I know that this is a bit of a jump going from covering the Terrapins to the Hoyas but it was a chance that I felt I had to take at this point in my writing career. It has been a pleasure having the chance to interact and share my writing with all of you over the course of the past 8 months since Mike and I re-launched this here website in August of 2012.

This site is in great hands with Mike Willis at the helm and Chris Bengel and Steven Ulrich ready to take on more of a role in the day to day writing as I move on to this new opportunity. I hope that you all continue to support them in everything that they do here and that those of you who have enjoyed my style of coverage of basketball recruiting in the area to follow me on Twitter at @mjbohl2787.

I Have Officially Committed To The University Of Tennessee!! #VFL #VolNation #RiseToTheTop #bossteam

— D’Andre Payne (@realdpayne) April 3, 2013

Payne is one of three members of the Friendship Collegiate Academy secondary that will garner attention from many high major programs, joining fellow class of 2014 members Jalen Tabor and Dimitri Lee. Payne is currently considered to be the second best prospect in the District in the class of 2014, behind teammate Jalen Tabor, and a top 20 DB prospect nationally among his peers in ’14. Standing at 5’9.5″ and 172-pounds Payne should have the type of body necessary to make an impact early on in his college career.

Payne visited the Knoxville, TN campus unofficially on March 15th and followed that up with a trip to Vanderbilt this past weekend. Before announcing his commitment to the Vols this morning, Payne had accumulated 35 scholarship offers. In the end, Payne chose to commit to the Volunteers over offers from Maryland, Florida State, Vanderbilt, Clemson and Virginia. While Payne may still take visits before National Signing Day next February his commitment to the Volunteers appears to be strong.

Friendship Collegiate Academy CB D’Andre Payne will announce his commitment tomorrow morning. Finalists: #UMD #FSU #UVA #TENN #VANDY #CLEM

— Tom Loy (@TomLoy247) April 3, 2013

The Terrapins are in the final group along with Florida State, Virginia, Tennessee, Vanderbilt and Clemson for the #2 prospect in the District of Columbia per the 247Sports Composite. Payne was named the Overall MVP of the Next Level Nation Five-Star Elite Showcase held in Frederick, MD on March 9th at an event that brought together nearly 300 prospects.

Payne just completed a visit to Vanderbilt last weekend and had visited the University of Tennessee earlier in the month of March. Payne’s last trip to College Park came about six weeks ago when took an unofficial visit to the University of Maryland for their junior day on February 16th.

At this point in time it appears as if the Tennessee Volunteers appear to be the team to beat for the services of the four-star DB. Look for Payne’s announcement to come between 9:00 and 10:00 AM Wednesday morning. Should any news surrounding this announcement come up in the next 12 hours I will be sure to keep you updated but as of right now I think the Vols should be looked at as the favorite in this decision.

Well, according to a report by the Washington Post’s Alex Prewitt, it appears we now know who that opponent will be. The Maryland Terrapins men’s basketball team will open up next season at the home of the NBA’s Brooklyn Nets against the UCONN Huskies on November 8th.

The Huskies, a member of the soon-to-be named former Big East, were ineligible to participate in any postseason tournament this season due to their low Academic Progress Rate from the previous year was too low. UCONN, coached by for NBA player Kevin Ollie, should present the Terrapins with a very strong test to start off the season as they, without any roster attrition due to early entries to the NBA Draft, essentially return the entire roster of a team that finished 2012-2013 with a 20-10 record.

By scheduling this game with the Huskies the University of Maryland will now compete against the University of Connecticut in men’s athletics twice over a seven week span. The Terrapins football team will travel to Connecticut on September 14th to return the game played at Byrd Stadium last season.

Morgan said he chose UNLV over Georgetown and Maryland because of the coaching staff’s dedication, the “crazy” fans and that the Las Vegas campus felt like home away from home. Morgan also noted, according to Jakob Engelke who attended the announcement for InsideMDSports.com, that there is a lot of pressure for hometown kids to stay local but he wanted something different, his own thing at UNLV. Morgan stated he knew he wanted to go to UNLV “a couple weeks after my visit”, Morgan took his official visit to UNLV in January of 2013.

