At approximately 11:30 a.m. ET on Wednesday, senior Damion Grant held a press conference to announce that he had made a verbal commitment to the University of North Carolina.

This should end the lament of Tar Heel fans over losing out on several other big men during the early recruiting period. While Grant (Brewster Academy/Wolfeboro, NH) is likely not ready to be an immediate impact player as far as stats are concerned, he is certainly the type of post player who will fit in with the "new look" Tar Heels.

Head Coach Matt Doherty has put an emphasis on getting more athletic players into the Carolina blue and Grant is a very athletic player who will help the Tar Heels compete against Duke, Virginia, and other more athletic teams.

According to Grant's head coach, Jason Smith, he has made tremendous improvement just since September.

Grant is a native of Jamaica (the island in the Caribbean, not Jamaica, Queens) who is only in his second year of organized basketball. He was at Newport Prep in Kensington, Md., last year, where he suffered a knee injury and only played 10 games and had to sit out the summer to rehab. With about a 2.9 and a 980 SAT, Grant is a full qualifier. He chose UNC over Seton Hall, Kentucky, Pittsburgh and Kansas.

Brewster Academy also has several other players receiving Division I attention. Brewster competes against the toughest high school competition in the country, playing in the New England Prep School Class A division. They had "de-emphasized" basketball several years ago, but are now back competing at the highest level and building a new $50 million facility.

As we are continuing to talk about unsigned seniors, we remind you that in our last column we mentioned that 6-10 senior Rod Benson (Torrey Pines H.S./San Diego) is a project, but a promising one. We didn't mention specific schools at the time but Oregon was one of those extremely interested.

Turns out that Stanford is also. And with a 1,300 SAT, Benson is certainly admissable.

Of course, Benson, a good redshirt candidate, would probably do better at a mid-major program that is more needy for big men such as UC Santa Barbara. He would have an earlier opportunity to impact at a mid-major program, but it is hard to pass up a Stanford scholarship, considering how the program likes to use its big men.

Doug Thomas (Christian Faith Center/Creedmoor, N.C.) is a post-graduate. Known in the past as Doug "Loose Cannon" Thomas and also as Doug "Big Bang" Thomas due to his propensity for spontaneous combustion, the 6-8 Thomas is spending the year cooling out, trying to get a qualifying test score and learning some post moves from the coaching staff.

Thomas is a strong vertical leaper known for his thundering power jams. He is a native of Southern California, having previously attended Pasadena High School before transferring for his senior year to Inglewood High School. Thomas has been offered by UNC-Charlotte and has attracted interest from Wake Forest, West Virginia, Florida State, Oklahoma, UCLA, Southern California, Fresno State and UNLV.

Deep in the heart of Texas we go to find a strong rising senior. A 6-2½ combo guard, Kendrick Davis (Clements H.S./Sugarland, Texas) is a lefty who can really score. Davis has had games of 46, 45 and 41 points already this season.

According to his head coach, Ralph Farley, he is averaging just over 30 points per game despite facing all kinds of special defenses designed to slow Davis down. Clements plays in District 20 at the 5A level, the highest classification in Texas and has seen plenty of talent in the area including Rashard Lewis -- now with the Seattle Supersonics, George Williams (Houston), T.J. Ford (Texas) and Daniel Ewing (Duke).

Farley feels that Davis is one of the premier guards in a class that includes Daniel Horton (Michigan), Bracey Wright (Indiana), Bryan Hopkins (SMU) and Deron Williams (Illinois). He is the best guard in the Houston area this year.

Davis has a 2.5 and will, according to Farley, easily achieve a qualifying test score. Davis is a combo guard who is shooting 41 percent from the 3-point arc, and also draws a lot of fouls each game attacking the rim. Farley believes his explosiveness helps make him special, as he really elevates on his jump shot.

Davis is now starting to receive attention from a lot of Big 12 schools. Baylor, Texas, Kansas State and Oklahoma have all taken a look. Rutgers recently came in and liked what they saw and several WAC programs have also been in Houston-area high school gyms.

David Benezra and Mark Mayemura cover the national college basketball recruiting scene at their Recruiting USA (www.recruitingusa.com) website. E-mail at: hoopsusa@mindspring.com or call (818) 783-2244 or (818) 783-2212 for subscription information.