May 2014 | Page 11 of 24 | Zagsblog
Recent Posts
About ZagsBlog
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.
Follow Zags on Twitter
Couldn't connect with Twitter
Contact Zags
Connect with Zags:
Tuesday / March 19.
  • Transferring Cincinnati forward Jermaine Lawrence is now down to three New York-area schools: Hofstra, Iona and Manhattan.

    The 6-foot-9 former Pope John XXIII standout visited Iona on Thursday and Hofstra on Wednesday. He is due to visit Manhattan next week, sources told SNY.tv.

    “Going down a level doesn’t bother me,” Lawrence told the New York Post of the transfer triggered by his father’s battle with cancer. “If I’m as a good a player as I am and people think I am, someone will find me.”

    “I’m really excited about the future, being back in New York,” Lawrence added

    Ivan Rabb, the No. 1 player in the Class of 2015 according to ESPN.com and a potential NBA lottery pick in 2016 will visit North Carolina on Monday and Georgetown on Tuesday, his high school coach, Lou Richie, confirmed to SNY.tv.

    The 6-foot-10, 210-pound post player from Oakland Bishop O’Dowd will play this weekend at the Nike EYBL stop in Hampton Va.

    Richie previously told SNY.tv that California-Berkeley, UCLA, USC, Arizona, Kansas, Kentucky, Georgetown and North Carolina were recruiting Rabb.

    “We’re trying to plan unofficial visits to all the schools and we’ll see whether that happens or not,” Richie said.

    Oregon State has named Doug Stewart its Interim Head Coach.

    Stewart had been an assistant under former coach Craig Robinson, who was let go earlier this month.

    Former UCLA coach Ben Howland was considered a top candidate to take the job but took himself out of the running to replace Robinson.

    Stewart has been at Oregon State for six years. Prior to that , he was an assistant at Brown and before that was the head coach at Casper College, a Division I Junior College in Casper, Wyo.

    Former Syracuse point guard Tyler Ennis knows there are plenty of questions about his ability to defend as he prepares for next month’s NBA Draft.

    But the Canadian — who measured at 6-foot-2 1/2 with shoes and has a 6-7 1/4 wingspan — says people are sleeping on his defense.

    “On the defensive end, I think I’m a lot better than people expect,” the former St. Benedict’s Prep star told ESPN’s Andy Katz at the NBA Draft Combine in Chicago, which is televised on ESPNU. “Coming from Syracuse there are a lot of questions on the defensive end, but I think through workouts and through the draft process I’ll be able to show that I have defense. I just try to improve on my speed and improve on my strength for the next level and just get ready to go up against the best PGs in the world.”

    ESPN then proceeded to show several highlights intended to illustrate Ennis’ defensive weaknesses in rotation and in closing out on guards on the perimeter.

    Dante Exum’s draft status appears to be improving as a result of not having played college basketball in the U.S.

    “When Dante doesn’t play, he’s just fine, right?” ESPN draft analyst Tom Penn said Thursday on ESPNU from the NBA Draft Combine in Chicago. “He’s just fine. In fact he gets better and better and rises. It’s sort of the nature of the beast here because of the human nature here. We look for faults and we look for things that are wrong.”

    The 6-foot-6 Exum is No. 4 on Chad Ford’s Big Board and on the DraftExpress.com Mock Draft, behind Andrew Wiggins, Jabari Parker and Joel Embiid –– all of whom are not in Chicago. Exum is there for interviews but is not working out.

    But while Wiggins, Parker and Embiid all had their games picked apart in college, Exum — who is the son of former North Carolina player Cecil Exum and who doesn’t turn 19 until two weeks after the draft — came straight out of the Australian Institute of Sport and thus has maintained an aura of mystique around him.

    } });
    X