Maryland Basketball: Boston College transfer Jairus Hamilton commits to Terps

Maryland Basketball took the first step toward re-tooling their roster in the afterglow of this past championship season by snagging former Boston College Small Forward Jarius Hamilton from the transfer portal. Hamilton may be the first domino to fall for Terps recruiting during this busy period.

Maryland Basketball was already looking at some attrition in the frontcourt this season, with the likely departure of sophomore phenom Jalen Smith to the NBA. More recently, 2nd-year forward Ricky Lindo made clear his intention to enter the transfer portal as well. The news of Jairus Hamilton’s transfer comes as a welcome relief to a program that has more questions than answers on the block, as the team looks to reload for next season.

The 6-8, 234 lb. Charlotte North Carolina product averaged 9.5 points per game during this past season with Boston College. Hamilton has a reputation as an athletic small forward that can really get out and produce in transition situations. He also looks to be a tough and effective rebounder at the position. He wasn’t too effective from behind the arc (to the tune of 28%), but his form and shot mechanics left a great deal of room for refinement through repetition.

If Hamilton would’ve stayed in Chestnut Hill, he would have been part of a pretty solid young core of players for the Boston College program. Hamilton has a little bit of history with the Terps program, having been recruited by them coming out of high school in North Carolina. That familiarity with the Maryland program may have paid off without the brain trust in  College Park realizing it.

In an interview with Inside Maryland Sports’ Jeff Ermann, Hamilton laid out exactly why the Terrapins won out the second time around.  ” It was big. I already knew a lot about the program and have a relationship with coach Turgeon,” Hamilton said. Mark Turgeon has developed a reputation over the years as being a players’ coach, which has translated into becoming one of the better recruiting head coaches in the Big 10. The relationships he builds during the process often resonates with the players he recruits, which has paid big dividends during his tenure.

This is especially true for Turgeon’s penchant for attracting high profile transfers to College Park during his watch, with the likes of Duke’s Rasheed Suliamon, Xavier’s Dez Wells, and Georgia Tech’s Robert Carter electing to become part of the Terrapin program because of his recruiting efforts. With Jairus Hamilton in the fold for this cycle, the Terps’ staff can now re-focus their efforts toward bringing some of the biggest prizes still on the transfer market.

Yale’s Jordan Bruner, Radford’s Carlik Jones, and Harvard’s Bryce Aiken are the diamonds of this season’s transfer portal bounty. Under regular NCAA guidelines, Hamilton would be required to sit out a season and would retain two years of eligibility left. The COVID-19 pandemic has thrown the end of the NCAA season into turmoil, however, so there’s a real possibility that transfer stipulation may be waived outright. That would make Hamilton immediately eligible for the 2020-2021 basketball season, which would be a boon for Turgeon’s frontcourt depth going forward.

Jairus Hamilton’s commitment could very well be the first domino to fall in the Terps’ 2020 transfer recruiting aspirations. The portal has been a welcome resource during Mark Turgeon’s tenure guiding the Maryland Terrapin program. This year’s bumper crop could be the program’s best yet if the cards fall the right way. Daryll Morsell, Aaron Wiggins, and Eric Ayala lead a solid core of backcourt and wing players coming back for next year.

Replacing the dynamic duo of Jalen Smith and Anthony Cowan Jr. during this offseason will be paramount to the Terps maintaining the momentum generated during this Big 10 championship season.