Terps Wild R

Another big change occurred this week in Maryland's 2008 recruiting class with the news that Junior College Shooting Guard prospect Tyree Evans (Motlow CC) will receive a release from his Letter of Intent, signed just over a month ago, and will seek an opportunity to play elsewhere next season. This comes amid controversy about Evans' checkered past and questions of whether he would even be admitted to Maryland.

This continues what has been a wacky year of recruiting for the Terps that reflects the hard times that have fallen on the program. The Terps began this recruiting season with at least three scholarships to offer to members of the class of 2008. Local prospects like SG Sean Mosley of Saint Frances, a star since his freshman season of high school, as well as C Henry Sims of Mount Saint Joseph, emerged as the top priorities for Maryland, alongside other recruits such as PA SG Brian Walsh and NJ PF Quintrell Thomas.

As of August of last year, the Terps had no committments from the senior class of high school players. Sims committed to Georgetown, and Walsh chose Xavier after the Terps were not ready to accept his committment, still holding out hope for Mosley, a consensus top 50 recruit. Thomas, once seen as the top frontcourt recruiting priority for the Terps for most of the summer, dropped off the Maryland radar as interest faded (he would eventually choose Kansas over hometown Rutgers).

It seemed that NC SG Chris Turner would be a viable option, but business picked up in August when Mosley committed to the Terps over Virginia Tech, Florida State, Clemson, and Syracuse. Long one of the team's recruiting priorities, Mosley's committment was one of the biggest to the program in some time, a local player who had dominated the high school scene for years. In addition, nomadic C Terrence Jennings, an explosive athlete and top 20 prospect out of NC, committed to the Terps as well, helping to form what looked to be one of the great recruiting classes in Terrapin history.

But that didn't last. The nomadic Jennings, who had attended almost countless different schools, withdrew his verbal committme in early October before signing a Letter of Intent with Louisville. That stung, but the Terps got another unexpected surprise when local PF Gus Gilchrist, originally an '07 recruit before withdrawing his committment from Virginia Tech late in the process, decided to join the Terps, once again giving the team a strong one-two punch. The Terps also received a verbal committment from South Korean SF Jin Soo Kim, an '09 prospect whose size and outside shooting ability has led me to crown him the Korean Durant. There were even rumors that the Terps would finish up their class by adding PF/C Ater Majok of the Sudan, a one-time Baylor committment, to the mix.

The Terps followed those commitments up by giving their last vacant scholarship offer to PG Bobby Maze, a Junior College player originally from Prince George's county, whose addition signaled a much need injection of speed and ballhandling to next year's team. And then, even with no scholarships apparently remaining, the Terps took a committment from Maze's teammate Ken Bowman, a PF from California, after it became clear that Majok would not be coming to Maryland (he eventually signed with UConn).

But this momentum only meant that bad news was coming. And it did in the form of the news that Gilchrist, due to having signed a letter of intent to play at Virginia Tech, would be considered a transfer by ACC rules and would be forced to lose a year of eligibility at Maryland. As he had not enrolled until the Spring Semester, such a ruling meant he would be ineligible until the end of the Fall '08 Semester, thus in effect leaving him with just 2.5 years of eligibility remaining.

That's when things got out of control. Soon news came that Bowman would not make it to College Park. And then the Terps, still without a fourth scholarship open, signed SG Tyree Evans to a letter of intent, apparently leaving Maze out in the cold without a scholarship. While Shane Walker would soon leave the program and open up the needed scholarship, Maze's interest faded and he would eventually sign with Tennessee.

Maze's past was somewhat checkered, due to having bounced around to a number of schools, including transferring from Oklahoma after his freshman season after a mutual decision to do so with coach Jeff Capel. There were also rumored to be some academic issues which may have factored into the Terps taking Evans over Maze. But Evans also had a past of his own, which included jail time for a drug possession charge, as well as an indictment on statutory rape charges, a dismissal from his first Junior College team, and - apparently at least - more arrests.

Soon the media firestorm over a usually clean program like Maryland taking Evans ensued on Sports Illustrated's web site and in the Baltimore Sun. Was this a sign of desperation from Gary Williams? Was this the right move, taking a kid that such esteemed programs as Cincinnatti and Kansas State passed on? The articles seemed to point to a rift in the Athletic Department, as Athletic Director Deborah Yow claimed not to know of Evans' past (although even I knew).

And now with Evans admission in question, he will no longer be a Terp, by his own choice, at least from published reports. And not only that, but the Diamondback reported last week that Sean Mosley had yet to receive an SAT score high enough to allow him to play next season.

So as of right now, the Terps will have no new players suiting up for them when the season tips off in November. Gilchrist, barring the ACC's prior ruling on his eligibility being overruled, will not play until the end of exams for the fall semester. And Mosley will not be able to play unless he receives the requisite scores on his placement tests. It's a great time to be a Maryland fan.