Maryland basketball recruiting 2016 board: Offers, targets, news

To keep all Terps recruiting information in one spot, Testudo Times is introducing its Class of 2016 basketball recruiting page. This page will serve as the ultimate resource for news on all of Maryland's basketball targets.

Features:

• Map to show where each of the recruits are playing their final year of high school ball.
• News on all players still considering Maryland. Chart information is taken directly from 247sports, and the offers listed are mostly from the collective lists of 247sports, ESPN and VerbalCommits.
• A school highlighted in blue indicates it is on a players' remaining list.
• Recruiting information will be updated daily, and time-stamped.

Class of 2016

Point Guards:

Anthony Cowan

The St. John's (DC) point guard is the only player in the class of 2016 to verbally commit to the Terps, doing so back in January. The 6'0" Bowie, MD native has multiple connections to College Park that helped play a role in his decision to commit. He had this to say to The Baltimore Sun about his decision:

"I wanted to stay home, and I know Maryland wanted me to stay home. Everything was the right fit, and that was the place I wanted to be."

"He [Coach Turgeon] said that the point guards they have or are recruiting don't do what I do. He just has a lot of different guards that he needs for different things, and that what makes the team so good."

Cowan will join Jaylen Brantley at the point guard position, assuming Melo Trimble takes his talents to the NBA after this season. Cowan is already doing his best to recruit fellow members of the class of 2016 such as 5-star target Markelle Fultz, who is currently ranked the 7th best recruit by 247Sports. Check out a more detailed profile on Cowan here.

Markelle Fultz

Fultz is one of the most coveted prospects in the class of 2016, and for good reason. He plays point guard for DeMatha Catholic (Md.) and has impressed many over the last couple of months. As mentioned he just recently moved up to the seventh best recruit via 247Sports and apparently is still growing. He's listed as 6'4" but many project him to grow to at least 6'6" by the time he reaches the college ranks, moving from point guard to a wing player. The Terps are competing with Kentucky, North Carolina, Louisville, and Arizona among others for Fultz's talents. For what it's worth, 247Sports crystal ball predictions have him going to Kentucky (56%), Arizona (28%), or Louisville (11%). He has also said Kentucky at one point was his "dream school."

Update:

8/13 - Fultz will take an official visit to Washington between 8/13 and 8/16.

8/21 - Fultz committed to the University of Washington live at the Elite 24 on ESPNU.

Frank Jackson

Another 5-star prospect, Jackson is a 6'3" point guard who is viewed as the 4th best at his position in the class of 2016. He faces a difficult choice upon graduation, other than what college he will commit to. Jackson is a Mormon and he must chose between going to college or serving a mission, as is standard in the Mormon religion upon graduating. Most schools that are recruiting the Utah native are more than willing to wait for a year, should he choose to serve a mission. Jackson averaged nearly 25 points per game in the Adidas gauntlet this summer and shot 56.2%. It is very unlikely that he ends up in College Park as Duke has been after him hard, as well as Stanford. Jackson has even recently stated that he doesn't plan on taking any official visits other than to Durham  247Sports has Jackson going to Duke at 93%.

Update:

8/26 - Jackson cut his list to four: BYU, Duke, Stanford, Utah.

8/31 - Jackson will announce his decision tomorrow.

9/1 - Jackson committed to Duke.

Shooting Guards:

Rawle Alkins

This 5-star recruit and number one player in the state of New York will be a name to remember for years to come. He is a freak athlete who is comfortable handling the point guard position but is built like a forward at 6'5", 210 pounds. He will enroll in prep school for his senior year of high school due to eligibility concerns. When he was in 8th grade in Florida, he played varsity basketball, which would cause him to be ineligible at his current high school in Brooklyn, NY. 247Sports crystal ball sees him going to Kentucky where he plans to visit in October, however Alkins just recently released a list with his top ten and Maryland made the cut.

Update:

8/6 - Alkins received an offer from Arizona and readjusted his top 10 list to a top 11 list.

9/9 - Alkins is taking an unofficial visit to St. John's today.

9/11 - Alkins was visited by NC State.

9/13 - Alkins unofficially visited North Carolina.

9/16 - Alkins will be visited by Indiana assistant Chuck Martin, Roy Williams and Slice Rohrssen were there yesterday.

9/23 - Alkins updated his list to include eight teams: Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisville, NC State, North Carolina, UNLV and St. John's.

Mustapha Heron

Heron is a 6'5" guard from Waterbury, CT who was at one time committed to Pittsburgh, however he has since de-committed. The lefty has recently made a tenative list of schools he is interested in and among them are SMU, Mississippi State, St. John's, Alabama, Auburn, and Marquette along with Maryland. The 5-star recruit averaged 17 points and 6.5 assists at the Adidas Uprising Gauntlet finale in Atlanta, GA this summer. One interesting item to note is Heron's father is good friends with Barry Rohrrsen, an assistant coach at St. John's who used to be a Pittsburgh assistant, and a large reason why he initially committed to the Panthers.

