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Connecticut guard Sam Cassell Jr. will graduate, transfer and be eligible to play immediately at his new school, CBS Sports' Jon Rothstein reported on Monday.
UConn's Sam Cassell Jr. will graduate and transfer, sources told @CBSSports. Immediately eligible for next season.
— Jon Rothstein (@JonRothstein) March 28, 2016
Once upon a time, Cassell was an important piece of Maryland's 2012 basketball recruiting class. He committed to Maryland, then decommited and committed again, all before the NCAA invalidated some of his high school classes and made him ineligible to play for the Terrapins.
"The NCAA just wants kids to fail," his famous father, NBA guard Sam Cassell, said back then.
Cassell wound up at Connecticut, while Jake Layman, Shaquille Cleare, Seth Allen and Charles Mitchell enrolled and played for Maryland. Only Layman would last longer than two years, while Cassell didn't play for the Terps at all.
Now that Cassell is apparently back on the market, he's someone to track for Maryland. Recruiting is largely about relationships, and Maryland has an extremely long one with the Cassells. (This is where I'll stress that this is a new development, and Cassell hasn't spoken publicly or to me yet about his future plans.)
Cassell was a redshirt junior at Connecticut last season, but he's only actually played games in two college seasons. He averaged 15 minutes and scored 4 points per game for UConn in 2014-15, and his minutes-per-game fell to 6.5 (with 2.2 points) this past season.
It's not likely he'd be Maryland's starting point guard, but the Terps might find themselves in need of backcourt help, and an immediately eligible combo guard isn't a bad place to start.
In other recruiting realms, three-star Virginia power forward Corey Manigault decommitted on Monday from Pitt, and a source said there are rumblings at Pitt that Manigault is eyeing Maryland.