Gilchrist's next stop
It appears that Gus Gilchrist is heading to South Florida.
After asking out of his scholarship from Maryland last week, Gilchrist had narrowed his choices down to South Florida, West Virginia and Kentucky.
According to Terrelle Woody, Gilchrist's personal trainer, the 6-foot-9 forward will likely make his decision by the beginning of next week.
On the Maryland recruiting front -- or should we just call them The Replacements -- one of Gilchrist's former teammates at Progressive Christian Academy in Temple Hills is apparently back on the Terps' radar.
Lataye Darden, a 6-foot-8, 190-pound forward, is down to choosing between Maryland, Marquette and Oklahoma State, according to his coach, Russell Branch. Darden, who averaged 14 points and 11 blocks a game as a senior, was offered a scholarship by Gary Williams after Tyree Evans asked for his release last month, Branch said.
"If he gets cleared by the National Clearinghouse, I think it's a 9 out of 10 that he will go to Maryland,'' said Branch.
Branch has his own rooting interest in Darden going to College Park. Branch's cousin is former Terps star Joe Smith.
Branch, who took over at Progressive Christian Academy last year, had hoped that Darden and Gilchrist would have played together at Maryland.
"If Lataye (pronounced Latay) and Gus had played for Maryland together, they would have won a national championship,'' Branch said.
Comments
What ashame this team has gotten to the point that it has to take your 4th 0r 5th choice just to have enough warm bodies to practice. then again they could always start the tradition that Texas Am does with there football team and get people out of the stands . I just continue to just shake my head that this once proud basketball team has been put in this position. A top 25 team every year to being lucky to get invited to the NIT.
Posted by: bob lancione | June 11, 2008 5:25 PM
Question is about eligibility.
Why would Gus Gilcrest only be allowed to play 2-1/2 years @ Md. and longer else-where. It seems he sould have 4 years available where ever he goes. Lataye Darden should call Gus and put this winning combination on the same court @ Md.
What a perfect scenerio for both players.
Posted by: Danny Pierce | June 11, 2008 6:28 PM
Danny-
Gus would only have been allowed to play 2 1/2 years at Maryland because he had originally committed to Virginia Tech and then transferred to an intra-conference institution. He would have had to sit another year before he could play in the ACC. In another conference, he can play right away.
Posted by: Graham | June 11, 2008 9:51 PM
Found this online... I have read numerous reports that Gilcrest was going to be allowed to play this December - but this clearly makes it sound as if he would be required to sit out a full 2 years:
Under the bylaws of the ACC, Gilchrist, ranked as the 14th top power forward and 52nd ranked prospect by Rivals in '07, a student-athlete shall not transfer from one ACC institution to another without sitting out a mandatory two years.
Originally, Gilchrist had committed to Virginia Tech in his junior high school season at Fort Washington (Md.) Friendly, then signed with the Hokies. But shootings on the Blacksburg campus scared Gilchrist away from immediately enrolling last fall.
Reportedly, Tech coach Seth Greenberg encouraged Gilchrist come to campus in the fall. Gilchrist re-opened his recruitment to Georgetown, Kansas, Kentucky, Kansas State, and WVU, among others, but Terrapin assistant Chuck Driesell earned the letter-of-intent signature of the former member of AAU's DC Assault.
Gilchrist enrolled at Maryland this spring with hopes of sitting out this fall's term and joining the team in December when first semester classes were over. This, his camp thought, constituted an official redshirt year, mandated by the NCAA. But at the ACC meetings, his desires were turned down twice. Reportedly, only one school voted to permit the two-semester penalty, according to a report. Maryland was prohibited from voting.
Posted by: DLo | June 12, 2008 12:19 AM
Gilchrist could have been allowed to play at MD longer if the ACC rules committee would have granted him a waiver. They reviewed the case and he was denied. Maryland will never get a break as long as they are in the ACC, unless they relocate the University to North Carolina.
Posted by: Jeff | June 12, 2008 7:39 AM
Graham,
He has 3 years of eligibility left. At MD, he would have only missed the first half of the upcoming season, not the brunt of the ACC schedule which starts in January, when we would have needed him most. He is such a sad case, can't make up his mind.
Posted by: csquare | June 12, 2008 8:59 AM
Gary and company better get their acts together or everyone's gonna be out the door soon. How many big time recruits is the University of Maryland gonna lose to out of state schools before someone at the University realizes Gary can't recruit. Gay, Melo, Dante Greene, Josh Boone, Jeff Green, Leon Williams, Durant, DaJuan Summers, Malcom Delaney, I could go on forever, all from Maryland, all big time players, all went to other schools. It's a joke. Fire Gary now!
