Justin Robinson News, Dez Wells Has A Chance To Cement Legacy

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Recruiting News: Robinson Sets Announcement Date

The Maryland Terrapins top point guard target for 2015, Justin Robinson, has officially set his decision date. Robinson will be finishing up all his remaining visits in time to announce his decision as to where he’ll be playing college ball on a pretty special date: his birthday. Mark October 12 down in your calendar now, as Robinson will be deciding whether he’ll be a Terp or not on his 17^th birthday.

As of now, Robinson is choosing between Virginia Tech, Maryland, Providence, and now UNLV appears to be in the picture. Robinson’s camp has revealed very little to this point, remaining complimentary of each program and their coaching staffs throughout the process. It’s one of the more closed recruiting processes in recent memory, but that doesn’t mean Maryland is completely out of it.

If I had to guess, I think Robinson now ends up at Virginia Tech. He’s a native Virginian and Buzz Williams, Seth Allen and the chance to play for his home state may be too much lure. The stay home movement doesn’t just apply to Maryland.

Providence has just as much a chance as Maryland, too, as Robinson has a special attachment to the school that offered him first. As for UNLV, they are coming in late, but Robinson is familiar with both their players and coaching staff, and his late visit could prove troublesome for the other schools.

Dez Wells should be looking to cement legacy at Maryland

If you look at the Maryland basketball record books, you see some pretty incredible collegiate scorers littering the list. Juan Dixon, Greivis Vasquez, Walt Williams, Len Bias, Laron Profit, Keith Booth, etc. The list goes on and on, really. But one name that’s surprisingly missing from the list of even the top 52 players is a name you wouldn’t expect: Dez Wells.

Sure, Wells didn’t come to College Park until his sophomore season, but he’s been such a solid scorer for the past two years Terps that one would expect him to at least crack the top fifty. But Wells 975 points thus far falls short of that list; as of now, he’s slightly behind the 52^nd spot held by Jeff Adkins (1982-85) with 999 points.

(Side note: why would no one just let Adkins score that last point to get 1,000 all-time? As a stat guy, that number is beyond frustrating.)

Now, this isn’t saying Wells is a poor scorer, as there is no one on this list who has played under three years for the university. If you factor in Wells freshman year at Xavier (which you just can’t) where he scored 312 points, he would be three shy of the #25 spot held by former top NBA pick Joe Smith. That alone is something incredibly lofty in its own right.

But this got me thinking: where should we expect Dez Wells to end up as a thee-year Terrapins but four-year player, on this all-time scoring list? While it’s impossible to know until the games are played, there’s a good chance Wells ends up pretty high on this list of players.

Let’s assume Wells average of 487.5 points holds steady for yet another year. If Wells hits near that mark (and he’s been pretty consistent at Maryland), he’s going to finish with 1,463 points if we round up. So where is he on the list?

	1,573	Nik Caner-Medley (2003-06)
	1,566	Laron Profit (1996-99)
	1,561	Greg Manning (1978-81)
	1,458	Derrick Lewis (1985-88)
	1,414	James Gist (2005-08)
	1,384	Gene Shue (1952-54)
	1,372	Exree Hipp (1993-96)

Right in between Greg Manning and Derrick Lewis, and a little further away from those top fifteen spots occupied by Caner-Medley and Laron Profit. That’s one of the issues for Wells to creep up the Maryland leader board significantly, because he’s a three-year player there. While I still think Wells will carry more of a scoring burden this year than he ever has, he has shown that his numbers will not really deviate too much from his averages.

The good news? I’m sure Wells pays attention to some of these numbers, so expect him to start gunning to cement his legacy as a Terrapins. That should be to the benefit of everyone.

Some other numbers he’s close to:

PPG

Wells at MD: 13.9 PPG

#16 spot at MD: Greivis Vasquez (16.0)

PPG needed to reach: 20 PPG

Total Assists

Wells at MD: 182

#20 spot at MD: Albert King (304)

Assists needed: 122

Blocked Shots

Wells at MD: 47

#25 spot at MD: Keith Booth (72)

Blocks needed: 25

Field Goal Percentage

Wells at MD: 50%

#15 spot at MD: Jordan Wiliams (52%)

FG % needed: ~55%

Free Throw Percentage

Wells at MD: 77%

#15 spot at MD: Brad Davis (78%)

FT % needed: ~80%

These are some of the more attainable ones statistically, and even more will be available for Wells should he significantly improve his game. By most accounts Wells has been working even harder than before, and he’s going to have a very different role on this team in comparison to season’s prior, so there’s a chance he goes crazy.

But this just goes to show you how talented a player Wells really is. I think historically we will look at Wells favorably, and yet without any tournament appearances to his name at Maryland, his accomplishments will be overshadowed.

Still, by my estimation Wells is still one of the more talented players to have donned a Terrapin jersey because of his all-around play. Name one other player under 6’5 who finished in the top 20 at Maryland in blocks, assists, field goal percentage, and points. They’re not on the roster and haven’t been for awhile.

Jake Layman still has a good chance to break the three pointers made statistic, as he’s 18th on the list and 18th presently, but that’s it. Wells is really your clubhouse leader for being the first player to cement his legacy in the history books at Maryland with records that might hold for awhile under the Turgeon era.