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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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Tuesday / November 5.
  • Jeff Calhoun believes his father, Jim, will be on the sidelines at UConn next season.

    “I don’t see him not coming back,” Jeff told SNY.tv by phone Tuesday.

    “Nothing’s changed. He’s as hungry as he always has been. He seems very energized with the new president. I know he’s very happy with her so I continue to say I don’t see him not coming back.”

    Still, Jeff said his father hasn’t yet had a long vacation to process his future plans.

    Jordan Adams is headed to UCLA.

    As first reported by Alex Kline of TheRecruitScoop.com, Adams chose the Bruins over Memphis, Georgia and Miami.

    “I committed there because of their history, tradition and alumni,” he told Kline. “It’s a great school with great coaches and players that always play hard. The campus was lovely and I just feel like my future will be the best there.”

    The 6-foot-6 Adams out of Oak Hill Academy is the No. 18 small forward in the Class of 2012, per Rivals.

    EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. Dwight Hardy and Ben Hansbrough competed for Big East Player of the Year honors last season.

    Yet on Monday they were teammates at a Nets workout.

    “We had the opportunity to be on the same team today and it was kind of fun because we’re the only two guys from the Big East here,” said Hardy, a 6-foot-2 guard from St. John’s who lost the player of the year award to Notre Dame’s Hansbrough. “We kind of used that to our advantage. We played in the best conference in America.”

    EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — As a young boy, Mustapha Farrakhan would sometimes watch his charismatic and controversial grandfather captivate thousands of members of the Nation of Islam during speeches.

    “But when you’re little, you know, sometimes you would fall asleep and stuff,” Mustapha, a 6-foot-3 guard out of the University of Virginia, recalled Monday after working out for the Nets.

    Louis Farrakhan, the longtime leader of the Nation of Islam and Mustapha’s grandfather, has been linked to the assassination of Malcolm X and to numerous antisemitic comments, yet his grandson wants to emphasize the older man’s positive values.

    “At the later stages of my life I’ve been able to listen to him and pick up things,” said Mustapha, who graduated from Virginia with a degree in sociology. “Just treat other people how you want to be treated. You know, freedom, justice and equality, just for everybody. It doesn’t matter what race, or whatever class or wherever you’re from. You just treat people the right way, so that’s how I life my life and that’s my motto.”

    EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J.Jeremy Hazell admits it’s still hard to go home.

    “It’s a little scary going back but that’s where I’m from so I just can’t not go back,” he said last week after a workout with the Nets. “My mom’s there. I got a lot of family, so I try to stay away from it but when I gotta see my moms, I gotta go back to the same place.”

    Hazell’s memories of the Carver Houses on E. 104th St. in Harlem include a potentially fatal event from which he was lucky to escape.

    EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — If anyone can speak to the future of the Rutgers basketball program, it is Jonathan Mitchell, a member of the program’s recent past.

    “Oh yeah, I’ve been playing with those guys every night the past week and a half,” J-Mitch said last week after his Nets’ workout.

    The 6-foot-7 Mitchell said he’s especially impressed with one incoming member of Mike Rice’s vaunted recruiting class.

    “I like Jerome Seagears a lot,” Mitchell said. “He’s going to be the new leader of that team, in my eyes, because he’s very vocal, he’s a floor general, directing traffic and he’s got a little moxie to him.”

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