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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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Sunday / October 6.
  • No team in the history of the Big East has gone unbeaten during the regular season, but No. 1 Syracuse (20-0) could be the first.

    At least Dickie V thinks so.

    “No one is going to beat Syracuse in the regular season,” Vitale, a New Jersey native, said Monday during the first half of the Kansas-Baylor basketball game, which followed the Syracuse-Pitt game on ESPN.

    Syracuse visits Notre Dame Saturday but its biggest tests figure to be a pair of games with UConn Feb. 11 and 25.

    Still, the way the Orange are playing anything seems possible.

    I went out to St. Benedict’s Prep in Newark tonight for a video project SNY.tv will be rolling out in the coming weeks on junior point guard Tyler Ennis and I’ll say this.

    Any media outlet that doesn’t have the Gray Bees ranked in the Top 10 nationally needs to really take a hard look at their rankings.

    Under first-year coach Mark Taylor, the “Killer Bees” are averaging 82.3 points per game and are now ranked No. 8 in the latest USA Today Super 25 Poll.

    This team features at least five legit Division 1 players and improved to 17-1 after Thursday’s 89-67 dismissal of NIA Prep in which Ennis had 23 points and 8 assists, freshman guard Isaiah Briscoe added 20 and 6 and senior Kamall Richards tallied 21 and 11 boards.

    St. Ben’s lone loss was to unbeaten St. Anthony — by one point, 51-50 — at the New Year’s Jump Off, and the Gray Bees led by eight late in third quarter. This team is athletic, smart, fun to watch and can play with anyone in the nation.

    Pittsburgh junior point guard Tray Woodall hopes to return from his abdomen/groin injury this weekend against Louisville.

    “I want to play Saturday,” Woodall told SNY.tv.” It’s College GameDay. Who would want to miss that?”

    Woodall participated in contact drills Thursday for the first time since the Notre Dame game Dec. 27 and said he “felt good” but still had to be cleared.

    Cincinnati coach Mick Cronin redshirted Sean Kilpatrick two years ago because he would’ve been playing behind veteran guard Deonta Vaughn and one-and-done phenom Lance Stephenson.

    Once Vaughn and Stephenson departed, it opened the doors for Kilpatrick to step into a major role with the Bearcats.

    Now a sophomore, the 6-foot-4 wing is a major reason why Cincinnati (15-4 overall, 5-1 in the Big East) is off to its best start in conference play since joining the league in 2005.

    He drained a game-winning 3-pointer with 2.5 seconds left Wednesday to lead Cincinnati to a 70-67 over No. 13 UConn at Gampel Pavilion.

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