Mark Turgeon and the Maryland Terrapins have been on a hot streak recently when it comes to recruiting. They added a top ten recruit in the nation for 2015 to a veteran team that is expected to make big time noise this college basketball season and they plan to re-stock the talent pool with their 2016 class which is already ranked number 17 in the nation. Maryland has received two commitments so far and they are hoping to get a third from four-star small forward Mario Kegler as he is reportedly close to making a decision, according to Jeff Ermann of 247 Sports.
Kegler just finished up his official visits this past weekend when he visited Indiana where he said he had a great time. As of right now Kegler has five schools on the list including Maryland, Indiana, Arizona State, Baylor and Mississippi State but he plans to cut that list down to three this week. It is unknown which direction he will go in with the cuts but it seems like Mississippi State, Arizona State and Maryland are the three favorites.
247 Sports actually believes pretty strongly that Kegler will commit to Mississippi State as he is from Jackson Mississippi but they also give the Sun Devils a decent shot. Maryland appears to be under the radar for Kegler but his guardian, Omhar Carter, still thinks they have as good a shot as anyone saying "They're still high. They haven't budged."
After Kegler gets his list down to three he is expected to wait a couple of weeks to announce his official decision but he is not expected to wait until the spring to announce. Kegler is a 6 foot-8 small forward that is ranked as the 32nd best player and the seventh best small forward in the 2016 class, according to ESPN.
Kegler is great at finishing on the fast break and he also has a tremendous mid-range jump shot. Overall Kegler is a very good scorer and although he will have to work on his consistency and ball-handling he is a big time recruit that will be a big help to whichever school he chooses.
Although most people think Kegler will stay home for school his recruitment seems wide open. There are a couple of things going Maryland's way though and they are the fact that they can offer him a lot of playing time as a freshman (Jake Layman is graduating) and both Turgeon and assistant coach Dustin Clark went to watch him play last week and were the only coaches in attendance. Maryland has kept in touch with Kegler since the official visit and they are a good bet to make the cut down to three.
Watch some of the Kegler's highlights below:
