Jabari Brown Cuts List to Seven: Maryland Doesn't Make It

The great list cuts of August 2011 continue. I guess if Maryland wants a top-flight shooting guard in the 2011 recruiting cycle, its time to hitch all the wagons to Nick Faust, because it doesn't look like Jabari Brown is happenin'.

Brown cut his list to seven schools today, and it appears Maryland wasn't one of them. The current seven are UConn, Cal, DePaul, Georgia Tech, Oregon, St. John's, and Washington. The original article detailing the list came from the uber-reputable Evan Daniels, a recruiting analyst for Scout. I don't have a Scout subscription, but it's not hard to go to Scout's profile for Brown, see those seven schools and the visit date promised by the article's teaser, and draw your own conclusions.

[Note by Ben Broman, 08/16/10 2:24 PM EDT - We all know how iffy Alex Kline can be on his reporting, but this is pretty straightforward: apparently Brown confirmed the report that those are the final seven. It was nice recruiting you, Jabari.]

For the record, I'm really confused about what's happening with college lists these days. Brown's list is free of any major players, just like Johnny O'Bryant's and Maurice Harkless'. I'm kind of wondering why Kentucky and Kansas couldn't stop making recruits' list like four years ago. But I digress.

Brown's been a Maryland fan favorite since ever since he emerged as a legitimate option thanks to his exciting style of play and high rankings. He's been very complementary of Maryland since the process began and even took a visit to College Park after the NBPA Top 100 camp. His apparent interest combined with Rob Ehsan's West Coast recruiting prowess, Pe'Shon Howard's connections, and Maryland's own need for a tight-flight perimeter scorer made it seem like Brown was a legitimate possibility.

Once Nick Faust emerged, though, it became clear that Maryland had some options at the 2-guard spot. With Bino Ranson on board at least partially to deliver Maryland some Baltimore recruits, it's not hard to imagine that the much more attainable Faust was the priority anyway.

Is it bad if I'm reminded of the Taran Buie list cut last year, when Maryland - supposedly one of the top five or so schools for Buie - was dropped like a day before Terrence Ross (in this case, Nick Faust) committed? If Brown's heard positive buzz around Faust, I wouldn't be surprised if that's why he dropped Maryland. Hey, a guy can dream. Getting Faust - who, remember, was ranked ahead of Brown on ESPN - would be enough to make everyone forget about Jabari.