Maryland basketball's top transfer target set to announce next week
Guard transfer target Both Gach will announce his next college destination on June 15, he tweeted Friday. The Utah transfer included the Terps on his list of five finalists along with Minnesota, Creighton, Iowa State and Auburn earlier this month.
Gach has a close relationship with Maryland center Chol Marial and that’s helped the Terps make noise in a recruitment that otherwise features mostly programs within driving distance of Gach’s hometown of Austin, Minnesota. Location could be a factor for the 6-foot-6 guard as it’s widely believed that recruits will have a better chance at gaining immediate eligibility via an NCAA-granted hardship waiver if they stay transfer close to home given the current climate.
The Terps’ perimeter of the future received a boost when local top-100 wing Ike Cornish committed Wednesday, but Gach could help bridge the gap between veteran guards Eric Ayala, Aaron Wiggins and Darryl Morsell and unproven talents like Cornish, Hakim Hart, Marcus Dockery and Anquan Smart. The lanky 6-foot-6 guard has two seasons of eligibility remaining after bursting onto the scene in Utah with a 22-point game against Kentucky as a freshman, notching a triple-double last November and capping off last season with his first Pac-12 player of the week award. He played mostly off ball at his last stop, but he has point guard abilities as well.
Gach is Maryland’s top transfer target and one of the few players on the market with the credentials to at least help replace the scoring the Terps lost with the departures of Anthony Cowan and Jalen Smith. Maryland is also looking at high-scoring class of 2021 guards Jalen Warley and Deivi Jones to help fill the scoring void down the road. Warley and Jones recently trimmed their lists to 10 and seven schools, respectively, with the Terps making the cut for both.
With former Indiana forward Justin Smith committing to Arkansas this week, Gach is the only known D-I transfer linked to Maryland at this time, but the Terps did extend a scholarship offer to junior college big man Langston Wilson Wednesday. Mark Turgeon and staff have three scholarships left to fill.
