ESPN

ESPNU is reporting that Brewster Academy post-graduate point guard Elijah Carter has verbally committed to Rutgers University.

Carter, a 6-foot-1 native of Paterson, N.J., initially committed to St. Bonaventure last year while he was a senior at St. Anthony High School, in Jersey City, before deciding to re-open his recruiting and head up to the Wolfeboro, N.H. campus for a post-graduate season. At the time of his commitment yesterday, Carter was also considering Oregon State, Wake Forest, South Florida and Iowa.

It has been reported that Carter will take the scholarship that shooting guard Michael Taylor of Brooklyn's Boys & Girls High had signed in the fall. Taylor is expected to spend next season at a prep school.

ESPN's Adam Finkelstein checks in today on his recruiting blog with New Hampton junior forward Zach Auguste, who has been attracting the eye of a handful of Division 1 college coaches this week.

Most notably, Finkelstein writes, Virginia head coach Tony Bennett and his staff arrived on the New Hampton, N.H. campus last Friday at 6 a.m. to watch the 6-foot-9 Marlborough native work out. Auguste, who transferred to New Hampton last year from Marlborough (Mass.) High and repeated his junior year, currently holds six scholarship offers: Boston College, DePaul, Notre Dame, Oregon State, Penn State and Wake Forest.

"I haven't seen any campuses yet," Auguste told Finkelstein. "I'm going to wait until the fall to do anything but I'll have a decision before the season starts."

Auguste has seen his lanky, raw potential turn some heads in his first season with the Huskies, who advanced to the NEPSAC Class AAA Finals this season. As Finkelstein writes:

Auguste is a long and athletic forward who has started to turn raw potential into more consistent production within the last year. The latest in a long line of skilled big men to come through the Mass Rivals AAU program, he was groomed by coach Vin Pastore to follow in the footsteps of guys like Michigan's Evan Smotrycz and Wake Forest's Carson Desrosiers, who were big but nonetheless extremely skilled on the perimeter.

With that foundation already in place, Auguste arrived at the New Hampton School and began to add a low-post game under the tutelage of head coach Pete Hutchins, incorporating a jump hook into his arsenal and gaining valuable experience playing under the boards in arguably the most talent-laden league in the country.

Now, while he's still far from a finished product, Auguste shows signs of being a true mismatch forward, equally capable of scoring and rebounding in the paint as he is shooting or driving off pick-and-pop action on the perimeter.

And when you're his size and capable of doing all of those things, coaches are only all too happy to wake up early to see you work out.

For more recruiting updates on New England's top high school basketball talent, be sure to check out Finkelstein's ESPN blog as well as his New England Recruiting Report.

ESPN's Roger Brown checks in today on his recruiting blog with Buckingham, Browne & Nichols offensive lineman Eric Olson, who came to the Cambridge prep school as a basketball player but will likely leave next spring as one of New England's premier offensive tackles.

Olson, a 6-foot-6, 270-pound junior who transferred from Lincoln-Sudbury following his sophomore year, has scholarship offers from Boston College, UConn, Duke, UMass, Virginia and Wake Forest. He told Brown he also hears regularly from Michigan, Northwestern and Stanford.

He told Brown he is trying to set up visits with Michigan and Northwestern for this weekend. A decision is likely to come before the start of his senior season for the Knights this fall.

BB&N head coach John Papas also told Brown that Stanford "is supposed to visit the school in April."

"He's an incredible athlete for an offensive lineman," Papas told Brown. "He came to us as a basketball player. He was skinny and extremely raw, but I think he's become one of the best linemen on the East Coast."

For more recruiting updates on New England's top high school football talent, be sure to check out Brown's blog.

ESPN's Roger Brown checks in today on his recruiting blog with two of Catholic Memorial's highly-touted football stars for the Class of 2012, quarterback A.J. Doyle and athlete Armani Reeves.

Reeves was down on the Rutgers campus last weekend for a 7-on-7 tournament, and while Scarlet Knights head coach Greg Schiano was out of town, Reeves may be getting some news soon.

"They told me they really like me," Reeves told Brown. "I think Coach Schiano was at a Nike convention. They told me they might have some good news for me when he returns."

Reeves, who was an inaugural ESPNBoston All-State selection this past fall, currently holds offers from 11 Division 1 schools, among them Boston College, UConn, North Carolina, Missouri, Virginia, Penn State, Wake Forest, Michigan, Stanford, Northwestern, and Maryland.

Brown writes that Reeves likely won't pick a school until after his senior season ends.

"The schools that have offered all intrigue me," Reeves told Brown. "They're all good schools academically and really good programs."

Meanwhile, Doyle picked up his first offer last week from UMass, and it likely will not be his last Division 1 offer, as BC, UConn and Syracuse have all shown interest in the 6-foot-2, 225-pound junior's services.

For more updates on New England's top football talent, be sure to check out Brown's recruiting blog.

ESPN's Adam Finkelstein writes on his recruiting blog today about some of the premier high-major Division 1 coaches on hand to take in St. Thomas More's 78-64 win over previously-unbeaten Brewster Academy on Tuesday night. West Virginia's Bob Huggins, Florida's Billy Donovan, and Iowa's Fran McCaffery were some of the most prominent names on hand to watch the nation's No. 1 junior, Andre Drummond, as well as Brewster's two uncommitted high-major recruits Elijah Carter and Mitch McGary.

