Two top-60 recruits commit to join team
After Maryland women’s basketball watched five players enter the transfer portal in less than 48 hours last week, the program received some good news Monday when four-star guards Gia Cooke and Brianna McDaniel committed to the Terps.
Cooke and McDaniel are both ranked in the top-60 of the Class of 2022 by ESPN. McDaniel, who played for Chicago’s Kenwood Academy, is the 10th best guard and the No. 42 overall player in the nation. Cooke, who attends Bishop McNamara in Prince George’s County, is the 12th best guard and No. 52 overall player.
Both players originally committed to Texas A&M but reopened their recruitment last week after Aggies coach Gary Blair announced his retirement.
McDaniel, who suffered a torn ACL and slightly torn meniscus in March 2021, averaged 14.5 points and close to two steals per game during her senior season at Kenwood. As a sophomore, the 5-foot-11 guard averaged 18 points, 6.4 rebounds and 4.2 assists per game.
Cooke averaged 15 points, four rebounds and three assists while guiding Bishop McNamara to its third straight Washington Catholic Athletic Conference championship game, where the Mustangs lost
to St. John’s.
The commitments come after sophomore forward-guard Angel Reese, junior guard Ashley Owusu, junior forward Mimi Collins, as well as two reserves in graduate student guard Channise Lewis and sophomore guard Taisiya Kozlova, entered the transfer portal early last week.
The loss of Reese and Owusu came as a surprise since both players were Associated Press All-Americans who were expected to lead the Terps in 2022-23 after back-toback Sweet 16 appearances.
Reese, a McDonald’s All American at St. Frances, was the No. 2 overall prospect
in the class of 2020 — the highest-ranked recruit in program history — and the No. 1 wing, according to ESPN. She averaged a team-best 17.8 points and 10.6 rebounds per game and shot 50% from the field in 32 games.
Maryland coach Brenda Frese still has work to do in filling out a roster that also lost starting guard Katie Benzan and forward-guard Chloe Bibby, who declared for the WNBA draft after exhausting their eligibility. The Terps’ lone remaining starter, Diamond Miller, will be sidelined for three to six months after undergoing knee surgery.