ZAGSBLOG

MOVIN' ON OUT

Dear Readers,

After 11 years at the Herald News, I am leaving and going to SportsNet New York (SNY), and ZAGSBLOG is coming along for the ride.

You guys have helped make this the No. 1 overall blog at The Record and Herald News, with more than 200,000 page views per month.

Please feel free to bookmark the new site at ZAGSBLOG.NET and check it daily for updates on basketball and football news in the Northeast.

Curious about the latest Big East recruiting news, including Rutgers, Seton Hall, St. John's, UConn and Villanova? Want to know about breaking basketball and football commitments in New York, New Jersey and elsewhere? Wondering which coaches are playing musical chairs?

You will find all of this information on the new site just as you did on the old one, only with more content on a wider range of issues and in a higher-profile space.

If you have any suggestions, story ideas or breaking news, feel free to email me at zagoria@hotmail.com. I look forward to seeing you at the new ZAGSBLOG and enjoy the summer.

Burwell to South Kent

Former Cardinal McCarrick (N.J.) standout Mike Burwell is headed to South Kent (Conn.) for a prep year.

"Mike qualified for college but he's looking to go to a higher level of schools," McCarrick coach Joe Lewis said. "Most of the schools that offered him are high mid-majors and I think after a year of lifting and playing all year, he will get to a major conference."

Michigan and Indiana are recruiting him the hardest, as well as South Florida, UMass and UCLA, Lewis said.

The 6-5 1/2 Burwell averaged 27.1 points and 11.7 rebounds for a team that won the Greater Middlesex Conference tournament and reached the semis of the South Non-Public B tournament. He led the county in 3-pointers (67) and free throws (190).

Burwell, who turns 18 in August, was named to The Associated Press All-State first team and was the Home New Tribune Player of the Year.

Burwell will join former St. Raymond's standout Kevin Parrom, a junior who is also headed to play for first-year coach Kelvin Jefferson.

(Photo courtesy Home News Tribune)

Latest on Lance's List

Ever since a report surfaced recently that Brooklyn Lincoln junior Lance Stephenson had cut his list to UCLA, USC and Kansas, not much more has been heard on the subject.

Yet Lamont Halsey, the AAU coach for Dexter Strickland and a friend of the Stephenson family, says Stephenson's list actually now includes Kansas, Kentucky and UCLA, with USC having been eliminated in the wake of the O.J. Mayo recruiting scandal.

"There were four schools, UCLA, Kansas, Kentucky and USC but USC is out of the mix because of O.J. Mayo," Halsey said Wednesday by phone. "Lance is going to UCLA for a team camp at the end of next week. He'll take one visit to Kansas and one to Kentucky. They're more or less looking for a program with a lot of tradition that's not caught up in any scandal, an institution with a clean slate."

Lance, Strickland to Attend Steve Nash Academy

The Steve Nash Nike Skills Academy will take place in New Jersey beginning June 26 and should feature some of the top point guards in the nation. Last year Nike launched its new summer program in which Nash, Kobe Bryant, Amare Stoudemire and Vince Carter each hosted Skills Academies leading up to the LeBron James US Skills Academy in Akron.

The official invite list has yet to be released but we're told the following point guards have been invited to Nash: Brandon Knight (Coral Springs Fla. Pine Crest/Uncommitted); Tommy Mason-Griffin (Houston Madison/Uncommitted); Leslie McDonald (Memphis Briarcrest Christian/North Carolina); Lance Stephenson (Lincoln/Uncommitted); Dexter Strickland (St. Patrick, N.J./North Carolina); and  John Wall (Raleigh N.C. Word of God Christian/Uncommitted).

We're told Stephenson, a natural two guard, was going to attend the Kobe Bryant Academy but did not want to travel cross-country and will attend Nash instead.

Read my story from last year on what Seton Hall guard Jordan Theodore and Strickland learned at the Nash Academy.

NBA Top 100 Camp Invites

The National Basketball Association Top 100 Camp tips off June 17 on the campus of the University of Virginia and numerous players from New York, New Jersey and Connecticut have been invited. Here's a list:

Tevin Baskin (Trinity Catholic, Uncommitted); Paris Bennett (St. Patrick/Uncommitted); Dominic Cheek (St. Anthony/Uncommitted); Michael Gilchrist (St. Patrick/Uncommitted); Myck Kabongo (St. Benedict's/Uncommitted); Tamir Jackson (St. Benedict's/UAB); Omari Lawrence (St. Raymond's/Uncommitted); Lamar Patterson (St. Benedict's/Pitt); Durand Scott (Rice/Uncommitted); and Tristan Thompson (St. Benedict's/Texas).

Among the top national players invited are Xavier Henry, Jeremy Tyler, David and Travis Wear (North Carolina), Stephan Van Treese and Brandon Knight.

St. Benedict's coach Dan Hurley will also coach at the event.

Negedu Finishing Up Visits; McDonald to North Carolina

Former Arizona commit Emmanuel Negedu of Brewster (N.H.) Academy is winding down his visits.

The 6-7, 230-pound Negedu left Georgia Tech on Tuesday and arrived at Tennessee, where he will be until Thursday morning. Then he will leave for his last visit at Memphis.

