Maryland becomes latest program to offer fast-rising local wing

Jordan Hawkins has been one of the hottest names in recruiting circles over the past few months, but one program that was curiously quiet in his recruitment prior to this week was Maryland.

Jordan Hawkins has been one of the hottest names in recruiting circles over the past few months, but one program that was curiously quiet in his recruitment prior to this week was Maryland, which ended their silence by offering the local class of 2021 wing on Monday.

Blessed to receive an offer from the University of Maryland #terps pic.twitter.com/PSumL2qLNx

— J hawk (@golive23) June 29, 2020

The Terps’ absence in Hawkins’ recruitment was notable given the program’s seemingly rocky relationship with his high school, DeMatha Catholic (Md.), which hasn’t had a player sign with Maryland in more than a decade. The 6-foot-6 sharpshooter was one of three top-100 recruits in-state recruits in either the 2021 or 2022 class without an offer from the hometown program prior to Monday, with one of the others being high school teammate Tyrell Ward, who joined forces with Hawkins and Michigan-bound center Hunter Dickinson to lead DeMatha to a Washington Catholic Athletic Conference (WCAC) championship in February. Dickinson, a five-star recruit who signed with Michigan in April, criticized Maryland for its local recruiting efforts earlier this month.

Hawkins flew under the radar at Gaithersburg (Md.) for his first two high school seasons before transferring to DeMatha last year, but he’s picked up offers from Louisville, Georgetown, LSU, Pittsburgh, UConn, Creighton, Clemson, Georgia and Wake Forest since March due to his intriguing combination of size, shooting ability and defensive potential. He proved in his first year with the Stags he could be a complementary player on a good team, and he was expected to show an expanded arsenal while playing alongside Maryland commit Ike Cornish and top backcourt target Jalen Warley on the AAU circuit this summer before the pandemic put basketball on hold. The four-star’s recruitment appears to be more wide open than most recruits at this stage due to his late emergence nationally, and he said as recently as last month that he doesn’t plan on choosing a college until next spring.

The offer to Hawkins came on the same day top-25 Pace Academy (Ga.) wing Matthew Cleveland cut his list to five schools and eliminated Maryland from consideration.