Maryland Basketball: Jaylen Brantley commits to UMass

Jaylen Brantley stated his intentions to transfer from Maryland earlier this month.

On Sunday evening, Brantley confirmed to several media outlets that he has committed to UMass.

Brantley is originally from Springfield, Mass. and played his high school basketball at Wilbraham & Monson. He was supposed to play his college basketball at Marshall, but ended up playing a season at Odessa Community College (Tx.) at the junior college level.

Coach Mark Turgeon was in constant contact with Brantley throughout the recruiting process. Brantley visited College Park on Oct. 17, 2014 for Maryland Madness and committed to the Terrapins just three days later.

In his two years with the program, Brantley was a valuable backup guard for Turgeon. However, he doubled his minutes this past season as a junior.

Brantley averaged 4.9 points and 1.9 rebounds in 16,8 minutes-per-game. His most impressive performance came against Howard on Dec. 7 when he scored 14 points (4-of-10 shooting) to go along with three rebounds and a pair of assists.

The former Terp is in search of more playing time, but may have to work for it at UMass.

The Minutemen return a trio of extremely talented guards in Donte Clark (12.6 points), Luwane Pipkins (10.2), and Dejon Jarreau (9.8).

UMass struggled down the stretch despite a solid start to nonconference play. The Minutemen finished with a 15-18 (4-14) mark and were 12th in the 14-team Atlantic 10 conference.

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Brantley gets the chance to play closer to home and with his gutsy play, he could certainly be one of the most important guards for UMass.