Basketball recruiting needs to pick up the pieces, fast

In the wake of Aaron and Andrew Harrison’s decision to go to the University of Kentucky, the University of Maryland men’s basketball program is left picking up the pieces for the 2013-2014 recruiting class.

Maryland’s incoming freshman class this year is already highly anticipated in the College Park area as well as on a national scale. But the inability to lure the twin prospects has left a hole in the Terps 2014 class.

Alongside Damonte Dodd, who is expected to spend a year at prep school before joining the Terps next fall, Maryland’s next big prospect is four-star recruit Roddy Peters.

Peters, a 6-foot-4-inch point guard from Suitland, Md., was once said to be thrilled at any opportunity to play for his home state. However, basketball pundits believe that Maryland’s push towards the Harrison twins may have turned Peters away from the Terps and towards local recruiting rival Georgetown and Kansas.

Coach Mark Turgeon seems to have put himself in a bit of a whole, although you can hardly blame him. The opportunity to grab two top-five national recruits was too good to pass up, but has all of Turgeon and his staff’s attention on the twins shooed away an impressionable teen who is well aware that he is now a “backup plan” of sorts?

Peters, ranked No. 43 on the ESPN top 100 list for 2013-2014, is really the last play for Turgeon. Adding a stud point guard to a rising class of big men including Shaquille Cleare, Jake Layman and Charles Mitchell is paramount for a program looking to turn the corner in the recruiting game.

With a zone-heavy team like Syracuse joining the conference next season, the value of a strong point guard only increases in a deeper ACC.

If former Xavier guard Dez Wells has to wait until next season to don a Terp uniform, Maryland fans would love to see him share the backcourt with Peters, who is still unsure about when he will commit. Maryland fans just hope Peters hasn’t lost that original desire to play in College Park.

It’ll be up to the Maryland coaching staff to make sure the interest is still there. If Turgeon wants to compete in the ACC in the future, Peters’ decision might just depend on it.