By Eli Cohen
Across the board in college basketball, coaches have shown they prioritize the transfer portal far more than high school recruiting. And historically, Buzz Williams hasn’t been the one to go after the highest-ranked recruits, instead opting to identify underrated players who fit his system and program that he could develop.
In less than eight months at Maryland, though, Williams is defying both of those trends. The Terps’ 2026 class is ranked No. 3 nationally, and 5-star Silver Spring native Baba Oladotun is Williams’ highest-ranked commit ever.
“It’s a hard decision [to balance portal vs. high school], and I’m not saying that we made the right decision,” Williams said. “It’s difficult: do you want to have a really good team, or do you want to have a really good program? And sometimes you can do both.”
When Williams talks about having a good program, that generally is more compatible with high school recruiting to build continuity and sustainability. Freshmen-heavy teams often struggle, though, making it a tough thing to balance, as Williams said.
While he had to hit the portal hard after losing every player from last year’s Maryland roster, he’s still signed three of Maryland’s top nine commits since 2000.
“There’s a lot of variables involved in the decision-making process of that, and in the matrix of that. I just think long term my nature, I think how we operate, I think the pace, I think the habits that we want to have, require us to build from both,” Williams said. “I don’t know that my nature is every year we can be sustainable if we’re signing 15 new players. But I do also understand that when you make the decision that at least 33% of your roster are going to be 18 years old, there’s a process of growth that comes with that too.”
But these 18 year olds — or 17 next fall in the case of Oladotun, who reclassified from 2027 to 2026 — aren’t like most that Williams has coached, and the overall class is better than all but two in the country.
On top of Oladotun (No. 10 composite), Maryland announced the signings of guard Kaden House (No. 44 composite), forward Adama Tambedou (No. 108 composite) and wing Austin Brown (No. 211 composite) on Thursday.
After Baba Oladotun, Maryland basketball isn’t done with five-stars. And is a top-50 prospect on deck too?
“It seems like we recruited all day, everyday since we got here,” Williams said. “We were way behind on everybody.”
Williams didn’t disagree that he’s aggressively targeted more high-pedigree high school recruits than he has in the past. That could be because of the school he’s at now, the fact that other schools prioritize the portal more than high schoolers, and many other things, he said.
A look at where Williams’ recruiting classes ranked at his previous stops:
Texas A&M
2024: 33rd
2023: 39th
2022: 65th
2021: 27th
2020: 20th
2019: 34th
Virginia Tech
2018: 55th
2017: 18th
2016: 88th
2015: 23rd
2014: 24th
Marquette
2013: 7th
2012: 59th
2011: 38th
2010: 19th
2009: 12th
2008: 252nd
While the number one takeaway may be that the rankings should be taken with a grain of salt, given his 252nd-ranked class in 2008 included Jimmy Butler, the other takeaway is that the 2026 class is unlike most of Williams’.
Even in 2013, the only other time Williams had a top-10 class, he had three top-75 recruits but none in the top 40. Now acquiring these blue-chip prospects at Maryland — landing his first two composite five-star recruits in Oladotun and current freshman Darius Adams — Williams may have more talent and a higher ceiling than he’s had before.
Maryland has a full roster for next year and a glaring need at center that many think will need to be addressed in the portal, but Williams still may not be done on the high school recruiting trail for 2026.
“I think it’s a great start to what our class will end up being.”
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