What to expect from Terrence Jennings
With top prospects committing on a seemingly daily basis, schools filling out their classes and new players emerging, Maryland seemed to be a little late to the party for 2008 basketball recruiting.
All that changed in a hurry, of course, with the commitment last week of five-star power forward Terrence Jennings -- a player who became the Terps’ first commit for 2008, and one that was definitely worth the wait.
Some Maryland fans have debated whether Jennings is one of the greatest Terps recruits of all-time. That’s probably a stretch, but nabbing Rivals.com’s No. 15 player overall for 2008 certainly has a way of heightening expectations.
Jennings has basically spent all summer working the AAU circuit, impressing scouts, writers and coaches. Here’s what SLAM had to say about Jennings following his play at the Rbk U. tournament at Philadelphia University in July.
7. Terrence Jennings, 6-10 power forward, Mt. Zion (NC), 2008: This Jennings gets compared to Amare by most experts for his tremendous athleticism and motor. A run-and-jump athlete who dunks everything around the bucket, blocks shots and boards, he’s also showed signs of a face-up game.
Like SLAM noted above, the Amare Stoudemire comparisons have followed Jennings seemingly everywhere he’s gone. The comparison is apt both for Jennings and Stoudemire’s similarly itinerant academic backgrounds and for their respective games.
I had a chance to watch Jennings play in May at the Arizona Cactus Classic in Tucson. Here’s a video highlight package I produced of him at the tournament when I was working for the Arizona Daily Star. One disclaimer – some of the local media seemed a bit overly enthused for Jennings to commit to the Arizona Wildcats, as you’ll hear in some of the questions. I swear I wasn’t one of those questioners. Click here to see the video. Look out for a back-to-back-to-back alley-oop sequence near the end of the clip.
I thought it was pretty interesting, in retrospect, how Maryland received mention from Jennings in the video, but was not among his top three. Keep in mind this was recorded less than three months ago. It just serves as another example of how fluid recruiting is, and in this case, likely how important Gary Williams’ loyalty was in securing this commitment. Arizona, UConn and Cal all dropped out of the race, but Maryland persisted, and Jennings rewarded that devotion with his pledge.
Now for a brief introduction …
Welcome to “Recruiting Report”, a blog devoted to all things recruiting. I’ll be dealing primarily with Terps football and basketball, but will also have a significant focus on Baltimore-area high school athletes who are moving on to the next level. This blog will be a mix of links, opinions, original reporting, rankings analysis, predictions, highlight videos and more.
A little background on me: I just began work as a sports producer for baltimoresun.com in July, but my first brush with recruiting was back when I was about 10 or 11. My dad and I would leaf through Tom Lemming’s football recruiting newsletter, and he would point out all the high school players headed to his alma mater, the University of Michigan. When Rivals and Scout hit the scene several years later, I was a full-blown recruiting junkie.
As far as experience is concerned, I wrote for Michigan’s Rivals site and magazine when I was a student in Ann Arbor. Before coming to Baltimore, I worked for the Arizona Daily Star in Tucson, providing University of Arizona recruiting coverage for the Star’s Web site (hence, the above linked Jennings video).
I’m a newcomer to the area, so please feel free to e-mail me (mbracken@baltimoresun.com) or comment on this post with suggestions, tips, etc … I’m looking forward to it.
Comments
Welcome --- I'll try to keep an eye on your blog best wishes
Posted by: kenny | August 7, 2007 3:21 PM
Great!! Looking forward to reading the blog - good luck!
Posted by: Ritchie | August 7, 2007 3:42 PM
Gary Williams can't recruit his way out of a paper bag. Thank John Lucas for this one, who steered Jennings to Maryland. Everyone knows Dave Dickerson and before him Billie Hahn were the force behind Maryland's recruiting efforts. The game has changed, Williams hasn't. Anyone else tired of seeing the best local products leave for UConn each year?
Posted by: Terps Fan | August 7, 2007 4:17 PM
For your sake if you want an accurate representation of the minds of Maryland fans I hope you read the Maryland Scout board and not the Rivals one. The Rivals one has been stripped of their intelligent posters and all that remains are the stupid ones who are too dumb to realize they're being lied to regularly. Their opinions are invalid.
Posted by: Go Terps | August 7, 2007 4:29 PM
Matt B, Welcome. Watch out for the Airheads on the Scout Board. What do you think of GW's recruiting. He needs to get better team players. FREDTERP
Posted by: FREDTERP | August 7, 2007 5:07 PM
Welcome and great blog! Are you going to give us an update and video on future Terrapin Sean Mosley?