When it came time for the announcement to take place the podium where Morgan made his commitment public was set up with two hats, UNLV and Georgetown, not three for final group Morgan had announced prior to this decision.

No Maryland hat present at Dwayne Morgan’s press conference. twitter.com/Jakob_Engelke/…

— Jakob Engelke (@Jakob_Engelke) March 27, 2013

While the news heading into today’s announcement had sounded less than promising with regard to Morgan and the Terrapins, having only two hats present almost seemed to be the nail in the coffin of any chance he would be selecting the Terps. What we came to find out after the announcement had been made was that the Maryland coaching staff had, allegedly, backed off of Morgan as today’s decision date came closer.

Dwayne Morgan says Maryland barely contacted him near the end of his recruitment; UNLV and Georgetown were constantly in touch throughout.

— Edgar Walker (@Edgar_Walker) March 27, 2013

To me, this can mean two things; 1) The Terps coaching staff knew they were not likely to get Morgan to waver from UNLV and decided to move on to other prospects. Or 2) While Morgan would have clearly been welcomed, should he have wanted to attend Maryland, there were greater recruiting concerns out there for the Terrapins than adding another wing player when there is youth at the position with Wells, Layman and Faust already in the fold.

You can go ahead and watch Morgan’s announcement and his answers to the media members in attendance questions in the video below. Morgan is fairly candid with his answers to the questions concerning his recruitment. If you skip ahead to the :30 mark the video is no longer upside down.

Video streaming by Ustream

As we have noted previously Morgan’s finalists are the Maryland Terrapins, UNLV Runnin’ Rebels and the Georgetown Hoyas. Morgan is currently considered as the top prospect in the state of Maryland for the class of 2014 by the major recruiting services. With the time until Morgan’s commitment is made public dwindling I thought it would be a good idea to put together something showing the “strengths” and “weaknesses” for his three finalists heading into the decision.

Maryland Terrapins Pros:

1) In-State Program - There is always some sort of pressure for a highly touted recruit like Dwayne Morgan to go to the local university and help bring the “home team” to prominence. There are reasons why this would be appealing to any blue chip prospect since that sort of legacy would be something that would follow him for the rest of his life inside of his homestate. Current Terps guard Nick Faust was actually a teammate of Morgan’s during his time at Baltimore City College before transferring to St. Frances Academy.

2) Terrapins Style Conducive To His Game - Dwayne Morgan has stated that the style of play of his remaining choices will play a role in his decision. For Maryland this is a positive as Dez Wells is the poster child for getting out on the break and running. Morgan also wants the freedom to run isolation plays which is something that the Terrapins do on offense rather regularly.

Maryland Terrapins Cons:

1) Not Dancing - The Terps were the only team in Morgan’s final three to not make the NCAA Tournament. While they are still competing for the NIT championship that is clearly looked at as a lesser tournament by propsects.

2) Jake Layman - Morgan and Layman would play the same position and it is safe to say that Morgan is certainly aware of the presence of Jake Layman on this Maryland roster. While I don’t think this is the type of thing that will make or break Morgan’s decision as Layman would be a junior before Morgan ever steps on campus as a student it is worth nothing.

Georgetown Hoyas Pros:

1) Still Local: While it is not the in-state school like Maryland would be, the Hoyas offer Morgan a similar option of playing close to his Baltimore, MD home. Georgetown is a program that recruits its talent nationally but the Hoyas always try to nab up as much talent in the DMV as possible since this is a hotbed for HS hoops.

2) Track Record Of Success: This Hoyas program, under John Thompson III, has a record of 208-86 and has reached the NCAA Tournament seven of JTIII’s nine seasons as the head coach at Georgetown. His Hoyas teams have won at least 21 games in seven of their programs last eight seasons as members of the Big East. Winning programs play in big games where people tune in to watch, a pretty easy selling point for Thompson III and his staff.

