Yes, you read the headline correctly. If you need to, you can read it again. I have a weird feeling that this is legit, which is awkward, because I'm usually very cynical when it comes to this stuff. But I digress (a little bit). Per the Sun:
Lance Stephenson, a McDonald's All-American who is one of the top unsigned basketball prospects in the nation, is no longer being recruited by Maryland, according to two sources with knowledge of the school's efforts.
Stephenson, a 6-foot-5 swingman from Brooklyn, N.Y., whose off-the-court issues have caused Maryland and other colleges concern, has not been pursued by the Terrapins program for several weeks. The sources spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of discussing recruits.
This doesn't make sense. It just adds up wrong. Were they really only pursuing Lance as a backup plan for Greivis Vasquez? I still find it incredulous for Greivis to have waited until today to actually inform the staff. Wouldn't they have dropped Lance the second they heard confirmation from Greivis? And if they did, wouldn't we have heard something by now? As an astute commenter pointed out, the article says they stopped pursuing Lance "several weeks ago", but
We might've poured more into this than any other school. It's one thing to stop before you start, like Arizona and Florida did. But after you've taken the six visits to Brooklyn and brought Lance down to CP? You might as well follow through at that point.
And remember, we took Tyree Evans, who had been convicted of three crimes and spent time in jail. But a website and an accused groping is the line? Would we pour all those resources into Lance just to turn him away due to a possible two or three game suspension due to his website? Unless the staff has solid info that he won't qualify or would lose an entire year of eligibilty (both of which are doubtful), it simply doesn't make sense.
As if you couldn't tell by the previous paragraphs, I find this tough to swallow. But I have a weird feeling that it could be accurate. Maybe because it's not mentioned in passing, maybe because it's local, maybe because it's from Jeff Barker, who, if he's never broken anything big, has never had bad info that I've seen. I have a feeling I'm almost in denial about it. (Of course, there's a chance we're analyzing this incorrectly. He says Lance is no longer being recruited - maybe Lance already gave a verbal, so we stopped techinically recruiting him? Just a thought). I'll wait until further word comes out to call it truth, but it's a bad sign.
Addendum: As an astute commenter pointed out, the article says that Maryland has not been pursuing Lance for "several weeks". We can assume that several means at least two or three, cause it definitely doesn't mean one. If that's the case, then there's something messed up. Ten days ago, Lance Sr. included Maryland on Lance's list, and said that he talks with all the coaches, implying on a somewhat regular basis. If Gary and co. hadn't been pursuing Lance for 4 to 11 days, wouldn't that conversation been less postive? Just another nonsensical wrinkle.