ZAGSBLOG

Rutgers, Hall Enter Big East With Winning Feeling

Rutgers and Seton Hall will both enter Big East play feeling like winners.

A day after Rutgers outlasted Manhattan, 73-67, at the RAC, Seton Hall routed Delaware State, 77-54, at The Rock.

The first Big East game pits Cincinnati at Louisville on Tuesday. Rutgers visits South Florida Wednesday in an ESPN2 game, and Seton Hall hosts UConn Thursday.

Brian Laing scored a game-high 27 points on 12-of-13 shooting against Delaware State to lead the Pirates to a 9-3 record. Laing made his first 12 field goals of the game, tying a team mark set by John Ramsay in 1974.

Jamar Nutter tallied 12 points and Eugene Harvey added six assists and seven points.

Fields Joins Disabled List

On the eve of Big East play, another star is down.

Pittsburgh's Levance Fields of Brooklyn became the latest Big East player to land on the disabled list Sunday when it was announced that Fields, Pitt's junior point guard, will be out 8 to 12 weeks after breaking his left foot during Pitt's loss Saturday to Dayton.

"We're extremely disappointed for Levance," coach Jamie Dixon said. "We expect him to make a full recovery and return sometime later in the season."

Pitt forward Mike Cook was lost for the year when he tore the ACL in his left knee in the Panthers' 65-64 win over Duke on Dec. 20.

Fields was averaging 11.9 points and 5.4 assists in 12 starts.

Up Close With Gonzo

I was just going through my tape recorder from my extensive interview recently with Bobby Gonzalez for the Christmas story I wrote on him, and came across a few more nuggets of interest.

ON WHY PEOPLE DISLIKE HIM

"I have asked people through the years, 'Why do so many people hate me that don't even know me?' There's people who have never met me and they hate me. And I've gotten two responses. One is a lot of people are jealous of my success and they fear me because I don't apologize and I'm fearless and they think that I'm cocky and arrogant and I have a chip on my shoulder and that bothers them the way my personality is.

St. Anthony, St. Ben's, Pat. Catholic Win Tourneys; St. Patrick, Lincoln Both Lose

It was a big day for many of the top high school hoops teams in New Jersey, and several came away with hardware. Here's a rundown:

**In a game televised on the Versus network, Bob Hurley's St. Anthony squad, No. 1 in the ZAGSBLOG Top 10, beat Lone Peak (Utah), 54-43, in the championship game of the T-Mobile Invitational in New Mexico. Rutgers-bound G Mike Rosario (left) had a highlight-reel steal and breakaway dunk in the first half, but finished with just 6 points on 3-of-11 shooting. Junior Dominic Cheek led the Friars with 16 points on 10-of-14 shooting. St. Anthony is now 6-0 and Hurley has 905 career victories against just 101 losses.

Brian Oliver to Oak Hill

Oak Hill needs some frontcourt help and Brian Oliver is ready to provide it.

Oliver, a 6-6 wing player originally from Glassboro, N.J., will transfer to Oak Hill (Va.) from William Penn in Delaware and begin playing with Steve Smith's squad Jan. 7. Oliver, who moved to Delaware three years ago with his family, played his final game at Penn last Thursday, finishing with 31 points, 10 rebounds, 6 assists and 2 steals. Oliver was averaging 16 points, 10 rebounds and 3 blocks and the team was 6-0.

"When a great opportunity presents itself, it's impossible to say no," said Robert Oliver, Brian's father. "Brian is looking forward to working hard and being able to develop his court savvy even further over the next year and a half under the guidance of such a renowned and reputable coach."

Smith has produced 22 McDonald's All-Americans at Oak Hill, including Carmelo Anthony, Ty Lawson, Kevin Durant and Steve Blake.

Crosgile Leads DePaul to Title; Holds Offers from St. Joe, Rutgers, Seton Hall

MORRISTOWN – Justin Crosgile and his DePaul teammates will go into the New Year as champions.

The 5-foot-11, 170-pound Crosgile scored a game-high 16 points and made a steal and layup in the final seconds as the Spartans edged Delbarton, 50-48, to win the J.P. Flynn Memorial Tournament on Delbarton’s home floor.

Defending Passaic County champion DePaul (4-2), winner of four straight after an 0-2 start, avenged a 58-47 loss to Northern Hills Suburban rival on Dec. 18.

“It feels real good because we lost to Delbarton the second game of the season,” said Crosgile, who was named Tournament MVP. “We came out kind of flat. We weren’t really working together; now we got it together. And it was good to beat them on their floor.”

Latest on Evans: No Shame in Talking to Police; Not Likely to be Defendant

The Philly Inquirer has the latest story on the Tyreke Evans situation today, in which it quotes a current college basketball player advising Evans that it's okay to cooperate with police when it come to gang-related violence.

"I can tell him, 'Don't be ashamed,' " Tyrone Lewis, a sophomore guard at Niagara University in New York, said of Evans' cooperating with the Chester Township police investigation. "As far as the gangs, watch who you hang out with."

Big Win for Paterson Catholic

WILLIAMSPORT, Pa. -- Paterson Catholic went to Pennsylvania looking for a challenge, and, so far, the Best Western Classic has been everything the Cougars anticipated.

Lance Brown scored on a layup with about 14 seconds remaining Friday night, lifting the Cougars to an 81-79 boys basketball victory over previously unbeaten Pittsburgh Central Catholic in the tournament semifinal. That's the fourth win in five games for the Cougars, ranked No. 1 in the Herald News Top 10.

Fuquan Edwin added 18 for the Cougars and Seton Hall-bound guard Jordan Theodore had 11 points, 7 assists and 3 steals. Read the full story here.

St. Anthony, St. Benedict's, St. Patrick Win; Lincoln Loses First Game; Echenique Update

Friday was a good day for the Hurley family and Kevin Boyle.

Bob Hurley's St. Anthony Friars routed La Cueva (New Mexico) 84-34 in the T-Mobile Shootout at The Pit at the University of New Mexico. The tournament, televised live on Versus, continues Saturday with St. Anthony playing Lone Peak (Highland, Utah) in the championship.

The Friars (5-0), ranked No. 1 in the ZAGSBLOG Top 10, feature six seniors committed to Division I programs: Mike Rosario (Rutgers), Travon Woodall (Pitt), Tyshawn Taylor(Marquette), Jio Fontan and Alberto Estwick (Fordham) and A.J. Rogers (St. Joseph) and a junior, Dominic Cheek, who is being heavily wooed by Villanova and North Carolina.

Queen of Peace Stuns St. Joe; West Milford Wins Wallkill Valley

OAKLAND – There will be no five-peat for St. Joseph.

Led by the furious attacking style of guards Zaire Harris and Javae Gilchrist, Queen of Peace stormed back from a nine-point second-half deficit to stun the Green Knights, 74-65, in the semifinals of the Indian Hills Holiday Festival.

The unbeaten Golden Griffins (5-0), No. 5 in the Herald News Top 10, advanced to play Bergen Catholic in Sunday’s championship game. Bergen Catholic outlasted Englewood, 78-73.

St. Joseph (3-2) had won the event four years running