Maryland recruiting updates on Jordan Hawkins, Jalen Warley, James Graham and more
Decision time is coming for two of Maryland’s top shooting guard targets, and neither appear likely to pick the Terps.
Local top-60 shooting guard Jordan Hawkins (DeMatha) planned to trim his list down to a more manageable number last week, but he scrapped that plan on Friday and instead will announce a commitment date soon. Hawkins is one of Maryland’s top backcourt options, along with top-25 Westtown (Pa.) combo guard Jalen Warley, who announced this week that his recruitment is coming to an end in the near future as well.
Warley said he will reveal his college choice on August 9. He’s down to six schools and Maryland isn’t one of them, according to 247Sports. Florida State appears to be the favorite to land Warley, while UConn is in the lead for Hawkins.
Primarily due to local connections, there was some hope that Maryland could land either Hawkins or Warley, but Mark Turgeon and company will likely have to expand their search for a shooting guard now. Among their current backcourt targets, they’re still in the mix for Wesley Cardet, Blake Wesley, Aminu Mohammed and Jordan Nesbitt, but Cardet is the only one who the Terps appear to have serious traction with and he doesn’t plan to decide until the spring.
Elsewhere, Maryland is hoping the work its put in on four-star Wisconsin forward James Graham III pays off. Graham is closing in on a decision, and while there’s nine schools still in the mix, the Terps are one of the top contenders. Graham was expected to conduct Zoom calls with Maryland and Marquette last week, according to Stockrisers.com. Michigan State and Florida State, meanwhile, no longer appear to be in the mix after adding forwards in recent weeks.
Wisconsin is another school that has been mentioned as a contender for Graham, but not jumping in until last month could hurt the Badgers, similarly to how the Terps’ late entry into Hawkins’ recruitment likely hindered their chances with him. Relationships are important to the fast-rising 6-foot-9 forward, and Maryland was the first school to offer him in the spring, just like how the Huskies jump-started Hawkins’ recruitment with another offer around the same time.
While the Terps’ shooting guard board is in limbo, Graham has been their clear-cut top target at forward for a while now, and getting him on board to join Baltimore natives Julian Reese and Ike Cornish in the 2021 class is even more important now after secondary option Eric van der Heijden pledged to Louisville Friday. The Terps have two open scholarships left in the class following the addition of Switzerland big man Arnaud Revaz last week, and adding a shooting guard and a versatile forward remain the staff’s top priorities with the summer coming to a close.
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Basketball & recruiting writer