Update:

8/7 - Heron is leaning towards Alabama, Auburn, Marquette, Mississippi State and St. John's, (schools in orange) but isn't crossing any teams off his list, and is open to the list changing. Duke, North Carolina and Kentucky are also showing interest in the shooting guard.

8/13 - Heron will unofficially visit Auburn weekend of 8/14-8/16.

8/16 - Heron has committed to Auburn after his unofficial visit there.

Kevin Huerter

Huerter is a versatile 6'5" shooting guard who just recently took an unofficial visit to College Park. He has been high on the Terrapins recruiting list ever since Coach Dustin Clark saw him early in the spring. He can shoot the three, handle the ball, and would be a perfect compliment to Anthony Cowan at point guard. This is something that Coach Turgeon has pitched to Huerter before during an in-home visit. He had this to say to 247Sports about the Terps:

"They talked about putting me in pick and roll situations, coming off screens, it was [appealing]. "I'm really interested in them."

He also holds offers from Notre Dame, Michigan, Syracuse, North Carolina and Iowa. 247Sports has him split 50/50 between the Terps and Notre Dame.

* A more in-depth look on Huerter here.

Update:

8/4 - Huerter talked up his unofficial visit to Maryland. He broke down film with Coach Turgeon, talked about bulking up with the trainers and is planning to schedule an official visit. He's expecting to make a mid-October decision.

8/10 - Huerter has scheduled an official visit to College Park for September 5th as well as one at Notre Dame on September 25th. He's also trimmed his list to six schools.

8/13 - Huerter is now considering 8 schools, and has official visits scheduled at Villanova 8/30-8/31, Maryland 9/4-9/6, Michigan 9/12-9/14 and Notre Dame 9/24-9/26.

8/31 - Huerter is visiting Villanova today.

9/7 - Huerter committed to Maryland.

DeAndre Hunter

Hunter received an offer from Maryland on July 26th after having a very solid July. Prior to this month, the 6'7" swing man had hit a lull when it came to receiving offers. However in the last two weeks alone, he has received offers from Maryland, Villanova, Virginia, Seton Hall, Connectictut, and Tennessee, among others. His skill set places him at more of a wing player as he can handle the ball and shoot the 3 exceptionally well, however he is on the smaller size and will need to bulk up a bit more by the time he gets to college in order to take contact on drives to the basket. Hunter is currently a 3-star recruit but could see a bump up to a 4-star by the time he enrolls in classes somewhere.

He was excited to receive an offer from Coach Turgeon having this to say to 247Sports:

"The offer from Maryland felt great, to be honest. They’ve been recruiting for so long, but it wasn’t until this weekend that they saw what they needed to offer."

Update:

8/6 - Hunter received an offer from Notre Dame.

8/7 - Hunter received an offer from Alabama.

8/9 - Hunter received an offer from Arizona State.

8/16 - Hunter cut his list to 11 schools.

9/12 - Hunter committed to Virginia.

Josh Jackson

Jackson is arguably the best player in the class of 2016. Jackson is, objectively, a beast on the court and holds offers from nearly every major school in the country. He is as close to a one and done player in this class as it gets and should have NBA teams drooling over him after his freshman season. He recently released a list of his top nine schools and Maryland made the cut. Media attention has been all over this kid, with his mother even shutting down reporters trying to talk to him. The crystal ball at 247Sports has him leaning towards Arizona (50%), followed by Kansas (36%), and Maryland (7%).

Update:

8/7 - Jackson plans to visit Maryland sometime before August 22nd.

8/9 - Jackson received an offer from UTEP.

8/9 - Video of Jackson scoring 50 points, setting a new record at the Big Strick Classic in New York City.

8/17 - Jackson on an unofficial visit to Maryland?

8/21 - Jackson 'fell in love with [Xfinity Center]', and told Adam Zagoria he could 'envision himself at Maryland.'

Curtis "Cujo" Jones

Cujo has been on Maryland's radar for a couple of years now and is one of Coach Turgeon's top targets for the Class of 2016. The 6'3" guard is a unanimous 4-star recruit across the board and the 6th best combo guard in the country according to 247Sports. He has been battling tendonitis in his- knee this summer, but still holds offers from Indiana, Georgetown, Louisville, Ohio State, Florida, and Miami to name a few. Indiana and Georgetown seem to be Maryland's biggest competition in landing the Virginia native with Indiana having moved up in 247Sports crystal ball predictions to 67%.

Update:

8/28 - Jones will visit Indiana this weekend with his teammate Miles Bridges.

