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Jim Harris died Sunday evening at age 67 after a short battle with cancer.

But he looked like he was 47 and exuded the passion and enthusiasm of a 27-year-old given the first opportunity to coach his own basketball when I last saw him during the first week of July, during a tournament in the Dominguez High gymnasium in Compton.

During his 33 years as the coach at Ocean View High in Huntington Beach, Harris evolved into one of the “faces” of high school basketball in Southern California.

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Thoughts on the ESPN/USA Today Coaches Top 25 released on Thursday:

• The first four – North Carolina, followed by Kentucky, Ohio State and Connecticut – was no surprise.

The Tar Heels got 30 of 31 first-place votes from the coaches – a solid definition for “overwhelming choice”.

But reasonable strong cases could be made for each of the three to be No. 1 going into the season. I tabbed the Buckeyes (in Lindy’s Preseason Magazine).

• I wouldn’t have had the teams in the same order, but the only substitution I would have made in the next six picks to round out the Top 10 would have been Pittsburgh (No.

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CORONA, CA –There wasn’t a whole lot surprising about what took place Sunday during action at The LEAGUE, the prep fall league action hosted by the Compton Magic at the Players’ Edge facility in this Riverside County community.

Las Vegas Bishop Gorman – with Shabazz Muhammad in uniform and on the floor, a bit more than 12 hours after landing in Ls Vegas following his weekend visit to the University of Kentucky – handled three quality opponents.

The Gaels (called “LV Orangemen” in the league) knocked off the Arizona Magic (made up of the players from Basha High in Chandler, Arizona), L.A.

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Today marks the “official” start of practice for the 2011-12 college basketball season.

But “practice” – albeit much more limited in scope than what commences today – has been going on since players showed up on campus for the start of classes in August and September, via the “individual” and group workouts conducted by coaches at NCAA-affiliated programs across the country.

All the hoopla you’ll see – in person or on television – this evening has never caught my fancy.

I’m not interested in watching coaches and players wearing funny “theme-oriented” garb or dancing or singing.

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The John R. Wooden Award Preseason Top 50 candidates list was released Monday morning.

There were nine differences from the “official” list (culled from the submissions of all of the advisory committee members across the country) and the list I turned in a few weeks ago.

Here are the nine players on the “official” list that were not on mine:

• Dee Bost (6-2, Sr./Mississippi State)
• Elias Harris (6-7 Jr./Gonzaga)
• Joe Jackson (6-0 So./Memphis)
• Darius Johnson-Odom (6-2 Sr./Marquette)
• Andrew Nicholson (6-9 Sr./St. Bonaventure)
• Peyton Siva (6-0 Jr./Louisville)

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