Shortly after the end of the 2013-14 season three Maryland players made the decision to transfer, with one being sophomore center Shaquille Cleare. Cleare (3.4 ppg, 2.6 rpg as a Terrapin) played an average of 12.8 minutes per game in his two seasons in College Park, but the development many expected to see when he arrived on campus simply didn’t happen.
The hope now is that Cleare will be able to make greater strides at his next school, and on Thursday he announced that he’ll finish his college career at Texas.
While Cleare is a native of the Bahamas he attended high school in Texas so there is some familiarity between player and school (Texas also recruited Cleare while he was in high school). Cleare will have two years of eligibility remaining after sitting out the 2014-15 season, and that year spent practicing against the likes of Cameron Ridley and Prince Ibeh could prove beneficial.
Texas head coach Rick Barnes also has rising senior Jonathan Holmes and rising sophomore Connor Lammert in his front court, and outside of Holmes this group will have eligibility remaining when Cleare becomes eligible for game action in 2015. There’s also the question of where five-star 2014 center Myles Turner will attend college, with the Texan scheduled to announce his decision April 30.
Texas is one of the schools remaining on Turner’s list, with Duke, Kansas, Ohio State, Oklahoma State, SMU and Texas A&M being the others. With Cleare not being eligible for game action and Texas still having an unfilled scholarship for the 2014-15 season, it’s tough to see Cleare’s commitment having a major impact on Turner’s decision.