We hear that the Arizona staff has "blessed" Negedu to Memphis if that's what he wants. Memphis assistant Josh Pastner, formerly of Arizona, had initally tried to persuade Negedu to stay at Arizona, but the player didn't want that.

Speaking of Memphis, John Calipari's team lost out on a good one when 6-4, 185-pound Leslie McDonald of Memphis Briarcrest Christian chose North Carolina over Memphis, Duke, Georgetown and Tennessee.

The Player of the Year in Memphis, McDonald attends the same school as that of Calipari's daughter.

McDonald is the fifth player in the Class of 2009 to commit to Carolina, joining 6-9 twins David Wear and Travis Wear of Santa Ana, Calif.; 6-10 John Henson of Round Rock, Texas; and 6-3 Dexter Strickland of St. Patrick of Elizabeth (NJ).

Finally, we hear that one of the major reasons why Calipari hired former Pitt assistant Orlando Antigua over Georgetown assistant David Cox is because of his fluency in Spanish. The staff wanted someone who can better communicate with incoming recruit Angel Garcia. Look for Garcia to have a much bigger impact with Antigua's help.

Coaching Moves Galore

Several coaching hires of note....

**Mike Jarvis has hired his son, Mike Jarvis II, and former Providence assistant Vince Cautero on at Florida International.

**New Jersey Tech coach Jim Engles hired Mike Spisto, Ira Bowman and Kevin Tirone to fill out his staff. Spisto was previously the head coach at Division III SUNY Delhi and was also an assistant at Rider and Albany. Bowman is a Newark native who played with the 76ers and Hawks, and was the 1995-96 Ivy League PLayer of the Year at Penn. Tirone was an assistant at Robert Morris.

Lance, Sylven, Kemba, Dom, Dexter Invited to U18 Tryouts

As first reported here a month ago, Lance Stephenson, Kemba Walker, Sylven Landesberg, Dominic Cheek and Dexter Strickland will attend tryouts for the FIBA Americas U18 Championship team that will go to Argentina July 14-18. Five of the 20 committed tryouts are from New York and New Jersey. Tryouts are July 1-3 at Georgetown University.

"We have the best young players in the country participating in the trials and we've assembled an outstanding coaching staff to coach with them," said Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim, chair of the USA Basketball Men's Collegiate Committee. "The USA Basketball Men's Collegiate Committee did an outstanding job of identifying a tremendous group of young players who will compete for a roster position on the USA Basketball U18 National Team."

Harris Enjoyed Kansas Visit

Tobias Harris of Dix Hills (N.Y.) Half Hollow Hills West took a trip to Kansas this past weekend for an Elite Camp and enjoyed the visit.

"Kansas' Elite Camp was great," Torrel Harris, Tobias' father said. "Coach (Bill) Self and his entire staff ran the camp. There were a lot of drills and some games. Tobias worked hard in all the drills. He learned a lot in a very short period of time. We can see why Coach Self is a great coach."

Torrel said his son also enjoyed the campus itself.

"Tobias liked the campus," he said. "He thought it was peaceful and beautiful. He met and played mainly against many of the Kansas players. He thought the players were cool and helpful in the drills."

Harris holds offers from Rutgers, UConn, Maryland, Arizona and Indiana.

He will also attend camps at or make unofficial visits this summer to Virginia, Indiana, Louisville, Marquette, Rutgers, Maryland, Florida, UConn, Arizona, Memphis and Syracuse.

Top Talent Attends RU Camp

Rutgers held its team camp this weekend and many of the top players in the area were on campus for the event. MIke DeCourcy of the Sporting News had a good story on the camp before it started.

Among those on hand were:

**St. Anthony players Dominic Cheek, Devon Collier and Ashton Pankey. The 6-5 Cheek is the apple of everyone's eye, including Rutgers and Seton Hall, but Villanova and Wake Forest are said to be his unofficial leaders. Collier and Pankey, the two New York City transfers to Bob Hurley's program, are also drawing increased interest from major programs.

"I think they're recruiting seems to be building," Hurley said before the event. "Collier had a good month playing with New Heights. He and Pankey have both been lifting (weights) for a couple weeks.

New Prep Team in Newark; Bergeron to Blair Christian

A new prep basketball team is coming to New Jersey and it hopes to take the nation by storm.

The NIA Eagles, based out of the Alif Muhammad Nia School in Newark, will debut with two teams in the 2008-09 season and play a national schedule. The program will be run by Mike Rodgers, a noted skills teacher who coached last season at Monmouth Academy.

"We're going to shock the prep school scene a little bit," Rodgers said Monday by phone. "We have a lot of 6-5, 6-6, 6-8 kids, a couple 6-10s. It could turn out to be something that's big time. I don't want to get too optimistic. We're putting together a nice schedule."

The program will only take fifth-year seniors or postgrads, no underclassmen, said Rodgers, who last yar sent four Monmouth players to Division I programs, including UNLV commit Deshawn Mitchell.

Among the committed players are David Laury, a 6-7 East Orange grad (pictured above); 6-5 guard Steve Spinelli, a Colts Neck grad; 6-2 point guard Isaiah Wilkerson from Curtis (N.Y.); and 6-9 Ron Spencer of Monmouth Academy.