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Let's face it: the most important event at the Maryland-FIU game wasn't the Maryland-FIU game; it was the visits that Nick Faust and Johnny O'Bryant were taking. The game was important, don't get me wrong, but Faust and O'Bryant are game-changing talents. Just as a barometer, both are certainly at and probably above Terrence Ross, in terms of program impact.
Yeah, that's pretty nice.
We were hoping for a commitment from Faust, a Baltimore wing who has supposedly been heavily favoring Maryland throughout the entire process, and one from O'Bryant would've been extraordinarily nice but was ultimately far-fetched.
And while I love the small traffic bump from constant refreshers, it's time to break the silence on the subject: so far, nothing.
We're more than 24 hours gone, and there's still no commitment from either. In fact, all we have are a few Facebook statuses. Given the hope for a Faust commitment, that's a little bit depressing.
That said, there's still no reason to go around panicking. If Faust were to commit on the spot, he could - or maybe would - wait to announce it at a later time, for a variety of reasons: deference towards other coaches, exposure, or something else entirely.
Now, sitting on a verbal commitment for an extended period of time is a bit unusual, so if you don't hear anything by, say, next Tuesday or so, I'd start to worry a tad. Again, not all-out panic - don't do that until he actually commits elsewhere - but my confidence level will certainly drop a little. Maryland's still the strongest school on his list and a lot of things still point to Maryland being the lead, but we all know that recruiting's never that simple.
As for O'Bryant, things seemed to go well; if social media is any indication, he seemed to love the visit. Pulling him out of the state of Mississippi was always going to be a battle, and it still is, but the students did their job, and hopefully the staff did as well.
If nothing else, we have this semi-encouraging tweet from Maryland assistant Rob Ehsan (yep, E Money has a Twitter):
Unbelievable weekend in College Park, MD. Maryland Basketball now and into the future... Let's Goooooo
That's six o's in "go", ladies and gentlemen. I'll take it as a good sign.
O'Bryant still has a couple of visits to take, including one to Miami next weekend, and there's probably no commitment imminent. If Maryland ends up short there, Adjehi Baru and Greg Lewis become the next biggest targets.
Faust's commitment timetable isn't really certain, though I'd guess it'd be sometime before his season starts. If Maryland ends up short there, we'll officially enter sky-falling-mode.
The big weekend is done; now the big week of news-watching begins.