January 2013 | Page 12 of 22 | Zagsblog
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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 11.

  • According to a bombshell of a story
    by Deadspin’s Timothy Burke and Jack Dickey, Manti Te’o’s girlfriend never existed and certainly never died after a car accident and a battle with leukemia.

    The incredibly detailed story says that Ronaiah Tuiasosopoa, a friend of the Notre Dame linebacker and Heisman Trophy finalist, concocted the dead girl — Lennay Kekua — and quoted a friend of Tuiasosopoa as saying he was “80 percent sure” that  Te’o was “in on it” in order to get publicity.

    The story concluded:

    The Dr. Martin Luther King holiday weekend is always chock full of elite high school hoops events.

    And this coming weekend is no exception.

    Click on the tournament name below for the links to several big tournaments this weekend.

    Check back on ZAGSBLOG throughout the weekend for coverage of several of these events.

    **TOURNAMENT OF CHAMPIONS, Jan 17.-19, Springfield, Mo.

    Players to Watch: Dakari Johnson (Kentucky), Kasey Hill (Florida), Devin Hill (West Virginia), D’Angelo Russell (uncommitted), Isaac Hamilton (UTEP), Derek Willis (Kentucky), Bobby Portis (Arkansas)

    Robbinsdale (MN) Cooper shooting guard Rashad Vaughn, one of the top 2014 prospects, will take an unofficial visit to Iowa State Feb. 2 for the Baylor game, his assistant coach, Pete Kaffey, told SNY.tv.

    “He’s going to make that visit,” Kaffey said.

    Iowa State head coach Fred Hoiberg was recently on hand to watch Vaughn.

    The 6-foot-5 Vaughn will also visit Kansas sometime soon.

    “He will visit Kansas, too,” he said. “We are just going to go to places that are around Minnesota. Less driving distance, so his dad and his family can come, too.”

    South Kent (Conn.) point guard Shane Rector has Rutgers at the top of his list and could opt to commit sometime soon.

    “After this Hoophall [Classic] thing I’m probably going to make a decision sometime after that,” Rector told SNY.tv Tuesday evening.

    South Kent plays Brewster (N.H.) Academy Sunday at the Hoophall in Springfield, Mass.

    “After that, I’m not really looking for anything new unless something great pops up,” Rector said. “It’s getting pretty late now.”

    Unlike last season when everyone and their brother had Anthony Davis of Kentucky as the No. 1 pick in the NBA Draft, this year it is wide open.

    Talk to any NBA scout and they will give you  up to six, seven, eight names of guys who could be the top pick in the 2013 NBA Draft.

    One veteran NBA scout told SNY.tv, “The list is a movable feast changing from week-to-week.” Here’s his take on six prospects who could go No. 1.

     

    Nerlens Noel, 6-10 Fr. F, Kentucky 

    10.8 ppg, 9.3 rpg, 3,7 bpg, 2.7 spg

    Scout’s take: “Great quickness and effort. Blocks everything, rebounds, steals, improving offensively. Great upside.”

    Alex Len, 7-1 So. C, Maryland 

    13.8 ppg, 8.3 rpg, 2.2 bpg

    Scout’s take: “Always moving. Shoots it out to 18 feet. Rebounds, works at it.”

    NEW YORK — Austin Rivers will face his father, Celtics coach Doc Rivers, in an NBA game for the first time Wednesday night, but he’s hardly going into the matchup feeling confident about himself.

    Entering Tuesday’s New Orleans Hornets game at Philadelphia, the 6-foot-4 former Duke star has gone scoreless in four straight games.

    In Sunday’s 100-87 loss to the Knicks, Rivers didn’t even attempt a single shot. He went scoreless and played less than four minutes.

    “I think this is my fourth game in row I haven’t scored,” a dejected Rivers told SNY.tv in the visitors’ locker room at Madison Square Garden. “I didn’t even shoot a shot [Sunday]. You know what I mean?

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