Maryland Basketball: Terps Becoming Threat in Basketball Recruiting

By Brandon Austin | Aug 30, 2015

Mar 28, 2015; Chicago, IL, USA; McDonalds High School All American athlete Diamond Stone (33) poses for pictures during portrait day at the Westin Hotel. Mandatory Credit: Brian Spurlock-USA TODAY Sports

Don’t look now, but College Park is quickly turning into a preferred destination for a number of the nation’s top high school basketball prospects. For years, a team that often struggled to even recruit in its own area, the Terps have now become a major player in the competition for the top recruits. More now than ever before, Maryland is being linked to premier high school basketball talent. And just to think, before last season, people were calling for Mark Turgeon‘s head. It’s amazing the difference one year can make.

Last season was a monumental one for the Terps. The prized recruit from the 2014 class was point guard Melo Trimble, who turned out to be an absolute stud, averaging 16.2 points, 3.9 rebounds and 3.0 assists per game as a freshman. Trimble was the 31st-best player in the class and the No. 5 point guard, according to the 247Sports Composite. The class also included two more 4-star prospects in Dion Wiley and Jared Nickens, as well as 3-star center Michal Cekovsky.

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While the 2014 recruiting class has panned out pretty well for Maryland thus far, the Terps’ recruiting stock is trending upward by the day. Maryland landed, perhaps, their biggest recruit since Albert King this past recruiting season in Class of 2015 5-star big man Diamond Stone. According to 247Sports, Stone was the No. 6 overall player in the class and the second-best center.

The Terps also managed to reel in point guard Jaylen Brantley, who is a former 3-star prospect and widely regarded as one of the top junior college players in the country.

With Trimble, Stone, and Brantley in the mix, Maryland has started to grab the attention of young basketball players across the country. The Terps have now nabbed two straight McDonald’s All-Americans and are looking to build on that momentum.

This offseason, the Maryland coaching staff has been extremely active on the recruiting circuit. The Terps received their first Class of 2016 commitment early in the year from 4-star point guard Anthony Cowan Jr. Cowan chose the Terps over Xavier, Georgetown and Florida State, amongst others.

Even though Cowan is the only player from the Class of 2016 to verbally commit to the Terps, they have made great strides with a bunch of other big-time prospects. The biggest name that has been linked to Maryland is 5-star shooting guard Josh Jackson, who “fell in love” with the XFINITY Center in College Park. If the Terps land Jackson, the floodgates are bound to open.

Maryland is also in the mix for other big names, including 4-star forwards Wenyen Gabriel and Mario Kegler, 5-star guard Rawle Alkins, and 4-star guards Kevin Hurter and Brandon Robinson. At this juncture, it’s impossible to tell how many of these guys the Terps will actually land, but I’d put my money on them receiving a commitment from at least one of them.

There hasn’t been this much hype over Maryland basketball in a long, long time and this seems to be only the beginning. If the Terps continue their success in recruiting, a few years down the road, we may be talking about them as a new college basketball powerhouse.

Next: Rahshaun Smith Could Be Next Terps' Football Commit

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