Maryland men's basketball misses out on five-star Obinna Ekezie Jr.

Ahmed Ghafir
47 minutes ago
2 min read

The wait is officially over, but it didn't materialize into good news with Maryland finishing as the runner-up for one of the top available high school prospects.

Five-star center and legacy target Obinna Ekezie Jr. has officially ended his recruitment after committing to Louisville on Sunday with Maryland a finalist alongside Kentucky, Arkansas and BYU. With the announcement now public, Ekezie Jr. also plans to reclassify from the 2027 class into 2026 and suit up in the upcoming season.

It marks a notable blow for Maryland, who proved to be the biggest challenger to Louisville in the final days of his recruitment.

Ekezie Jr. unofficially visited College Park back on Feb. 1 for the Purdue game when Maryland fell by 30 points when a reclass was considered a possibility, though the talk of the five-star moving into the 2026 class intensified over the last month after taking official visits to Arkansas, Louisville then BYU. The five-star then announced his final five last week with visits wrapped up as talk of a commitment coming to fruition materialized last week before it became official on Sunday.

With Ekezie Jr. officially off the board, what head coach Buzz Williams and the staff do with the final scholarship on the 2026-27 roster will be the next question mark with a chance to bolster the frontcourt depth. Former Kansas guard Rakease Passmore remains in the transfer portal despite announcing his intention to not transfer from Maryland men's basketball, yet whether he returns remains a possibility yet question mark heading into the rest of May.

Five-star Baba Oladotun currently headlines the four signed high school recruits while Maryland has inked six transfers this offseason headlined by Tomislav Buljan, DJ Wagner and Bishop Boswell.

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