9/3 - Jones will visit Georgetown today.

9/9 -  Georgetown is expected to meet with Jones today.

9/15 - Jones was visited by Georgetown, Indiana and West Virginia at home.

9/15 - Jones has cut his list to Georgetown, Indiana, Oklahoma State and Cal.

9/19 - Jones committed to Indiana.

Brandon Robinson

Robinson is a 6'5" combo guard with a lot of length who can drain triples, and is continuing to garner offers from schools as recent as a couple of weeks ago. He trimmed his list of schools to ten in early July but has gotten offers from Louisville and Memphis, among others since then, so his list will most likely change. The Terps were on the original list and some believe Maryland to be among his top three choices along with Florida State and Georgia Tech.

Update:

8/4- Robinson adjusted his list, adding North Carolina and Louisville to the mix. He also scheduled visits to Maryland (9/12), Florida State (10/10) and Louisville. He stated he's looking to make an early college decision.

8/8 - Robinson is taking an official visit to Louisville this weekend.

8/23 - Robinson cut his list to 6 schools: Florida State (visiting 10/10), Georgia, Georgia Tech, Louisville (already officially visited), Maryland (9/12) and North Carolina.

9/7 - Robinson canceled his official visit to Maryland scheduled for next week and will visit Georgia Tech instead.

9/28 - Robinson committed to North Carolina.

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Forwards:

Wenyen Gabriel

The Terps would love to get the 2nd best player in the state of Massachusetts who as of June 2014, did not have a single D1 offer. He is currently a 4-star recruit, but that will most certainly change to a 5-star when all is said and done. He has grown four inches to 6'9" over the last year, has a 7'1" wingspan and can knock down the three ball. There isn't much this kid can't do other than lacking much of a back to the basket game. Everything points to this kid playing basketball for a long time, barring injury. The only downside to him is that he was apparently a Duke fan growing up, and after recently making him an offer, the Blue Devils seem to be the favorite to land Gabriel.

Update:

8/12 - Gabriel cut his list to 5 schools: Connecticut, Duke, Kentucky, Maryland and Providence (highlighted in blue). He'll visit Maryland from 9/4-9/6, Kentucky 9/25-9/27, Duke 10/16-10/18 and Connecticut and Providence TBD.

8/17 - Gabriel is now considered a 5-star recruit, via 247Sports composite.

8/27 - Gabriel's visit has been rescheduled to 9/11.

9/9 - Gabriel had an in-home visit with Maryland.

9/13 - Gabriel enjoyed his visit to College Park.

9/16 - Gabriel set official visits to UConn (10/2-4) and Providence (10/9-11).

9/16 - Gabriel was visited by Jon Scheyer of Duke.

9/25 - Gabriel is on an official visit to Kentucky this weekend.

9/28 - Gabriel will be visited by Duke's Coaches Mike Krzyzewski, Jon Scheyer and Jeff Capel tomorrow.

10/1 - Gabriel committed to Kentucky.

Brachen Hazen

The Terps offered Hazen on July 29th and is the most recent player offered a scholarship by Coach Turgeon. Hazen is a 6'8" face up forward who is from Columbia City, IN and holds offers from Creighton, St. Joseph's, Utah State, and Valparaiso, and has drawn interest from Georgetown, Cal, Pittsburgh, and Clemson. Hazen can shoot the ball and has power forward height, but will need to bulk up if he wants to succeed at the next level. He isn't currently ranked on 247Sports or ESPN but if he continues to get interest from high-major schools, that should change.

Update:

8/20 - Hazen unofficially visited Maryland, will unofficially visit Clemson 8/21, and officially visit Central Florida the first week in September.

9/3 - Hazen will visit UCF this weekend.

9/22 - Hazen committed to UCF.

Vance Jackson

Vance Jackson is a 6'8" forward from the west coast who was offered a scholarship from Coach Turgeon back in April. Not much has developed in favor of the Terps since then and most likely will remain that way. Jackson has offers from Arizona, Cal, UCLA, Kansas, Oregon, Arizona State, and Connecticut to name a few. It is most likely that he will end up staying on the west coast as 247Sports has him going to either Cal or UCLA.

Update:

8/9 - Jackson is on an unofficial visit to Washington.

9/1 - Jackson has official visits scheduled to Cal, Memphis and UConn.

9/21 - Jackson will visit UConn Thursday.

9/27 - Jackson enjoyed his visit to UConn, will officially visit Cal on Thursday.

10/16 - Jackson committed to UConn.

Mario Kegler

Kegler is a 4-star, 6'7", 195 pound forward by way of Jackson, MS. He has great handles for his size, can finish at the rim with authority, and has a solid mid-range shot. He is physically built and is a challenge to guard. He's ranked the eighth best small forward in the country and the best player in the state of Mississippi, via 247Sports. Out of 15 crystal balls, 47% have him going to Arizona State, 40% have him going to Mississippi State, 7% for Connecticut, and 7% for Connecticut.

