Two top recruits select Maryland
In the past post, I bemoaned the lack of big men on the Maryland Men’s Basketball team. Well today’s post is happily looking to next year. We are fortunate to have two of the nation’s best coming to Terpland for 2009.
If the Terps manage to get into the tournament this year, things are really looking up for next year(2009). The real test of the Gary Williams legacy will be in the 2010 season. Maryland is in the hunt for some of the top point guard talent in the nation on the recruiting front. We will have to see how it progresses. The point is that with Gary and Chuck (Drisell), 2010 could be the year that the Terps are truly back in the national spotlight.
Speaking of those big guys, here is the situation. Jordan Williams and James Padgett are heading south to be Terps. Both are at lest 3 star national recruits. Both are at least 6’7″ and over 220lbs. According to popular opinion of those that follow the team, these were must get recruits.
But that is not all that we have in the cupboard for next year. Chicago-based big man, 6’10” Steve Goins appears as though he will sit out this season as a red-shirt. He looked “ok” in the exhibition game and some are wondering why is not getting any run this year. We trust that the basketball staff knows best.
Also, Jerome Burney, the sophmore power forward from Atlanta, looks like he will be out some time with a stress fracture in his right foot. He has had similar problems before and one has to wonder if he will be plagued his entire career at Maryland.
Lastly, but certainly not least, is South Korea’s Jin Soo Kim. Already 6’10”, but only 17 years old he has been pinned to the Maryland bench. He resembles the Grevis Vasquez body-type. Very long and reed thin. Hoepfully in the next year or so he will grow into his body. Jin Soo is the only South Korean playing D-1 basketball.
So there is a lot of height and hope for the near future. Just get through the 2008-09 season in one piece and future is bright.