about somebody, they probably need to stay another year or so,” Jennings said.

The 6-5 Stephenson was the Big East Preseason Rookie of the Year and is the favorite to win that same postseason award. He has been steady, but not spectacular, averaging 12 points and 5.1 rebounds per game.

“He’s had a good year,” Bearcats coach Mick Cronin said recently. “I think for a freshman he’s had a great year. You can’t compare people to John Wall or Michael Beasley but Lance has had a very good year. I’d probably say if the voting were taken right now he’d probably be Freshman of the Year in the Big East. You can’t live up to ridiculous expectations that other people set forth for you.”

“He’s always been stronger than other kids and he always had that NBA body,” Jennings said. “Colleges are different. But when you get to the league it’s more open and you’re able to really showcase your skills.”

Jennings should know. After not getting a qualifying SAT score to attend Arizona, he spent last season in Italy, where the playing time was sparse and the lessons were hard. Now he and Evans are Rookie of the Year candidates.

Jennings is averaging 17.2 points, 6.2 assists and 3.6 rebounds, while out in Sacramento, Evans is averaging 20.7 points, 5 assists and 4.7 rebounds.

Jennings, like virtually everyone else, says Wall will be the No. 1 pick.

“I think the kid John Wall for sure is going to be the No. 1 pick…Now you just gotta wait and see how good they’re really gonna be on the next level because on the next level everybody can do what you can do.

“In college everybody can’t do what John Wall can do.”

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