June News

It's actually been a pretty busy week in terms of news, but for some reason I haven't got around to posting about it yet.

First off, on Monday, Brian Walsh committed to Xavier. On the surface, it looks like a big blow. Walsh picked the Musketeers over the Terps and St. Joseph's, after it had seemed to be a formality to some that he would declare for the Terps this month. It also looked like Walsh was the coaching staff's top choice to fill the team's need for a pure shooting guard which had opened with Mike Jones graduating and Jeff Jones, once the shooting guard of the future, decommitting during last year's recruiting cycle.

But a story on Walsh's commitment from the Pittsburgh Post Gazette mentioned that:

A few weeks ago, Walsh thought he might be close to choosing Maryland, which had offered a scholarship. But Walsh said the Terrapins held him off, telling him to hold off on a decision until July.

This tidbit clearly shows the Terps weren't thinking of Walsh as the number one priority at all, despite having recruited him heavily for the past year. So where will the team turn now? The rumor mill is heating up, and it appears that the Terps might be in very strong shape with tough Baltimore shooting guard Sean Mosley (St. Frances Academy), with the team also recruiting Durham shooter Chris Turner as well. If the Terps can land Mosley - something that appears much more likely than it did even at the beginning of the month, it will be a huge recruiting success for the Terps, their biggest in some time.

Mark Schlabach had a story for ESPN saying that OT Jared Gaither is officially ineligible for the upcoming season. Disappointing news, but not terribly surprising to anyone that had followed the situation. The one interesting part was the claim that Gaither was leaning towards returning to school in hopes of regaining his eligibility for the 2008 season rather than declaring for the upcoming NFL supplemental draft. If true, it could be a huge boost to the 2008 team to have another very talented upperclassman to add to the mix. As it is the Terps figure to struggle with depth on the line this season without Gaither.