Georgetown Hoyas Cons:

1) Postseason Struggles: Despite the regular season success the Hoyas have enjoyed postseason play has been a much tougher task for Georgetown. In their past four trips to the NCAA Tournament the Hoyas have been knocked out in the first round three of those four times. In fact, since the Hoyas run to the Final Four in 2006-2007, Georgetown has been knocked out of the NCAA Tournament by a double-digit seed in their last five trips to the Big Dance.

2) Princeton Offense: John Thompson III’s offense is predicated on constant motion, passing, back door cuts and picks on and off the ball. It clearly works but, as we have seen with players like Greg Monroe and Chris Wright who have come through Georgetown recently, it will cause a player to sacrifice some of their shots for the betterment of the team. JTIII has, reportedly, offered to include more isolation sets into their offense in an attempt to entice Morgan further into committing to Georgetown tomorrow afternoon.

UNLV Runnin’ Rebels Pros:

1) Only Game In Town: The Runnin’ Rebels are the biggest draw in the city of Las Vegas when it comes to housing a sports team. The Thomas and Mack Center is usually filled night in and night out and with the new TV contract that the Mountain West Conference has signed with CBS coming into effect Morgan’s family would not have as much trouble finding Morgan’s games on TV as they would have had previously.

2) Baltimore Connection: One of the biggest factors in this recruitment seems to be the fact that the Runnin’ Rebels have two Baltimore products on their roster in junior UCONN transfer Roscoe Smith, who will be eligible to play in 2013-2014, and Daquan Cook, a freshman guard averaging 4.3 MPG for UNLV. Daquan and Dwayne were part of the same AAU program, in Bmore’s Finest, and forged a friendship during that time.

UNLV Runnin’ Rebels Cons:

1) Not In A Power 6 Conference: Even with the new CBS TV contract and its success in putting teams in the tournament the past few years the Mountain West is still looked at as an outsider when it comes to the big six conferences in the ACC, Big 10, Big East, Pac 12, Big XII and the SEC. With the type of fluctuation year-to-year with how these conferences stack up in the eyes of the NCAA Selection Committee there is no guarantee that the MWC will as strong as it is currently perceived to be come 2014 when Morgan would enroll as a freshman. Especially after losing, arguably, their best player in Anthony Bennett to this summer’s NBA Draft.

2) Friends Will Be On Way Out When He Arrives: Roscoe Smith and Daquan Cook are Morgan’s friends from home and clearly they would have the ability to go ahead and sway Morgan’s decision as their opinions are surely valued by Morgan. However, by the time Morgan would arrive on campus in Las Vegas, Smith would be a senior on his way out and Cook would be a junior. If his friends from Baltimore being there is a major reason for Morgan to be leaning towards the Runnin’ Rebels it might be worth going back and re-evaluating that level of importance.

At this point in my writing career no one is paying me money to make predictions on where prospects like Dwayne Morgan will wind up so I will not say with any certainty that Morgan will pick any of the three schools I mentioned above tomorrow during his ceremony. I will, however, say that in all the research I have done on this recruitment the information out there has made it seem that Morgan has been a UNLV lean but, much to the reasons I have listed above, I am not sold on him being a lock to the Runnin’ Rebels by any stretch of the imagination at this point.

I have been pretty steadfast in the fact that I believe this is a battle between the Terrapins and UNLV and heading into tomorrow’s announcement I think the same. Time to sweat out the last 24 hours before Dwayne Morgan’s college commitment is made public Terp Nation. Be sure to stay up to date on all things Dwayne Morgan by following us on Twitter @terpstationmd.

For more recruiting news, check out Fansided150.com.

There is some serious firepower coming out of this region and it starts at the top with, many an experts favorite, the Big East champions in the Louisville Cardinals. However, the Cardinals aren’t the only contender in this region as the top four seeds are all quite dangerous and capable of making a run in this tournament. The Duke Blue Devils, who have already beaten Louisville on a neutral floor at the Battle for Atlantis, the Michigan State Spartans and the Saint Louis Billikens will all be tough outs in this region. There are also some intriguing mid-majors in the Midwest that can surprise some people like Creighton or St. Marys as both programs have players who have been to the NCAA Tournament before and know what it takes to win on this stage.

