Maryland Basketball: Breaking down the 2018 recruiting class

Maryland basketball has had a bit of a tumultuous offseason. Regardless, the Terps still have plenty of potential in 2018-19 thanks to a young roster.

Maryland basketball missed the NCAA Tournament for the first time as a member of the Big Ten this past season. With the four leading scorers on the team all being underclassmen, a major reason for this down year can be attributed to youth. Nonetheless, though, it was a disappointing campaign for the Terrapins.

Then, in the offseason, the outlook did not get much better as both Justin Jackson and Kevin Huerter elected to leave school early to pursue professional opportunities. In addition, the program also had to say goodbye to graduating seniors Michal Cekovsky and Jared Nickens as well as Dion Wiley, who elected to transfer.

While the offseason was certainly difficult for Maryland, it still seems likely that they will start 2018-19 with expectations of improving on last year’s performance. Despite the many departures, UMD is still bringing back three incredibly important pieces. At the forefront during this upcoming campaign will be rising junior Anthony Cowan, an all-around star guard. In addition, he is joined by rising sophomores Bruno Fernando and Darryl Morsell.

These three returners will be major players in leading the charge for the Terps during this upcoming campaign but they are getting reinforcements. With five highly-touted recruits coming in, Maryland will not be short on talent this year. Overall, this class is rated as the seventh-best in the country. Hard to do much better than that.

Now, let’s break down each of the players joining the program and see what they might bring to the table.