Two days after postponing his decision, James Graham III commits to Maryland for Class of '21
The forward from Milwaukee picked the Terps over Auburn, Memphis and home state Wisconsin and has a similar upward recruiting trajectory as Kevin Huerter
Amid the uncertainty about when or even if a 2020-21 college basketball season will be played and following a summer when all but one of the many grad transfer targets Mark Turgeon pursued chose to go elsewhere, the Maryland coach and his Terps finally received a much-needed piece of positive news Wednesday.
James Graham III is coming to College Park.
Two days after announcing on Twitter that he needed more time to commit, the 6-8, 205-pound forward from Milwaukee took to social media again to say that he had chosen the Terps. Maryland beat out Auburn, Memphis and home-state Wisconsin for Graham, who went from hardly known to hotly coveted in the past few months.
Graham, currently a four-sport prospect ranked No. 56 in 247’s latest ratings, will join two players with Baltimore roots, Ike Cornish and Julian Reese, in a 2021 recruiting class ranked eighth overall and third in the Big Ten behind Michigan State (No. 4) and Ohio State (No. 6).
Assistant coach Bino Ranson, who was instrumental in getting the two from his hometown, was also the lead recruiter on Graham before “it switched to Turg” toward the end, according to Graham.
It marks the second time in the past five years that Ranson’s persistence helped pluck a highly-rated player out of Milwaukee despite the interest from the Badgers. Diamond Stone, a top 15 player in the class of 2015, played at Maryland for only a year before turning pro.
The news of Graham’s decision seemingly surprised many Maryland fans despite the fact that he was supposed to be favoring the Terps after cutting his list of nine schools to four earlier in the month.
The presence of Auburn coach Bruce Pearl, who has many ties to both the Midwest and Milwaukee dating back to his years coaching UW-Milwaukee, made some wonder if Turgeon was going to lose another prospect at the last minute.
If the photo retweeted by Graham on Twitter holds true - wearing No. 34 in a Maryland uniform, the same jersey number he wore at Nicolet High - he could become the first player in College Park to wear it since Len Bias.
Graham also referenced Bias in another post. Graham said he has long worn the number because of Carmelo Anthony and the game the longtime NBA star has played since he was at Syracuse.
Still, Graham is quite familiar with the game the legendary Terp played during his Maryland career, and the tragedy that unfolded when he died from a cocaine overdose two days after being drafted No. 2 over by the Boston Celtics in 1986.
“I’ve watched all the documentaries, think he would have been like Michael Jordan,” Graham said.
While Graham’s announcement won’t quiet those who spend their hours on the message boards questioning Turgeon, it certainly reinforces the coach’s reputation and his staff’s ability for finding under-the-radar talents who bloom a little late.
Graham’s projected rise close to the top 50 is similar to the trajectory that Kevin Huerter, who became a first-round NBA draft choice after his sophomore year, took before arriving at Maryland.
Just as was the case with Huerter, Maryland was among the first Power 5 schools to focus on Graham.
“Coach Turgeon and Coach Bino call me every day,” Graham told 247 Sports recently. “The communication is just really strong with them. I have always said for me it is about relationships and not [just] about the school and those guys have built a good relationship with me.”
Graham said Wednesday that he has the confidence that he can have a similar career as Huerter under Turgeon, and with the same end result.
“To have a player who played similar to me, it’s not hard do what you with him,” Graham told me. “I firmly believe that he can get me to the next level.”
Graham said that he has similar 3-point range as Huerter did early in his college career, but the now second-year Atlanta Hawks guard shot it “more efficiently from deep, but I have it more off the dribble.”
The commitment of the three players - all four-star rated prospects most comfortable on the wing - should also help Turgeon fill out the 2021 class with a point guard and a big man, which remain the two biggest question marks going into the upcoming season.
The Terps, who shared last season’s Big Ten regular season title with Wisconsin and Michigan before the pandemic shut down the post-season, have been picked to finish toward the bottom of the league in 2020-21 after the departures of Anthony Cowan Jr., who graduated, and Jalen Smith, ho turned pro after his sophomore year and is expected to be a first-round choice when the NBA holds it 2020.
would be quite an honor to wear that number for the Terps!
Thanks Don. Go Terps!