Losing Esa Ahmad Isn’t A Major Concern For Maryland Terrapins

(Discuss over at the Baltimore Sports and Life forums here)

Losing Esa Ahmad really isn’t too big of a deal, I promise

The Maryland Terrapins lost out on coveted 2015 basketball recruit, 4-star combo forward Esa Ahmad, earlier this week to border rival West Virginia and Bob Huggins. Much to everyone’s surprise, the school did not implode upon itself; Mark Turgeon was not fired; and Maryland’s prospects remained the same regardless of the outcome.

The Terrapins put a lot of eggs in the Ahmad basket; that much is true. Coach Turgeon took a lot of trips to Ohio to see the kid play, and even outshot Ohio State according to Ahmad’s father. The staff got him on campus, they got him to mesh with the team, and everything seemed like a go. Unfortunately Bob Huggins got the best of Turgeon here, and he ended up an ‘eer, as they say.

That’s recruiting. Being beat out at the 11^th hour by someone happens all the time. Ahmad wasn’t the first (a few twins and Kentucky come to mind) almost-commit and he won’t be the last for the Turgeon regime. What matters isn’t that you lost, but how you move forward. Anyway, onto some progressive thoughts…

1.)  Maryland’s still got plenty of firepower at the forward spots…

A lot of times in recruiting, we get caught up in needing the recruit, but not necessarily understanding where the player fits within the confines of the system. I did enjoy Ahmad’s game quite a bit in that he was a bigger guy who could get to the rim, thus potentially providing a matchup problem down the road, but he didn’t seem like a great fit for Maryland. Sure, it’s nice to have a small forward who can distribute off the dribble for the plethora of Maryland shooters, but Turgeon and tweeners haven’t worked out so far.

At the wing/power forward spot, the Terps might already be covered. They were recruiting Ahmad before they got hold of both forward Robert Carter Jr. (via transfer) and Croatian-born forward Ivan Bender (via the international market). After those two players signed up for the Terps, grabbing Ahmad simply wasn’t a do-or-die thing for the 2015 class. If they locked him up, great, but if they failed to do so, the team wasn’t going to die.

Carter and Bender are the future of the power forward position here, and at small forward there’s another year of Layman, the hopeful development of Jared Nickens, and Dion Wiley’s ability to slide over to the three in limited cases. Add in that Cekovsky is also a natural power forward, and Ahmad would have either pushed someone out or gotten buried on the depth chart.

2.)  2015 will still be, at most, a two-man class

As has been the case all along, this staff seems reluctant to get add on more than one or two players for the 2015 class. Flexibility can’t be overstated here, and Maryland doesn’t want or need to get into a scholarship issue moving forward. The Terps staff is set on one person right now: 2015 point guard Justin Robinson. The Virginia native has been the priority for this staff, and while his recruitment isn’t solid, the staff is going to push.

Having spoke with Robinson ad-nausea, it’s clear that he likes Maryland. But the staff is going to have to convince him big time that playing behind Melo Trimble (or alongside?) is going to work out, because Robinson could start right away some places. As far as prospects go, he’s the distributor this team kind of needs. I’ve made it no secret that I think Trimble is probably better suited at the two than the one, and the staff pushing for Robinson might be representative of that.

There aren’t many other prospects the staff are high on at this point, and while many have been discussed, there is nothing substantial behind reports. Still, if they can’t land Robinson, the Terps could end up going after a graduate transfer for this one. Which brings me to my next point…

3.)  Maryland represents the future of recruiting

Much the way football is clearly a three-factor sport (offense, defense, and special teams), recruiting can be viewed that way nowadays too. The days of just picking from the talent pool in your own backyard are long, long gone, and Maryland understands that there are oftentimes just too many cooks in the kitchen. Coach Turgeon has taken a multi-pronged approach to recruiting, and it seems to be paying inroads.

Turgeon is A.) astonishingly good at exploiting the transfer market. Seriously, there are very few coaches nationally who have managed what Coach Turgeon has to this point in terms of addressing needs in an ever expanding transfer pool. He stopped Maryland from being in some serious trouble when he landed a then-freshman phenom in Dez Wells; he locked up a former Michigan contributor in Evan Smotrycz; he’s picked up a deadly three-point specialist and international player in Logan Aronhalt; he’s added a borderline five-star recruit in Robert Carter; he picked up a graduate transfer and impact scorer in Richaud Pack. The resume speaks for itself and then some. If the resource is there, why not utilize it?

He’s also B.) avoided more competition by using the international pool to add talent. Obviously Alex Len may not have been wholly Coach Turgeon, but he did convince the kid to stick around following the departure of Gary Williams. Since then, his staff has been doing some very good work with international guys. They’re bringing in Michal Cekovsky, a rare find by most reports who should be good right away, still have a chance with Greek star Georgios Papagiannis, and just brought in Ivan Bender (and potentially his NBA caliber brother, Dragan!) from Croatia. Not many schools are making the inroads this staff is abroad, and that’s a good sign for the future. Less competition is better.

Finally, this staff has also done a good job of snagging local talent as well lately. Seth Allen did leave, but he was a local Woodbridge, Va. kid. Snagging Roddy Peters was huge (even though he did eventually leave as well), and following that up by grabbing local players Dion Wiley and Melo Trimble just shows how committed this staff is to securing the gate on the backyard fence.

Recruiting isn’t just about grabbing the best local player anymore. Basketball is growing substantially in so many areas that it’s nice to see a staff be almost ahead of the curve when it comes to recruiting. Not everyone is going to be able to compete with the Kentucky’s, the Duke’s, and the North Carolina’s of the world, but that’s not the only way to win. Getting creative is, and I absolutely love that this staff is doing that.