If you want to meet an NBA scout this weekend, go to College Park, MD.
This is where more than 30 recruiters will reportedly be when Ace Bailey, Dylan Harper and Rutgers visit colleague Freshman Derik Queen and no. 18 Maryland on Sunday afternoon.
All three players are expected to be the first rounds in this summer’s NBA draft. The guards Bailey and Harper are consensus top-five prospects, while Queen is expected to be scooped later in the round of a team in need of an elite big man.
Scarlet Knights has relied strongly on her two tested newcomers during an up-and-down campaign.
Bailey is on average team piles of 20.1 points, 7.9 returns and 1.4 blocks per match, while Harper leads Rutgers with 4.1 assists and 1.2 steals per match.
Harper also has a 19.1 score average, which is the second highest on a Scarlet Knights squad that does not have another player on average more than 7.2 points.
Despite Bailey and Harper’s success, Rutgers (12-11, 5-7 Big Ten) has struggled to stack profits in the middle of their quest to return to the NCAA tournament’s round 64 for the first time in four years.
Scarlet Knights has consecutive victories only twice since he started 4-0, and it did not help that Harper was less than 100 percent during most of January when he struggled with the flu and a subsequent ankle damage.
But Rutgers recently showed how dangerous it can be when Harper and Bailey are healthy.
Harper returned from a two-game absence to 28 points, six returns, five assists and four steals, while Bailey collected 18 points with 11 boards in Scarlet Knights ’82 -73 home victory over No. 23 Illinois on Wednesday.
It was Rutger’s first victory over a ranked opponent this season and further strengthened the chemistry between its two best players.
“It opens a lot to me,” Bailey said about having Harper back. “I don’t have to worry about two or three people trying to box at the same time because they had to worry about D-Harp attacking. … and it opens much more to our teammates.”
Another ranked win for Scarlet Knights on Sunday can end Terrapin’s short stay in the top 25.
Maryland (17-6, 7-5) arranged into the ranking for the first time in almost two years after winning six out of seven, but Terrapins followed by blowing a 17-point lead in a loss of 73-70 in Ohio State On Thursday.
Queen, who on average is a team -leading 15 points one game, tried only seven shots from the field and finished with 13 points and eight returns, while the great man Julian Reese (14.1 ppg, 9.3 RPG) Parade 24 points by 13 boards to lead terrapins.
Maryland fought most to contain Buckeye’s guards.
Terrapins limited John Mobley Jr. to eight points on 3-AV-12 shooting but let Micah Parrish score 13 on a 5-of-9 effort. Bruce Thornton delivered the key damage by beating 11 out of 18 field target attempts, including the tie-breaking 3-pointer in the last seconds, on his way to a game high 31 points.
Thornton’s big night can be alarming with a matchup against Harper and Bailey that threatens, but Maryland is not too concerned about its ability to defend a team’s best backcourt player.
“I thought we did a really good job for the most part (defends Thornton),” said Terrapins coach Kevin Willard. “Even when he made a couple of tough two, we were ok with it. … I thought our defense at the end was really good. We replaced. We covered everything.”
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