Update:

8/16 - Good news for Terps fans, Kegler announced he has four official visits he plans on taking and Maryland is among that group. (Arizona State, Indiana, Connecticut).

9/11 - Kegler will officially visit Penn State on 9/26.

9/12 - Kegler set up official visits to Arizona State (9/18-20), Penn State (9/25-27), Maryland (10/15-17), Indiana (10/23-25). He's also deciding between LSU, UConn, Mississippi State and Baylor for a potential fifth and final official visit.

9/18 - Following Lamar Stevens' commitment to Penn State, Kegler has canceled his visit there, but will add one more.

9/22 - Kegler will visit Baylor this weekend.

10/7 - Kegler to officially visit Mississippi State this weekend.

11/11 - Kegler officially committed to Mississippi State.

Sacha Killeya-Jones

Sacha is a 4/5-star recruit originally from Chapel Hill who stands at 6'10" and is being courted by the likes of Kentucky, North Carolina, Kansas, Virginia, Duke, and Notre Dame among others. He originally committed to Virginia but de-committed last month and has since seen the offers roll in, Maryland being one of them. Don't be surprised if he ends up a 5-star at the rate he is impressing coaches and scouts. He has also said he has no time table as far as narrowing down his list. 247Sports Crystal Balls have him at 55/45 between Kentucky and UNC.

Update:

8/19 - Killeya-Jones committed to Kentucky.

Lamar Stevens

Stevens just narrowed down his list to eight schools and Maryland made the cut. Stevens is a small forward from Pennsylvania who was offered a scholarship by the Terps in April. The 4-star recruit is an athletic wing forward who was originally leaning heavily towards becoming a Hoosier, according to 247Sports. However recently many people believe he will follow his high school teammates and close friends, Nazeer Bostick and Tony Carr to Penn State. Stevens says he doesn't plan on making a decision until later in the fall and has made it clear that he is in no rush to narrow down his top eight anytime soon.

"I just want to focus on the eight, listen to what they have to say and what they have to offer. Eventually I’ll cut it down again, but for right now I just want to focus on the eight I have."

Update:

9/11 - Stevens will officially visit Penn State this weekend.

9/18 - Stevens committed to Penn State.

Micah Thomas

Thomas was named Mr. Basketball in Tennessee last season, after averaging 14 points per game, hitting 41 percent of his 3-point attempts and blocking 2.5 shots per game. He holds offers from Iowa State, LSU, Memphis, among others.

Updates:

10/30 - Thomas received an offer from Maryland.

Kassoum Yakwe

Yakwe is an interesting recruit for a couple of reasons. He's listed as a 3-star on Scout but a 4-star on 247Sports and ESPN so there is some discrepancy there. Nonetheless, he is a 6'7" defensive minded forward who holds offers from Kansas, Iowa State, Connecticut, and Indiana among others. He was recently named the EYBL Defensive Player of the Year by D1circuit.com after averaging 3.1 blocks and 6.3 rebounds per game with his summer team, the PSA Cardinals. He has put on almost 20 pounds in the last year which has allowed him to bang down low more. The biggest question mark for Yakwe is whether or not he will reclassify as a class of 2015 recruit, which he'd have to decide before summer's end.

Update:

8/9 - Yakwe will take an official visit to St. John's between 8/13 and 8/16, and visit Oregon 8/17-19.

8/19 - Yakwe will not take any more visits, and will decide between St. John's and Oregon.

8/23 - Yakwe committed to St. John's.

Centers:

Udoka Azubuike

Anytime you get compared to Shaquille O' Neal, you're doing something right. Azubuike has a great post up game, is great at boxing out, and can finish at the rim with authority. He can also run the floor pretty well for a big man. The short: Azubuike is the truth. Nothing about his game is soft. Maryland would love to get the Nigerian national, especially with the very real possibility of losing Diamond Stone and possibly Robert Carter Jr. to the NBA. 247Sports Crystal Ball predicts he will land at Florida State (88%) or Kentucky (12%).

Update:

8/9 - Azubuike received offers from Auburn, California and NC State.

9/14 - Azubuike will take an official visit to Kansas this weekend, but has no set list; recruitment is wide-open.

9/22 - Azubuike had an in-home visit with Florida coach Mike White.

9/29 - Azubuike will visit NC State this weekend along with Bam Adebayo and Rawle Alkins.

10/13 - Azubuike has a visit scheduled to North Carolina the weekend of October 23rd.

Credits:

Chart Images - 247sports + Wikipedia

Chart Information - 247sports, ESPN, VerbalCommits

Chart Stamp Font - Rebecca Simpson