The Maryland basketball program is one of eight finalists for David Beatty, a class of 2017 four-star combo guard. Beatty announced it on Twitter on Tuesday evening.
The other finalists, along with the Terrapins: UCLA, Georgetown, Virginia, Indiana, Connecticut, Temple and La Salle. Beatty attends St. Benedict’s Preparatory School and comes from Philadelphia, which likely explains the inclusion of the latter two schools.
The 247Sports Composite pegs Beatty as the No. 4 combo guard in the class and the No. 100 player overall. The Crystal Ball overwhelmingly projects him to UConn.
Maryland is in solid guard shape for a long time. Even if Melo Trimble turns pro after the 2016-17 season, the Terps are likely to have point guard Anthony Cowan in the fold for several more years. Jared Nickens and Jaylen Brantley each have two years of eligibility left. Dion Wiley has three, and Kevin Huerter has four.
But to state the obvious, landing the 6’3 Beatty would be great news for Mark Turgeon. Nearly as good news would be keeping him away from Indiana, Georgetown and Virginia, who all have adversarial relationships with Maryland in one sense or another.
Inside Maryland Sports’ Josh Stirn has some good detail on Beatty, too, including that Maryland offered him a scholarship after an unofficial visit in May. From Beatty:
“He’s got a lot of knowledge and he knows what he’s doing and he’s got good coaches under him -- coach Bino (Ranson), coach (Dustin) Clark -- they’re all great coaches and they all know what they’re doing. They like developing kids. They’ve just got like a great fan base. College Park, that’s like a city. Everybody admires Maryland. That experience was good.”
Beatty hasn’t stated a timeline for his final decision.