While the Maryland football team opens its season Monday night against Miami, the Terps men’s basketball staff will stay busy by hosting several notable visitors.
Philadelphia forward Amile Jefferson, Wrentham, Mass., forward Jake Layman and Gonzaga (D.C.) junior point guard Nate Britt were among the prospects tentatively scheduled to be in College Park this weekend. The Washington Post’s Josh Barr caught up with Britt’s father to discuss the Terps.
As for Maryland, in addition to the feeling out process between a recruit and a coach, there is an interest in seeing new coach Mark Turgeon’s style up front and personal.
“You want to see how he is going to coach his team this coming year,” Britt Sr. said. “He wanted to do that before saying, ‘I do,’ because at the end of the day, that [coach] is who he is going to be working for.”* Terps target Mitch McGary, who is scheduled to make an official visit to Michigan this weekend, could reportedly make six official trips.
In [Adam] Finkelstein’s report, he explains that McGary was technically a senior last season, and his 2011-12 year at Brewster Academy in Wolfeboro, N.H., will officially be a post-graduate year — making it possible for him to officially visit all six schools (Michigan, Duke, Kentucky, North Carolina, Maryland and Florida) on his list, if he so chooses.
* Maryland target and DeMatha forward Jerami Grant was scheduled to visit Rutgers this weekend.
* HighSchoolHoop.com posted a Q&A this week with Maryland-bound combo guard Seth Allen.
HSH: What was it like going against John Wall? You guys were going three-on-three and you two were matched up hard.
SA: Yeah it was fun. I played against him a lot up at Maryland because he comes to the Maryland open gym so I play with him up there. It’s fun because he’s a number one draft pick in the NBA so I feel like if I can go at him and score on him then I can score on anybody.
* The Progress-Index of Petersburg, Va., profiled UM wing target Andrew White.
To date, rivals.com has White receiving more than two-dozen offers. The list is highlighted by offers from BYU, George Mason, Virginia Tech, Richmond, Southern Florida, Utah, and Miami (Florida). More importantly, with the Kansas addition, White has received offers from Cincinnati (1961, 1962), Connecticut (1999, 2004, 2011), Louisville (1980, 1986), Maryland (2002) and North Carolina State (1974, 1983).
* Terps targets Aaron and Andrew Harrison are reportedly planning to attend Kentucky’s Big Blue Madness next month.
* Kamari Murphy, a three-star forward from Brooklyn, N.Y., who reportedly draw some UM interest, committed this week to Oklahoma State.
The school’s basketball coach, Travis Ford, paid Murphy a visit in Georgia, where he has family, before the start of the AAU season, Murphy said. It was all part of a full-court press by the Cowboys, who were unwavering in their commitment to Murphy, recruiting him since his junior year at Lincoln.
* Oklahoma State also officially landed 2011 center Marek Soucek.
Ford’s pursuit of Soucek began months ago, but was kept hush-hush as the Cowboys coach worked to get the young Czech’s class work verified here through the NCAA. Once complete, OSU had to provide a visa for Soucek to take to the embassy there, clearing the way for a passport and his ticket to, eventually, Stillwater, hopefully before any of the other interested schools – Maryland, Washington, Seton Hall, Gonzaga, to name a few – pounced, too.
Football recruiting
* UM tight end pledge P.J. Gallo was profiled this week by PhillyBurbs.com.
Gallo has gone from a 6-foot-4, 220-pound relative string bean as a junior to 245 pounds and he says he has not lost any of his quickness.
“Everyone wanted me to (gain weight),” Gallo said. “I can definitely see the benefits. I still feel comfortable at this weight. I was actually bigger, but I dropped a few pounds.
* Terps athlete commitment Shawn Petty was named one of 10 players to watch by the Prince George’s County Gazette.
Headed to the University of Maryland, this multi-talented quarterback should easily best his 1,109 passing yards and 12 touchdowns in eight games last season as long as he remains healthy. Petty missed a chunk of last season with a broken collarbone.
* The Frederick News-Post previewed Linganore’s season this week, focusing much of its story on Maryland-bound athlete Joe Riddle.
“Joe may be in the backfield, he may be out wide,” Linganore coach Rick Conner said of the senior standout. “Who knows where he’s going to be? He’s going to be all over the place, I think.”
* Pittsburgh Central Catholic teammates and UM recruits Perry Hills and Anthony Nixon were mentioned in a Philly.com story previewing the team’s game against Archbishop Wood.
“[Nixon is] very fast, a real physical specimen,” [Wood coach Steve] Devlin said. “We’ll have a couple of defensive packages for him.”
* The Carroll County Times wrote this week about defensive end Noah Spence, a teammate of Terps linebacker pledge Brock Dean at Bishop McDevitt in Harrisburg, Pa.
“When [defensive line coach Greg Gattuso] went to Maryland, that made Maryland a top choice of Noah’s,” [Bishop McDevitt coach Jeff] Weachter said.
* Dean received mention in The Patriot News’ Bishop McDevitt season preview.
The outside backers are simply lethal. Maryland recruit Brock Dean (6-1, 220 sr) gets to the ball in a hurry and is a pure playmaker.
* Three Terps targets were listed as offensive players to watch in The Sun’s 2011 high school football preview: Gilman’s Cyrus Jones, Franklin’s Ian Thomas and Loyola’s Jordan Floyd.
A second-team All-Metro defensive back, Floyd should stand out even more on the offensive end this season after grabbing 44 receptions for 709 yards and 11 touchdowns a year ago.
* Maryland pledge Roman Braglio of McDonogh was named a Sun defensive player to watch.
A bookend on the Eagles’ defensive line with Allen Jackson, the 6-foot-4, 260-pound Braglio, who is headed to Maryland, had 67 tackles and 10 sacks a year ago.
