Maryland men’s basketball’s 2024 recruiting efforts are entering the crucial stages, with the Terps hoping to soon seal the deal with a top target.

Consensus five-star recruit and Baltimore native Derik Queen is expected to take an official visit to College Park this weekend. Maryland — the school that gave Queen his first offer — is his last scheduled visit, according to 247Sports, giving the staff an opportunity to start and finish his recruitment.

Queen would be a massive get for a program that has yet to earn a commitment in the 2024 class. The 6-foot-9, 220-pound big man is a top-three center in the class and would be the third-highest ranked commit in program history behind Diamond Stone and Jalen Smith, according to 247Sports’ composite rankings.

The Montverde Academy product started his high school career at St. Frances Academy in Baltimore, where he was named MaxPreps National Freshman of the Year. Current Terps big man Julian Reese also attended St. Frances.

[A Maryland football commit didn’t have any offers — then he switched positions]

Queen has taken official visits to Kansas, Indiana, LSU and Houston over the past two months. On3’s recruiting predictor paints a two-program race between Maryland and Indiana, giving the schools respective 33.2 percent and 29 percent odds of winning Queen’s recruitment. Kansas is third at 12.6 percent.

How the weekend plays out could determine the outcome of Kevin Willard’s biggest recruitment project yet.

Commitments

Women’s soccer

Women’s soccer added its fourth and fifth players of the 2025 class on Monday.

TopDrawerSoccer three-star recruits Hannah Harms and Mikayla Gray announced their commitments to the program. Coach Meghan Ryan Nezmer didn’t wait long to express her excitement about the two future Terps.

Harms is a midfielder who plays for Virginia Union FC. Gray is a defender from Pennsylvania who plays for Philadelphia Ukrainian Nationals.

[Recruiting roundup: Maryland women’s lacrosse flips five-star commit in class of 2024]

Baseball

Coach Matt Swope added two more pitchers to his 2024 class in Cristofer Cespedes and Quinn Yellin, bringing the total number to six.

Cespedes is a 6-foot-4 righty whose fastball was measured at a top speed of 94 mph by Perfect Game, which ranks in the 99.76th percentile for his class. Yellin hails from local South River High School in Edgewater and played for the Mid-Atlantic Red Sox this past summer, a youth team Perfect Game ranks in the top 100 nationally.

Offers

Maryland men’s basketball extended an offer to junior Mason Ellison, a guard from Loyola Blakefield in Towson.

“I didn’t even expect it and when [assistant coach Greg Manning Jr.] said it, I just froze for a little bit,” he told 247Sports after receiving his first high-major offer.

Announcements

Offensive tackle commit Ryan Howerton accepted an invite to participate in the class of 2024 Under Armour All-America game. The game showcases some of the top recruits in the nation.

Current Maryland freshmen Rico Walker, Michael Harris and Dylan Gooden competed in this year’s game in January.