Favorites:

Louisville: The Cardinals make their name on the defensive end of the floor as they have held opponents under 60 points in 21 of the 34 games they played to this point in the season. With Peyton Siva handling the ball, Russ Smith averaging over 18 PPG and Dieng manning the middle for Louisville the Cardinals they will be a tough out for any team in the Midwest region. Louisville is going to go as far as their high pressure defense will take them.

Duke: Even though the Terrapins bested Duke twice this season the Blue Devils, with Ryan Kelly in the lineup, are still good enough to beat any team in this tournament. With Kelly, Plumlee and Seth Curry the Blue Devils have more than enough ability on offense to get to Atlanta. As long as the Blue Devils don’t shoot themselves in the foot, or go absolutely frigid from the outside like they did in Greensboro against Maryland, they should be right in the thick of it. However, a second round match up against Creighton could loom large for Duke.

Best Opening Round Match Ups:

6) Memphis vs 11) St. Mary’s:

The Memphis Tigers have lost just once since Christmas day, a two point loss at Xavier in late February, and went through the Conference-USA regular season and tournament without suffering a defeat. Unfortunately for Memphis, however, C-USA was down this year and their undefeated run was only good enough to earn them a 6 seed and a date with the Gaels of St. Mary’s and senior guard Matthew Dellavedova. St. Mary’s certainly won’t make it easy on the Memphis Tigers as the Gaels are not the type of team to beat themselves.

7) Creighton vs 10) Cincinnati

If you haven’t had the chance to Watch Creighton’s Doug McDermott play basketball this season do yourself a favor and tune in to CBS at 2:45 PM on Friday for a show. The 6’8″ junior, who is also the coach’s son, leads the Blue Jays in scoring and rebounding with averages of 23.1 PPG and 7.5 RPG and should be a sure fire first round pick whenever he decides to go pro. The Bearcats are no slouch either as they are led by upperclassmen in Sean Kilpatrick and Cashmere Wright who have been through the battles of the Big East regular season. This will be one that I will make sure I am planted in front of a TV for Friday afternoon.

Best Potential Match Up:

2) Duke vs 3) Michigan State

The Spartans and Blue Devils appear to be on a crash course to meet in the Sweet 16 giving us what would be one great game next weekend in this region. Led by Tom Izzo and Mike Krzyzewski respectively the Spartans and Blue Devils have been a mainstay in this tournament during the 21st century. Michigan State’s guard play, led by Keith Appling and Gary Harris, should match up well with the Blue Devils backcourt rotation of Quinn Cook/Tyler Thornton and Seth Curry. If State can handle Plumlee in the paint they should stand a good chance at beating the Blue Devils and moving on to the Elite 8. Either way, with a potential Izzo vs Krzyzewski match up looming the bottom half of this bracket will be one to watch early on.

Players To Watch:

Russ Smith: The leading scorer for the Louisville Cardinals can fill it up in a variety of ways. He doesn’t shoot a very high percentage, 41% from the field and 33% from three point range, but Smith is by far the most effective scoring option for the Cardinals offensive attack. Look for some of Smith’s scoring to come as a direct result of the Cardinals defense as Smith is second on the team averaging 2 steals per contest.

Marcus Smart: Oklahoma State’s upstart freshman guard is slotted by many to be a potential top three selection in the upcoming NBA Draft in June. Averaging 15 points, 6 rebounds and 4 assists for the Cowboys this year Smart has been a big reason as to why Oklahoma State finds themselves as a #5 seed in the Midwest region. At this point the only thing Smart really doesn’t do well is shoot the three but everything else he is capable of on the basketball court is more than worth the price of admission.

Doug McDermott: I honestly positioned myself to write this preview just so I could talk about how good a player Doug McDermott is. I have followed him since he arrived at Creighton as a freshman and the guy has just continued to get better. I know that I have already essentially put Duke into the Sweet 16 but were they to advance and have to go through McDermott and the Blue Jays it is very possible that Creighton would have the best player on the floor in that scenario. Do yourself a favor and watch this guy play basketball if you have the chance.

