Hakim Hart becomes the second Maryland basketball transfer in two days to find a
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Hakim Hart is going back to Philly. The former Maryland basketball standout is transferring to Villanova, he announced on Friday.
Hart, a Philadelphia native who spent the past four seasons in College Park, announced a month ago he was entering the transfer portal. A 6-foot-8 wing who was recruited to Maryland by Mark Turgeon, he started for the Terps for most of the past three seasons and earned honorable mention All-Big Ten honors this past season while tying sophomore center Julian Reese for second on the team in points per game (11.4), ranking third in rebounds (4.1) and posting the second-best field goal percentage of Maryland’s regulars (47.9 percent).
Hart chose Villanova over Miami, Gonzaga and Kansas, though it was unclear if the Jayhawks had an open spot for him after signing highly regarded Towson transfer Nicolas Timberlake.
Maryland coach Kevin Willard used the scholarship cleared by Hart’s departure to sign Loyola Marymount transfer Chance Stephens, a 3-point shooting specialist with three years of eligibility remaining. He continues to pursue former Michigan all-American Hunter Dickinson.
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Hart arrived at Maryland under Mark Turgeon as a raw 17-year-old, the youngest player in the Big Ten as a freshman, when he played sparingly on a team that tied for the regular-season Big Ten title. He started 19 games as a sophomore, averaging 7.1 points, 3.5 rebounds and 1.9 assists for a team that — like this year’s — lost to Alabama in the second round of the NCAA Tournament. As a junior, he averaged 9.9 points and 3.6 rebounds per game for a team that endured Turgeon’s abrupt departure and the program’s first losing record in 30 years, then he helped Kevin Willard’s first team reach the NCAA Tournament despite low preseason expectations.
On Thursday, another outgoing Maryland transfer found a new home when Ike Cornish committed to Ohio University. Cornish, a redshirt freshman guard from Baltimore who arrived as a four-star recruit but played sparingly, announced his decision to leave last month. He averaged 4.9 minutes and 1.7 points in 21 appearances and made 10 of 28 shots. A member of Turgeon’s final recruiting class at Maryland, he redshirted last year and hoped to take on a significant role off the bench this season, but never fit into Kevin Willard’s rotation and was expected to transfer at the season’s end.
The third Maryland player to enter the portal, reserve big man Arnaud Revaz, has not announced his next stop.
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