After decommitting from St. Joseph’s in late March following coach Phil Martelli’s firing, shooting guard Hakim Hart announced Thursday on Instagram he’d be joining Maryland men’s basketball for the 2019-20 season, the fourth recruit in coach Mark Turgeon’s class.
Hart is ranked a two-star prospect on 247Sports, but earned first-team All-Catholic League honors as he led Roman Catholic in Philadelphia to its second consecutive Catholic League championship. The 6-foot-6 guard averaged 20.5 points and 6.9 rebounds per game in his senior year, per MaxPreps, while adding 3.8 assists and making the USA Today All-Pennsylvania basketball first team.
“I would like to thank all of the coaches that reached out to me during the time of me reopening my recruitment, but I wanna give a complete thank you to Coach Turgeon and his staff for recruiting me and believing me,” Hart posted on Instagram. “I wanna give a special thanks to the University of Maryland for allowing me to play at the highest level and one of the best conferences in the country!”
Hart is the fourth recruit in Maryland’s 2019 class, which ranks No. 27 in the country, per 247Sports. Four-star center Mahki Mitchell, three-star center Makhel Mitchell and three-star small forward Donta Scott round out the group.
“Hakim is a very skilled and unselfish basketball player with tremendous scoring ability who will have a great impact on our program,” Turgeon said in a release. “He was the leading scorer on an exceptional Roman Catholic team and I was impressed by his continuous improvement throughout a spectacular season. Hakim is an outstanding teammate who comes from a great family and we are excited to welcome him to College Park.”
Forward Bruno Fernando and guard Anthony Cowan declared for the NBA Draft on Monday, but Cowan appears more so to be testing the waters. With Hart’s addition and forward Trace Ramsey’s decision to transfer from the program, the Terps should still have room for another addition — be it an incoming freshman or a graduate transfer.
Turgeon doesn’t have a strong track record with developing low-end prospects. By win shares, center Damonte Dodd — who averaged 3.5 points per game during his four years — had the best Maryland career of any non top-100 recruit in Turgeon’s eight years in College Park, according to Sports Reference.