After the University of Maryland men's basketball program landed senior four-star Mount St. Joseph guard Darryl Morsell for its 2017 recruiting class last November, speculation quickly turned to whether Morsell's high school teammate, junior five-star forward Jalen Smith, would join him in College Park, Md., in 2018.
The 6-foot-8, 199-pound Smith is ranked nationally as the No. 20 recruit of the 2018 class as well as the eighth-best power forward in the country and No. 2 overall recruit in Maryland, according to 247Sports.com. His production for Mount St. Joe this season led to Smith being named the Baltimore Catholic League's Player of the Year.
"It's very exciting. It was shocking to me at first, because I didn't actually think they were going to pick me this year," Smith said on Glenn Clark Radio Feb. 23. "I thought they were going to pick my teammate, Darryl, because he's one of the top players that blew up this summer, and he's doing a lot of good things this year in our league.