Posted by: Steve O | June 12, 2008 9:49 AM
Don,
What are GGs chances of getting the NCAA to give him four years eligibility? If they somehow do, why would the ACC be such a hard@ss about it - moreso than the NCAA, especially under the tragic circumstances @ VT. I'm wondering, why didnt he get some indication from the NCAA about additional eligibility - before he decided to leave UM? Bad advice form his 'handlers'? I wish him nothing but good fortune but wish he had chose to stick it out here. Maybe getting Darden and Mosely eligible to play in in school will take away some of the GG situation sting. I'm still "IN" for Terps BBall no matter what happens. Our team and coach need us now more than ever under these difficult circumstances.
Posted by: Terps06 | June 12, 2008 11:01 AM
Is it that Gary can't recruit? or that no one wants to play for Gary now?
Regardless, this is SAD... every year there is several top 100 players from Maryland, that are not even considered.... Yes, I do agree that in the cases like Gay, Melo, Durant, where we don't want to tie ourselves to a one-and-done student-athlete, but we CANNOT keep holding "hope" for the next "Juan Dixon" to come along TOTALLY un-noticed by any other school, and grab him.... those days are DONE, and we Terps fans are in trouble....
Posted by: Larry | June 12, 2008 12:18 PM
Why continue to cover this clown. He is no longer a Terp so stop writing about him. I am guessing this guy wants to play basketball more than getting an education. So he will have 1 or 2 good years then it's off to the NBA. I have my doubts if he will ever graduate.
Posted by: Dave | June 12, 2008 1:09 PM
I'm definitely not shy about getting on Gary and his recruiting travails, but this one isn't his fault. It's Gilchrist's choice and only he knows what is best for himself, but I don't see how 4 years at South Florida is better for his pro prospects than 2 1/2 years in a starting role for an ACC school.
Not to mention that if you stay in college for four years now you're not considered a true prospect.
Posted by: GPT | June 12, 2008 1:25 PM
I live in Raleigh North Carolina. The University of Maryland is the laughing stock in ACC Basketball down here. I am SICK of seeing all the talent from the state of Maryland going off to other schools. And, to make matters worse they are coming down here to North Carolina. I will always love Gary Williams and what he has done for the University. My opinion is that not to many players want to play for him because of the way he treats his players (ALWAYS cussing and yelling at them!!!) These kids can get that from their parents at home!!! He needs to chill out and take a page from a few of the other coaches in the ACC and see the way they coach.
Posted by: Andrew Ontko | June 12, 2008 8:49 PM
Looking at some of the recruiting websites, I noticed that the Terps haven't offered Tristan Spurlock. Is there are reason for that? The sites all report he has interest in being a Terp, at least more then either of his more highly recruited teamates, why aren't we going after him?
Posted by: terpfan | June 13, 2008 10:05 AM
why can't MD keep any recruits. Will MD ever have a great basketball program again?
Posted by: sadterpfan | June 14, 2008 1:18 AM
Hey guys, I'm a USF student. It seems like our compliance department is fairly confident that Gus can get a waiver to play immediately. We've done well in getting the waivers for football players (about 10 in our history). On the pro prospects, I don't see him as a first-round lock. It seems like he'll be a solid Big East player, but all of the college turmoil has to hurt his stock. Plus, Gary Williams' quote about him needing to improve after going up against your guys in practice hints that he needs every game possible. At USF, he'll get 30 minutes per game in the deepest conference in the country, so that's why he picked us.
Posted by: Dave W | July 2, 2008 10:04 PM
Deepest confernce in the country? Take a look back over the last 20 years and see how many final fours each conference has. Then National championships. Elite Eights? The Big Ten has never wan the Acc-Big Ten challenge. The Big East had Uconn a couple years. Cuse for 1 and G-town had one good recruiting class which now is just about gone.
I think some of you nay-sayers need to look at who the terps had some of the years that they did not get the "TOP" Local talent. You can only have 12 scholarship players on a roster. You look to build a National Championship team. Mike Jones was the #1 rated SG in the country behind a guy named Lebron something or other. Travis Garrison was a MCDonalds All-American. THey busted, it happens.
They got Mosley who if you have seen play, you will know that he is probably very UNDER rated. Whoever said Darden is their 5th pick is crazy. He was going to have trouble with the National Clearing house and Drisell knew it would be very late getting the info so they went some other directions. Darden averaged 15 11 4 at a top prep school that is in one of the toughest leagues in the Nation. Gary chose John Gilchrest over Carmelo Anthony. Gilchrest single handledly won the ACC championship then flaked out. Melo was 1 and done. It was smarter to take JG unless you want to Monday morning QB, which is all most of you losers do anyway.
Posted by: Ryan | July 3, 2008 9:09 AM