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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 / December 4.
  • NEW YORKKerwin Okoro, one of the top rising seniors in New York City, says he’s focusing on three schools, including two in the Big East.

    “Right now I have offers from Seton Hall, Iowa State and Pittsburgh,” Okoro said Sunday after scoring 11 points to help the Sean Bell All-Stars beat Real Scout, 71-60, in the iS8/Nike Spring Classic. “Those three are the main ones.”

    The 6-foot-5, 210-pound wing out of St. Raymond’s in The Bronx has visited two of the three.

    “I’ve visited Seton Hall and I visited Iowa State during the school season,” he said. “I might visit Pitt soon but I don’t know when that’s gonna go down.”

    Kyle Anderson, the No. 1 point guard in the Class of 2012, will visit UCLA unofficially with his mother on Monday, his father said.

    “Just that afternoon into the evening,” Kyle Sr. said by text.

    Kyle Sr. said his son would also visit Florida “eventually.”

    “The last time he and I spoke, the favorites were Seton Hall, UCLA, St. John’s, Georgetown and Florida,” Kyle Sr. said. “There are some point guards that are transferring and in limbo so that could have some bearing on his list.”

    Dermon Player says Lamont “Momo” Jones is unlikely to land at St. John’s due to the NCAA rule which would prevent him from enrolling at the school because his former high school coach Moe Hicks is on staff.

    “Everybody thought he was going to St. John’s but now he’s not,” Player, the former Seton Hall and St. John’s assistant who is advising Jones on his transfer from Arizona, told SNY.tv exclusively Tuesday.

    The only way for Jones to land at St. John’s would be if he spent the upcoming season at a junior college and then enrolled at St. John’s in 2012, but Player said Jones was unlikely to do that because he would have to pay his own way.

    “If he really wanted to go to St. John’s, that’s the only way he could go,” Player said of the JUCO option. “And I’m not a betting man but if I was I don’t think a kid would do that.”

    By ALAN AVITAL

    NEW YORK — Drexel recruit Damion Lee entered Sunday’s championship game of the iS8/Nike Spring Classic brimming with self confidence. He was playing alongside some of the nation’s top high school players and showing that he belonged.

    “This was my first time playing at iS8,” said Lee, 6-foot-3 shooting guard out of Owings Mill, Md., who attends St. Thomas More (Conn.). “And I really loved it. Hopefully, based on my performance here, I have a new fan base.”

    Lee, who committed to the Philadelphia-based school just last month, scored 14 of his game-high 21 points in the second half to lead the Sean Bell All-Stars to a 71-60 victory over Real Scout in front of a raucous crowd.

    By ALAN AVITAL

    NEW YORK — Cheers and jeers reverberated throughout the iS8 gymnasium Sunday afternoon, but in the midst of all the hoopla during the finals of the iS8/Nike Spring Classic, some Sean Bell fans were clearly yelling, “Get The Shooter.”

    That reference clearly put Harvard recruit Max Hooper square in the spotlight.

    Hooper, a 6-foot-7 shooting guard from San Jose, Calif., via Brewster (N.H.) Academy, clearly knew his experience playing at iS8 would be beneficial as he ventures onto Cambridge this fall.

    “I can’t say enough of how great the experience was to play at iS8,” said Hooper, who is doing his postgraduate work at Brewster after transferring from Mater Dei High School in California. “Being able to compete with some of the high Division 1 prospects was great. It’s the highest level possible.”

    ***UPDATE: Player says Jones to St. John’s unlikely***

    Arizona transfer Lamont “Momo” Jones cannot enroll at St. John’s this year because Moe Hicks is on staff, according to an NCAA rule implemented in 2010.

    Here is the exact wording of NCAA Bylaw 11.4.2:

    “In men’s basketball, during a two-year period before a prospective student-athlete’s anticipated enrollment and a two-year period after the prospective student-athlete’s actual enrollment, an institution shall not employ (or enter into a contract for future employment with) an individual associated with the prospective student-athlete in any athletics department noncoaching staff position.”

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