Maryland transfer news: Terps reach out to Hawaii transfer guard, plus updates on other potential targets

The last time we checked in on the college basketball transfer market, we said that Maryland would probably look to add a guard to backup presumed starters Melo Trimble and Seth Allen. Since then...well...it's safe to say they definitely need one now.

With the departure of Allen, Maryland only has four scholarship guards on the roster: Dez Wells, Trimble and fellow freshmen Dion Wiley and Jared Nickens (who could also be considered a wing). Of those players, only Trimble should be relied upon play the point guard position for any meaningful minutes. Lucky for the Terps, there are a few names connected with them in some way that could fix at least some of their problems.

New Names

Keith Shamburger - PG, Hawaii - 6-0/170

(Update: Shamburger has transferred to Missouri).

Shamburger popped onto Maryland fan's radar yesterday when he tweeted this:

Maryland offered today #terps

— Keith Shamburger (@MagicShammm) May 6, 2014

Now, no one has actually confirmed he has a legit offer so all we have to go on is this tweet, but that's good enough to talk about him.

Shamburger, a Los Angeles native, started at the point for San Jose State in his first two collegiate seasons, averaging 12.7 points and 3.7 assists per game. He transferred to Hawaii after the 2011-12 season and sat out a year due to NCAA rules. In his only season at Hawaii, he put up 9.3 points, 5.4 assists and 3 rebounds per game.

While his shooting percentages were less than ideal -- 34.9% from the field and 30.8 from three - Shamburger was very much not a player that looked for his own shot often. He was a prototypical "pass first" point guard at Hawaii, a transition from being a major scoring option at San Jose State. In his first two seasons he averaged about 11 field goal attempts per game. He cut that number nearly in half at Hawaii at just under 7 attempts per game. To put that in context, in just about double the number of minutes last season (1001 to 594) Shamburger, a starter, took four fewer shots than Seth Allen (215 to 219).

Where The Shamburglar really excels is in his assist to turnover ratio (ATOR). He had the 26th best ATOR in the nation at 2.7 (5.4 assists and 2.0 turnovers per game). The three best ATORs on Maryland's team last year were Allen (1.8), Roddy Peters (1.2) and Nick Faust (1.1). He's obviously an upgrade as a ball handler and distributor, an important role that could help provide more focus to the offense.

Keron DeShields - G, Montana - 6-2/177

DeShields is another name that's surfaced in the last few days when he announced he'd be transferring from Montana. Last season the Baltimore native averaged 11.8 points, 2.5 assists and 2.7 rebounds, shooting 49.8% from the field and 36.6% from three in 31.1 minutes per game. His eFG% (a stat that gives three-pointers more weight) of .560 would have been the best on Maryland's team last season by a wide margin -- Dez Wells led the team at .508.

He's only been on the market since Tuesday and we don't know if the Maryland staff's made contact with him yet, but he'd be an enticing addition. They can obviously sell the "home town" angle and I came across this tweet when searching "Keron DeShields Terps" on Twitter.

Ex-Pallotti PG Keron DeShields, ex-Carver PG Daquein McNeil - an early Terps target - are playing for @VTACADEMYHOOPS http://bit.ly/b9AzPg

— Matt Bracken (@MattBracken) September 14, 2010

This article (here's the real link, since the one in the tweet in broken) talks about Maryland assistant Bino Ranson having a good relationship with DeShields' Vermont Academy coach, Jesse Bopp, and teammate Daquein McNeil, a former Maryland target that ended up at Minnesota.

DeShields attended Towson Catholic High School and then St. Vincent Pallotti in Laurel, MD before transferring to Vermont Academy. He also played for Baltimore Assault on the AAU circuit. According to another Baltimore Sun article, one of the motivations to go to Vermont Academy was to get away from the violence he'd experienced in Baltimore. Montana was the only D-1 school to offer and he jumped at the opportunity.

Eron Harris - G, WVU - 6-3/195

The sophomore Harris was the Mountaineers' second-leading scorer last season but announced he would transfer in late March. In a statement he said his intention was to move closer to his home of Indianapolis, so imagine my surprise when Jeff Goodman tweeted out the schools that have contacted Harris since his release.

West Va transfer Eron Harris told ESPN has heard from Mich, Marquette, Butler, Auburn, Mich. St., Ohio St, MD, UCLA, Illini. IU, Purdue, UNM

— Jeff Goodman (@GoodmanESPN) May 8, 2014

UCLA, New Mexico, Auburn and Maryland are definitely not near Indianapolis. I should point out that Harris didn't say he's interested in all these schools, they are just the ones that have reached out.

Barring a ridiculous waiver, Harris will not be eligible next season. He's a great, proven scorer who averaged 17.2 points, 3.5 rebound and 1.6 assists last season. He took a ton of threes (over 50% of his shots) but hit a ridiculous 42.2% of them.  His eFG% was also fantastic at .544.

I have no idea how realistic of an addition Harris would be and it wouldn't pay dividends until the 2015-2016 season. That said, if Turgeon can convince him that College Park is basically the Midwest because they're part of the Big Ten, he'd be a great addition. Imagine a backcourt of a sophomore Trimble and junior Harris? Yes, please.

Update

Ian Chiles

We've discussed Ian Chiles a few times in the past weeks, and it seems we may know his future school soon. According to ESPN's Jeff Goodman, he's visited Auburn and will visit Tennessee and Maryland in the next week, deciding between the three schools afterwards.

Looking from the outside, all three options should be appealing to a player like Chiles. Auburn and Tennessee are rebuilding under new coaches Bruce Pearl and Donnie Tyndall and have plenty of playing time available for a proven scorer.

Maryland plays in a much better conference and has top notch facilities, but probably aren't offering the amount of playing time he could find at the SEC schools. With the transfers of Allen and Peters there will be minutes to be had at both the one and the two, but as a backup. The Terrapins also have the most talented roster of the three and the best chance of going to an NCAA tournament.

Inside Maryland Sports has a paywalled article about Chiles, so check that out if you have a subscription.

A name to watch

KC Ross-Miller

KC Ross-Miller is a name that's still brought up in the Maryland transfer hunt due to this tweet from about a month ago to Maryland assistant coach Dustin Clark.

@CoachClarkHoops Coach Dustin, wassup man. DM me.

— KC Ross-Miller (@KCRossMiller12) April 10, 2014

Since then we haven't heard much, or really anything regarding whether the Terps were interested in the controversial guard from New Mexico State.

Ross-Miller was involved in the infamous February 27th brawl with Utah Valley State players and fans and was suspended the remainder of the season. The brawl, the tweet and his stats (8.3 ppg/ 3.5 apg/ 2.2 rpg/ 43.7 FG%/ 39.3 3P%) are all I know about him, but if the roster turnover was really a "culture change" as some of speculated, I'm not sure Coach Mark Turgeon would want to bring in a player with Ross-Miller's baggage.