Decision day arrives for pair of Maryland basketball 2026 targets

Ahmed Ghafir
2 days ago
2 min read

With three 2026 commits in the fold after three-star Austin Brown, four-star Adama Tambedou and four-star Kaden House put pen to paper over the last week, decision day has arrived for two targets, including local five-star Baba Oladotun.

After reclassifying from 2027 to 2026, Blake (MD) five-star forward Baba Oladotun became a hot commodity ahead of his now senior year. His official visit schedule kicked off with a trip to Virginia Tech, his alma mater, then Maryland where head coach Buzz Williams has been at the forefront of an all-out effort by the local program.

“They did an excellent job of explaining expectations,” Ibrahim Oladotun, Baba’s father, told IBG after the visit. “They did their homework. They talked about expectations, how we’re going to accomplish it, talked about the program, about the culture. They broke it down really well.”

Georgetown was third before Oladotun and his dad made the SEC swing, first to Kentucky then to Arkansas, with the Razorbacks quickly picking up steam as the team to beat in his recruitment ahead of, at the time, an undecided commitment timeline.

After trimming down to four – Arkansas, Georgetown, Kentucky, Maryland – and now set to commit on the final day of the early signing period, all eyes are on whether Maryland can secure the prized local target, hold off Georgetown and survive Arkansas’ efforts down the stretch. Oladotun is set to announce his commitment at Blake High School at roughly 7:15 PM with doors opening at 7 PM.

What I’m hearing on Baba, Elson (+)

Wednesday PM update (+)

Oladotun will be the second target to announce with Overtime Elite four-star forward Asher Elson set to announce at 11 AM among a final group including Auburn, Maryland, Syracuse and Xavier. Elson was among the first 2026 targets to officially visit during the fall after making his way to campus the weekend of Sept. 4, the same weekend that four-star Adama Tambedou was on campus before eventually becoming the second commit of the cycle. Maryland is unlikely to be the selection as assistant Aki Collins spearheaded the pursuit on the 6-foot-10 forward originally out of New York, giving the staff an in after Collins spent one year as the Head of Recruiting and Retention for Overtime Elite in 2024-25.

Maryland enters the day as a consensus top-35 class with 247 rating the 2026 haul as the 16^th-best recruiting class compared to On3 at 31^st.

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