[Note by Ben Broman, 06/01/10 9:01 PM EDT - For now, I'm calling this back. The more I hear, the more it seems like a joke from Poole or a misunderstanding somewhere down the line. It seems highly unlikely this is true. The rest of the post is still available below, but there's probably a 95% chance it's not true.
This does, however, raise a point up about blogging, from this blog in particular to blogging as a whole and the effort to avoid being lumped in with random people on Twitter and Bleacher/Report. A lot of people have trouble understanding both the ethical issues and time-associated issues related to blogging. These things haven't been mapped out yet. When a player's good friend says that Player X is going to Maryland on Twitter, do we let it go? What about after it gets retweeted a few times? Do we let someone else pick up on it first and relegate ourselves to third-hand status?
It was a decision made under serious time constraints at the time. I checked the reports, most of which indicated that Maryland was interested and that he had serious other offers, and it seemed logical enough, especially after Ashton Pankey, a New Yorker, retweeted it. Apologies for potentially jumping the gun.]
Talk about out-of-the-blue. I had never heard the name Jordan Allen before today, and the first time I do, it's as he commits to Maryland. Shades of Terrell Stoglin.
Anyway, the news came from Rutgers commit Mike Poole, a friend of Allen: a 6-6 power forward from the Bronx, Jordan Allen, committed today to Maryland. When it comes from a player, it's usually pretty accurate, though not always. If true, this would be the second commitment for Maryland in the 2011 cycle, with fellow New Yorker Sterling Gibbs being the first.
So, who's Allen? Well, he's a 6-6 power forward from the Bronx, which the Terps have recently made a priority. He plays HS ball for Bay Shore and AAU for NJ Playaz, which is the same team as Desmond Hubert. It's worth noting that he seems to be a combo forward, not a true post player, so this doesn't rule out Mikael Hopkins or Desmond Hubert. It may, however, end Maryland's flirtation with Dorian Finney-Smith. ESPN had this to say about the combo forward:
Allen is an active post player who runs the floor and loves to finish with authority. This long left-handed shot blocker has good hands and even better footwork. Add that to his rebounding abilty and toughness and you have a recipe for success. Allen loves to face-up from the left block, drive baseline and finish on the other side of the rim. Jordan will need to learn how to call for the ball more often, but as long as he keeps "duckin-in" hard, the Playaz-White guard play is too strong for him not to have a eye-opening summer circuit.
It's worth noting that this report is from 2008, so it's hardly new. A more recent report comes from NBE, which wrote an article on him in 2009.
According to Allen, Arkansas, Kentucky, St. John's, Wake Forest and Georgia Tech have already offered scholarships while programs such as Georgetown, Florida State, Miami, Maryland, Rutgers and Seton Hall have also have taken a in his game and are showing interest in recruiting him.
Allen, a 6-foot-5 sophomore man-child, that still has two years in high school, which can be time well spent developing his game and bringing a championship back to Bay Shore as they didn't exactly end their season they way they planned this year.
The offers he claims from Arkansas, Kentucky, Wake, and Georgia Tech aren't anywhere to be found on the major databases, but maybe they just haven't found him yet.
Allen isn't ranked by any major service, so to say he's flying under the radar would be an understatement. It's interesting to note, though, that Chris Caputo, who recently interviewed for the Maryland assistant job, is renowned for his solid New York connections. Just throwing that out there.
Will update as more comes in.