The Chancellors' win over Brewster snaps the Bobcats' 31-game winning streak, dating back to last season when they beat Winchendon for the NEPSAC Class A title.

Finkelstein writes:

Huggins has been no stranger to the St. Thomas More gym in recent years, having landed both Devin Ebanks and Danny Jennings out of the Connecticut prep school while his latest target is Andre Drummond, the nation's top ranked junior, who, despite reports to the contrary, has not named a list or discussed any specific schools in his recruiting.

He also adds:

As for Donovan, while he would undoubtedly like a chance to land Drummond, the more likely target is Brewster Academy's 2012 big man Mitch McGary, who named Florida among his nine favorites just a week ago.

For McCaffery, the trip was most likely focused around Brewster's post-graduate guard Elijah Carter who had recently named the Hawkeyes among his current list of offers that also included Georgia Tech (who was represented with an assistant coach), Wake Forest, Oklahoma, Oregon State, South Florida, and Rhode Island.

For more recruiting updates on New England's top basketball talent, be sure to check out Finkelstein's ESPN blog as well as his New England Recruiting Report.

Lawrence Academy junior lefthander Max Tishman verbally committed to Wake Forest University last Sunday night, making it the fourth in-state baseball prospect to commit to the Demon Deacons.

Tishman, a Wellesley native who transferred to the Groton campus after his sophomore year at Wellesley High, joins teammate Joe Napolitano, Holy Name's Aaron Fossas and Belmont Hill's Colin Egan on the list of Wake commits from the Bay State. Tishman, who is roomates with Vanderbilt commit and potential day one draft pick Tyler Beede, was also considering Boston College, Vanderbilt, UConn and Virginia before issuing his verbal commitment on Sunday night.

The story was first reported by the Boston Herald.

Correspondent Roger Brown is reporting on his recruiting blog today that Catholic Memorial junior athlete Camren Williams currently holds four verbal scholarship offers.

The current list for Williams -- Penn State, UConn, Wake Forest and UMass -- is identical to that of the offers list for teammate Armani Reeves. And for both, it appears the list could get longer very soon.

"Virginia, Stanford and Northwestern are all asking for my transcript, so it seems like they’re about to offer," Williams told Brown. "They’re all great academic schools."

Williams, whose older brother Brennan is an offensive tackle at North Carolina, also told Brown that he receives hand-written letters from Boston College offensive line coach Sean Devine regularly. Williams missed the first five games of the season with a torn lateral meniscus, but made a solid debut in last Friday's 27-24 win over Malden Catholic. He registered 12 tackles, two forced fumbles, two sacks, two catches for 30 yards and a 62-yard touchdown pass.

For more on Williams' recruitment, check out Brown's blog.

When Mik Aoki left the head coaching position at Boston College a month ago to take the same position at Notre Dame, it left some of his 2011 commitments at a crossroads.

BB&N's Andrew Chin staunchly stuck by his verbal to BC. But Lawrence Academy righthander Joe Napolitano -- who committed to the Eagles as a sophomore -- talked things over with his family and decided to de-commit and look at his options once more.

Napolitano, a 6-foot-3 senior from Hollis, N.H., took a visit to Wake Forest a week ago. This weekend, he's been down at the World Woodbat Association Baseball Heaven showcase in Yaphank, N.Y.; last night at 9 p.m., while out at dinner with family and close friends in nearby Port Jefferson, N.Y., he decided to make the call to the Deacons staff and make his verbal commitment.

"Wake Forest came along, UConn came along, and those were my top two choices the last few weeks," Napolitano said. "Wake Forest seems like a prestigious school. I was impressed by how well the academics are and how they're meshed into the athletics program. It's a good fit for me, I really like it alot."

Any regrets?

"I guess," Napolitano said. "I had a year to kind of dwell on it, the BC lifestyle...as a child growing up in New England, you look at Boston College as the place to go, it's the hometown school. BC and Wake Forest were two dreams schools for me growing up. I guess there's some regret, but I'm in great situation at Wake Forest. It was a turn for the better."

Meanwhile, one of the most dominant pitchers in the state of New Hampshire will be taking his exploits to another big time program in the fall of 2011. Jordan Cote, a 6-foot-4 righthander from Winnisquam (N.H.) Regional, made a verbal commitment to Coastal Carolina University late in the week. He chose the Chanticleers over offers from Vanderbilt, UConn and Central Florida.

"I liked the atmosphere when I went down there," Cote said. "I like where the school's located. It's a really big baseball school, not like the other schools, where football or basketball come first. I liked the coaches, it was a real friendly atmosphere when I was down there."

Cote is known most around the Granite State for delivering the Tilton-based school its first Class M championship in school history with a no-hitter in the state final, a 2-0 win over Somersworth. Cote went 11-0 this year for the Bears, with a 0.66 ERA, 113 strikeouts in 63 innings, and just 17 walks. So far in his career at Winnisquam, he is 25-1 with a 0.96 ERA, 229 strikeouts in 168 innings pitches, and 52 walks. His fastball currently tops out at 93 miles per hour.

He'll be a welcoming addition a Chanticleers squad that was the No. 4 overall seed in this year's NCAA tournament, making it all the way to the Super Regional on their Myrtle Beach, S.C. campus before bowing out to eventual national champion South Carolina.