Maryland Guard Terrell Stoglin Declares for NBA Draft

Wow, this was, uh, unexpected:

Jeff Ermann

Stoglin, the ACC's leading scorer, declared for the draft yesterday, the final day for underclassmen to enter, ending his #Terps career.

After getting feedback from NBA scouts via Turgeon, Stoglin had said he was returning for his junior season, something that had many listing Maryland as a potential top 25 team next season. But with this decision yesterday, the ACC's leading scorer is gone and Maryland needs to find someone to replace a lot of offense from last season.

Looking back at Twitter last night, Ashton Pankey was tweeting something that were potential red flags about this:

RT @KillahBon3s: #terpnation boutta be pissed in a few hours lol--" u aint lying lol

This decision seems rather abrupt, so I wonder if something more is involved that we don't know about. But rather then speculating, we're faced with the reality that Maryland will be Stoglin-less in 2012-2013, which means, in my opinion, this is now Nick Faust's team.

With Stoglin, many were speculating and picking Maryland as a top 25 team to start the 2012-2013 season. It also seemed to be the perfect opportunity for Maryland to jump back into the national spot light with their game against Kentucky at the new Barclay Center in Brooklyn, a game which many thought Maryland could win. But with Stoglin's departure, the chances of Maryland upsetting Kentucky just dropped considerably. The other thing that just dropped considerably is Maryland's chances of returning to the NCAA Tournament next season. I'm not saying it can't and won't happen, but without Stoglin, the chance of that happening are definitely reduced.

Stoglin accounted for 31.5% of Maryland's scoring last season. When you factor in Mosley's departure, who was Maryland's second leading scorer, the Terps lost just over 46% of their scoring offense from last season. That's a lot of offense to make up. I think you'll see Nick Faust, who came on very strong at the end of last season, stepping up, but he can't make up for losing 46% of the offense on his own. So the real question becomes which of the incoming freshmen are most poised to step in and immediately make an impact for Maryland next year?

I think the role of Shaquille Cleare just got much larger for net season, as well as Charles Mitchell and Jake Layman. This could be a team that focuses their offense on pounding the ball inside and then trying to open lanes for players like Faust and Jake Layman to slash to the basket. But the roles of Seth Allen and Sam Cassell Jr. are definitely going to be larger on this team then what we expected a few days ago. We'll be breaking down each of Maryland's freshman in the coming weeks, including discussing their anticipated role this season.

Maryland's guard depth is definitely a concern now due to Pe'Shon Howard's injury (and recent citation), Parker's transfer, and now Stoglin's decision to leave early. We better hope Howard is ready to go by the start of the season. It's kind of weird that Maryland's guard depth was arguably their strength last season and now that has done a 180 as the front court is now the stronger unit on this team.

Well this offseason just took on a totally new focus. Instead of debating whether Maryland deserves to be a top 25 team, we'll be speculating if Maryland will add another guard for 2012 (I personally don't think so) or whether we'll save that scholarship for 2013. Also, does Dodd still redshirt next season (I say yes)?

Ah, the world of college basketball...