Top Maryland men’s basketball recruiting target Keldon Johnson committed and signed with Kentucky on Saturday, the Terps’ second miss on a blue-chip target in a month.
Johnson, a five-star senior guard at Oak Hill Academy (Va.) rated the No. 14 overall player in the 247Sports.com Composite rankings, joins John Carroll point guard Immanuel Quickley in the Wildcats’ recruiting class. He also considered North Carolina State and Texas.
Maryland, which had ESPN’s sixth-rated group of Class of 2018 recruits entering the weekend, continues to struggle in battles against the sport’s blue bloods. Devon Dotson, a top-25 point guard, picked Kansas over the Terps in mid-October. Five-star center Moses Brown has long been a priority of coach Mark Turgeon’s but recently has attracted the attention of Kentucky, which his father has said is his “dream school.”
With Johnson’s pledge, Maryland could move on to four-star senior wing Jairus Hamilton. Rated the No. 66 prospect in the 247Sports.com Composite rankings, Hamilton took an official visit to College Park last month. He’s also visited Mississippi State.
The fall signing period for recruits to ink a national letter of intent ends Wednesday. The next signing period starts April 11.