Posted by: AshyKnuckles | August 7, 2007 5:21 PM
Thanks for all the well wishes. I'm excited to get things going.
As for GW's recruiting, I think he's in a good position right now to bring in a strong class for '08, and a potentially great class in 2009 that could be made up almost entirely of local kids. Jennings is an excellent start.
Mosley would be a great follow-up to T.J. I'll definitely try to catch up w/ him soon, and a highlight video is a good possibility once the HS season gets under way.
Posted by: Matt Bracken | August 7, 2007 7:38 PM
Welcome and great to have you ... Gary Williams has done a great job overall, and people have to remember what he's working with when you talk about Maryland as a university and a place to play. He's not going to be able to compete with Duke and UNC for every player, but he's done well with what he's been able to get. Terrence Jennings will be a force, and Gary will be able to help him and whatever players he recruits become better players. Go Terps!
Posted by: Bob | August 7, 2007 8:26 PM
Does anybody know that this guy is not even able to qualify to attend. His SAT"s are below the equator and I'm not sure that he could get into any school at all. I guess it is not a student athlete world down in CP is it??
Posted by: Mike | August 7, 2007 9:44 PM
Great blog Matt!
You'll have to excuse the Gary haters here in MD. Losing people in your back yard is a part of the game people fail to realize. For every Carmelo or Rudy Gay that left town for the Big East to become stars there were also those that burned us to become duds (see Nate James) at Duke.
Though Gary has only had his occasional All American they haven't really panned out in his program. On the other hand, how many of these "loyal" fans would have dumped a Dixon, Baxter, Mouton, Wilcox, or Blake from our national championship team to have picked up Rudy Gay? I know I wouldn't.
Yeah we may have lost Hahn and Dickerson but I think the new guys, Booth and Drissel just needed some time to get their feet wet. Hopefully TJ is only the start of good things to come.
BTW, I don't keep up with Gtown but did/do their fans bash JTII or JTIII as much as ours do? I mean these guys are leaving their backyards too and going to rival teams in the Big East!
Any 5-star player can come into Comcast and be great by himself but if he can't learn to play in our system it won't matter in the end.
Posted by: AKanes | August 7, 2007 10:02 PM
Great idea to start this and I think you will get a great response. Oh, and stear clear of the MD rivals site and go with the scout site. Much better in my opinion. Also to the person complaining about Gary Williams recruiting and talking about missing Dickerson and Hahn, well we now have Chuck D, and he is proving to be quite the recruiter and Gary is also out doing his share of recruiting as well so lay off!
Posted by: CharmCityTerp | August 8, 2007 12:02 AM
MB, You are from Michigan. What do you think of the John Beilein hiring? He is an organized coach who uses his experience. They will be in final 8 in two years, final four in 4 years. FREDTERP
Posted by: FredTerp | August 8, 2007 12:28 PM
Nice blog. A source, among others, for content and perspective is the Maryland Rivals site. The consistent hate and over-the-top cynacism of the scout board is so unprofessional that it begs reason and taste. Good luck with your new work here.
Posted by: WilsonTerp | August 8, 2007 3:34 PM
FREDTERP - I've got high hopes for the Beilein hire. I think he'll do well. It's been a loooong time since Michigan's had bball success. Maryland fans are really fortunate.
Posted by: Matt Bracken | August 8, 2007 4:28 PM
Keep up the good recruit news. What do you think of the WVU hire Huggins? The guy can recruit, ie K State. As for Michigan if coach B can recruit, look for consistent top 10-15.
Posted by: Fred44Terp | August 8, 2007 5:20 PM
To the comment on Dickerson...he was responsible for the latest top 5 class which was a bust and cost us Rudy Gay(that and a big phat SUV)...DD was a great Terps but a below average recruiter
Posted by: TerpBBall | August 8, 2007 6:25 PM
Welcome Matt! Your blog is a great idea, please dish updates frequently. What brought you from Arizona to Terpland (is the Sun paying that much ;)?
Posted by: PhilD | August 8, 2007 10:03 PM
This blog now is on my daily check list. I couldn't be happier that local college recruiting is getting this kind of attention. Thank you thank you thank you Baltimore Sun!
Posted by: Beekay | August 9, 2007 10:07 PM