Leading off today: St. Benedict's Prep in Newark, N.J., has a new BMOC.
Tyler Harris, who helped Long Island Lutheran to a Federation basketball championship as a sophomore and then Half Hollow Hills West to the NYSPHSAA Class AA final last March, is making the move to the highly regarded New Jersey basketball power.
The 6-foot-8 small forward, the brother of 2010 Mr. Basketball Tobias Harris, averaged 14.5 points last season. He'll be playing for former St. John's and Duke player Roshown McLeod.
"He likes my game and my style," Harris told Newsday. "It wasn't a tough decision. I needed to focus on getting ready for college."
The paper reported Harris is targeting a November college decision and has trimmed his list of possible colleges to UConn, Iowa, North Carolina State, Ohio State, Providence, St. John's, South Florida and Wake Forest. Reports after last season had his contemplating prep schools with the idea of reclassifying in order to pick up an extra year of experience and maturity.
More choices: Former Rice forward Kadeem Jack will continue his career at Rutgers next September, The New York Daily News reported yesterday.
The 6-8 standout, a first-team all-state selection in Class AA by the New York State Sportswriters Association last spring after averaging 16.9 points a game, picked the Scarlet Knights over Arkansas, the paper reported.
Before enrolling at Rutgers, Jack is taking on a post-graduate year at South Kent Prep in Connecticut.
Jack's new South Kent teammate has also made a decision. Maurice Harkless will enroll at St. John's next fall to play for Steve Lavin, MaxPreps.com reported. The 6-foot-7 small forward played at Forest Hills last season as a junior, averaging 16.6 points a game and landing a spot on the all-state ninth team.
Harkless made a non-binding commitment to Connecticut in December but reconsidered this spring after the NCAA accused Jim Calhoun's program of eight violations.
Back on the job I: Seven years after retiring, Dave McLaughlin is back as the boys cross country coach at Brighton.
McLaughlin, who has been a meet official since 2007, replaces Nate Huckle, a former assistant coach on his staff. McLaughlin, 62, coached boys and girls track and cross country at various levels for 30 years in his first tour of duty with the Barons.
Back on the job II: One of the great guilty pleasures in
