Maryland landed 6-8 power forward Charles Mitchell of Marietta, Ga., Thursday but his addition to the Terps doesn’t impact their top targets for 2013: twins Andrew and Aaron Harrison.
“Would it be bad if I said I didn’t know who that was?” Aaron Harrison Sr. asked SNY.tv when informed of Mitchell’s commitment.
Mitchell also considered Tennessee, Florida State, Seton Hall, Florida, Memphis and Cincinnati. He joins 6-9 Eastern Shore forward Damonte Dodd, Houston center Shaquille Cleare and Massachusetts forward Jake Layman in Maryland’s 2012 recruiting class. Mitchell and Dodd figure to play behind Cleare, the Rivals No. 9 center in the Class of 2012.
Harrison Sr. confessed he didn’t know much about Dodd, either.
“To them, Maryland’s already got the big guy that they wanted,” he said, referring to Cleare. “So it’s kind of a little different for them. They are real close.”
Andrew and Aaron Harrison, both 6-foot-5 and out of Richmond (TX) Travis High, are among the top five players in the class of 2013.
They are AAU teammates with the 6-9 Cleare on the Houston Defenders.
As previously reported at FiveStarBasketball.com, the twins are considering Maryland, Baylor, Villanova and Kentucky.
“Yeah, they cut it down to four schools,” Harrison Sr. said.
Harrison Sr. said his sons aren’t necessarily into fixating on March Madness to see how all four teams are performing. Maryland played North Carolina in an ACC quarterfinal Friday.
“Aaron and Andrew are kids and that’s how they act,” he said. “They do chores. We don’t sit around and mumble about this stuff all day. They’re just 17-year-olds. They played the state semifinal game so they made it to Austin. They won their region, so they’re just excited about that.
“I know some other kids get caught up in that of, ‘I’m going to this college. I’m going to do this.’ That’s just not who they are. After they leave the basketball court, yeah, they love basketball but they leave it it’s over with. You gotta get back to being a young man, try to make your way in this world. It’s just a little different.”
That said, Maryland is going big after the twins and making them the focus of their 2013 recruiting strategy.
Head coach Mark Turgeon and assistant Bino Ranson recruited the twins while at Texas A&M, but Gary Williams also recruited them before he retired.
“Maryland was recruiting them before,” Harrison Sr. said. “We went on a visit to Maryland last year at this time. They went to a practice when Gary was coaching at the beginning of his last year.
“Bino Ranson saw them play when they were like in seventh grade. Because I’m from Baltimore, we were in the Melo Center playing.”
So even though Maryland’s newest recruits haven’t impacted the twins, they’re still strongly considering the Terps.
Photos: Yahoo, Coast2coasthoops
