By: Jack Rothenberg
After revealing his top six teams on May 16, four star shooting guard Ike Cornish chose Maryland in a commitment video posted on social media Wednesday afternoon. Cornish’s final three schools came down to Georgetown, Rutgers and Maryland. Coming in from Greenville, South Carolina, Cornish is a stellar addition to the Terps’ 2021 recruiting class. Along with four star power forward Julian Reese, the 2021 class is beginning to take form.
Other schools that offered the four star include Xavier, VCU, DePaul and Virginia Tech. In total, Cornish received nine Division I offers. Per 24/7 Sports, Cornish is ranked as the 3rd best player in the state of South Carolina as well as 14th best shooting guard in the nation. This past season Cornish averaged 13.3 points, along with 3.6 rebounds and 1.5 assists per game, according to MaxPreps.
Fans might wonder why a quality guard from the south would end up in College Park. Well, Cornish is originally from the Baltimore area, but then transferred to South Carolina before his junior year of high school. Also, he has been friends with fellow class of 2021 recruit Julian Reese since he was a young kid. “That’s been my guy since eighth grade. We basically stay[ed] in touch and I know when he saw I got the Maryland offer, he hit me up…he hit me up trying to push me leaning that way because he knew he was leaning that way,” Cornish said to pressboxonline.
When Cornish comes to campus in the fall of 2021, junior Eric Ayala will be in his final year with the Terps. The hope is that Cornish will benefit from Ayala’s experience and knowledge as he attempts to build a career at Maryland during the season that they will spend together. While Ayala isn’t an all-time great at the University of Maryland, he is skilled enough and has played sufficient minutes with the team in his two years. Ayala should have the ability to teach and mentor the young freshman in order to shape Cornish into the type of player everyone wants him to be.
With two exceptional future recruits already settled on the Terps, it’s important that head coach Mark Turgeon attracts more talent and is able to continue to build a program that is worth coming to. As this upcoming team doesn’t look too promising, recruits like Cornish give fans hope that the team will be able to keep up with the standard set this past season.
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