Maryland secured a commitment from one of the premier scorers in the Class of 2014, 6-foot-4 shooting guard Dion Wiley.
Wiley (Oxon Hill, Md./Potomac), the No. 22-ranked junior and third overall 2-guard in the class, phoned in his commitment to Terrapins coach Mark Turgeon on Friday morning.
"Deep down I've known I've wanted to go to Maryland," Wiley said. "I didn't want to rush it. I wanted to make sure. As the live period went on, I knew more schools were coming. I knew deep down I wanted to go to Maryland."
Wiley also strongly considered Florida, Miami and Indiana.
A noted scorer, Wiley lit up the Nike EYBL circuit this spring with a 14.1-points-per-game scoring average, shooting 52 percent from the field and an eye-popping 48 percent from 3-point range.
Similar to his role at Potomac and with his Team Takeover travel team, Wiley is expected to be an impact scorer as a Maryland freshman.
"My role is to come in and score the ball and make a big impact as a freshman," Wiley said. "Making an impact to me is scoring the ball, finding my teammates and being more vocal, like being a leader."
Wiley is a potential McDonald's All-American, and he's not the only elite local player heading to College Park in the fall of 2014. Turgeon stepped up his recruiting efforts in the talent-laden D.C. metro region, also getting a commitment from four-star point guard Romelo Trimble (Alexandria, Va./Bishop O'Connell). Trimble could wind up being rated in the top five overall at his position, as Wiley is at the 2-guard.
The uptick in local recruiting for Turgeon began last year when point guard Roddy Peters committed, and it hasn't ceased. Wiley knows both of his future teammates very well.
"We're real cool," Wiley said. "[Romelo and I] talked a lot about it before but I never told him I was coming. I know Roddy real well. He played in the neighborhood with me in the same county."
When it came commitment time, Wiley reviewed how and who had been recruiting him, and everything added up to the Terps.
"I knew I was the guy that Mark Turgeon wanted," Wiley said. "He's been there since 10th-grade year. I knew it was him that was coming after me, not any assistant coach. He came to at least four of my high school games. I saw him at Takeover games, and he'd always call to see how my weekend went."