Seth Curry: Curry is one of the top shooters in the tournament and has shown the ability to take over a game if he gets hot. In a tournament setting all it takes is one player to potentially push your program over the top and Curry certainly has the ability to do just that in his last run at a national championship as a member of the Duke Blue Devils. Should he try and one up his older brother, who had a memorable run through the tournament while starring at Davidson, the Blue Devils could be a serious contender.

Pick To Win The Midwest:

Louisville Cardinals: The Cardinals are the favorite to win this region and, some analysts, consider them to be the odds on favorite to win the entire tournament. The Cardinals have everything you would want in a basketball team heading into a gauntlet like the NCAA Tournament. They have veteran leadership, a hall of fame caliber coach, a savvy point guard, a lethal scorer and a big man to clog up the lane on defense in Dieng. Louisville came up just short of their goal in last years NCAA Tournament and I would have to think they are out to take what they feel belongs to them; a national championship.

Adam Zagoria of SNY confirmed the time of the announcement earlier today via his Twitter. Morgan had originally planned to make his announcement on April 5th, however, it turns out that St. Frances Academy will be closed that day. Since his announcement is likely to be aired on ESPNU, Morgan’s mother wanted him to make his announcement in front of a packed house of students, faculty and media. While the March 27th announcement date has been known for some time now this is the first I had seen any sort of time attached to the decision.

2014 F Dwayne Morgan plans to commit at 1 p.m. on March 27 at Baltimore St. Frances. Down to Maryland, UNLV & Georgetown.

— Adam Zagoria (@AdamZagoria) March 19, 2013

One other intersting tid bit that was tweeted out by Zagoria this afternoon came from Dwayne Morgan’s AAU coach, Dwayne Wise, who suggests all three of Morgan’s finalists are still in the ball game.

“All three have a really equal chance,” Dwayne Wise, Morgan’s AAU coach, told @snytv

— Adam Zagoria (@AdamZagoria) March 19, 2013

When it comes down to the final stretch in the recruitment of a highly coveted prospect such as Dwayne Morgan it can be difficult to decipher what is real information and what is not as the majority feel this is a two horse race between the Terrapins and the Runnin’ Rebels of UNLV for Morgan’s commitment on the 27th. Be sure to stay tuned to TerrapinStationMD.com and to follow us on Twitter @TerpStationMD for any and all Dwayne Morgan news as it happens.

While we don’t promote gambling on this website, more times than not, Las Vegas can usually a fair indicator of a particular teams chances heading into opening weekend. I have gone ahead and compiled a list of all of the teams who are considered to be within a 100/1 shot at cutting down the nets in Atlanta the first weekend of April and have provided a quick blurb as to why they would, or would not, be a smart bet for you to choose to make a deep run in the NCAA Tournament.

The full NIT bracket can be found here and as you can see the Terrapins are matched up with the winner of the 3/6 game between Denver and Ohio. Should the Terrapins take care of business against Niagara tomorrow night the winner of that Denver vs Ohio match up would then travel to College Park, presumably for a Thursday game, in the NIT’s round of 16. As the #2 seed in order to get to the semifinals in New York City the Terrapins could potentially have to travel to Tuscaloosa, Alabama for a tilt against Anthony Grant’s Crimson Tide for the right to advance to Madison Square Garden.

The NIT wasn’t what fans, coaches and players alike were hoping for at the end of the 2012-2013 regular season however this tournament presents the Terrapins the opportunity to continue to play more games. With a roster consisting of as much youth as this Maryland one as currently constructed the chance to play in meaningful games despite the tournament setting is worthwhile.

The chance to play for a title in the “Mecca of basketball” is a great opportunity for this team to continue to grow and build some momentum heading into the off-season. We will have a full preview of the Terps NIT opener against Niagara tomorrow. Let me leave you with this; there are only a handful of teams that can say they will head into the offseason coming off a win, the Terrapins still have a chance to make that claim with a successful run through the NIT.