Maryland basketball: How Trayvon Reed's absence will impact the Terps

With Friday's news that four-star center Trayvon Reed will not be enrolling at Maryland, Mark Turgeon now finds himself with a 2014 class that will now only feature four players. How will losing Reed impact Maryland this year, next year and into the future? What will happen in 2016 recruiting as a result of Reed not enrolling? We take a look at those impacts, which will be felt through the 2017-2018 season.

Impact on 2014-2015 season:

Reed was part of a five-player, highly ranked class for head coach Mark Turgeon. With Reed, the class was ranked as the 12th best nationally, according to the 247sports composite rankings and second in the Big Ten. Without Reed, Maryland's class drops, but not much, falling one spot to 13th, just behind Seton Hall. The class remains as the second best in the Big Ten, trailing just Ohio State, which checks in with the 8th best class. But what about on the court this season?

With the departures of Seth Allen, Charles MItchell, Shaq Cleare, Nick Faust and Roddy Peters, Maryland was expected to reply heavily on their large freshman class this season, especially in the front court.

	2014-15	2015-16	2016-17	2017-18
1	Dez Wells	Jake Layman	Damonte Dodd	Melo Trimble
2	Evan Smotrycz	Damonte Dodd	Robert Carter	Dion Wiley
3	Jonathan Graham	Robert Carter	Melo Trimble	Jared Nickens
4	Richaud Pack	Melo Trimble	Dion Wiley	Trayvon Reed
5	Jake Layman	Dion Wiley	Jared Nickens	Michal Cekovsky
6	Damonte Dodd	Jared Nickens	Trayvon Reed	OPEN
7	Melo Trimble	Trayvon Reed	Michal Cekovsky	OPEN
8	Michal Cekovsky	Michal Cekovsky	OPEN	OPEN
9	Dion Wiley	OPEN	OPEN	OPEN
10	Jared Nickens	OPEN	OPEN	OPEN
11	Trayvon Reed	OPEN	OPEN	OPEN
12	Robert Carter	OPEN	OPEN	OPEN
13	OPEN	OPEN	OPEN	OPEN

Reed was expected to help as a rim defender, giving Maryland a strong inside presence along with fellow freshman Michal Cekovsky and sophomore Damonte Dodd. Most expected Cekovsky, who appears much more polished offensively and has a more diversified game, to start and get more minutes than Reed, especially after it was discovered during his physical with that school that Reed had a fractured right ankle and was expected to miss most of the summer workouts recovering from that injury.

But while Reed would have been behind Cekovsky and possibly Dodd on the depth chart, his loss is still significant as it leaves Maryland with just two players at the five spot (and arguably one, since Cekovsky likes to spend a lot of time outside the paint, despite his seven-foot height). Additionally, Damonte Dodd was extremely susceptible to foul trouble last season, leading the team in fouls committed per 40 minutes at 6.5, according to Kempom.com. Reed would have likely played several key minutes in situtions where Dodd picked up quick fouls. Now if Dodd and Cekovsky get into foul trouble, Maryland doesn't really have another player in the paint, meaning they'll have to go with a smaller lineup should that situation arise.

Reed's departure also leaves Maryland with just 12 scholarship players this season. Since there really aren't any transfers available who would be eligible this season this close to the start of the school year, I'd expect Turgeon to give Reed's scholarship to a player like Varum Ram, who actually played important minutes for Maryland last season.

Impact next season:

Reed's departure for the Terps for next season (2015-2016) means Maryland will have just seven players on scholarship at this point, giving Mark Turgeon and his staff six available scholarships to work with as they put together their next recruiting class.

Maryland up to this point hadn't really been focusing on taking a center in 2015, but with Reed's departure, they'll probably be more active on that front moving forward. Our basketball recruiting editor, Andrew Emmer, will have more on this in the coming days.

While it remains to be seen who Maryland will target in 2015 or 2016 to replace the loss of Reed, the Terps do get Robert Carter in 2015, the star transfer from Georgia Tech who had to sit out the 2014-2015 season due to NCAA transfer rules. That will give Maryland more depth in the front court and will likely help minimize the loss of Reed. It also means Mark Turgeon could target more of a project center for 2015, since the Terps will have both Carter and Cekovsky through the 2016-2017 season (and Cekovsky through 2017-2018), barring an early NBA draft or other departure from the program.

Impact beyond 2015-2016

Reed's departure means Maryland will only have four seniors in the 2017-2018 season, but based on the number of transfers and other unforeseen circumstances that happen in college basketball today, it's really hard to predict how the loss of Reed will impact Maryland in four seasons. Unless the NCAA amends the transfer rules, each offseason will be essentially a free agency period for players, especially those who have graduated and are looking to play immediately at another program. It would have obviously been nice to have a senior, 7'1" rim defender on the roster, but is it possible that Maryland could have someone better to replace Reed? Mark Turgeon has been recruiting at an elite level since he arrived at Maryland, despite not yet making the NCAA tournament and moving from the ACC to the B1G. As Andrew noted on our podcast this week, ff Maryland can have a good season this year, which is entirely possible, even without Reed, Turgeon and his staff could recruit at an even higher level moving forward, meaning the loss of Reed, in the grand scheme of things, might not hurt the Terps much, if at all.