Maryland Loses Shaq Cleare, Nick Faust, Roddy Peters To Transfer

Yesterday afternoon, it was announced that 3 players would be leaving the Maryland program. These players were Shaq Cleare, Nick Faust, and Roddy Peters. There were varied opinions on each transfer, but the biggest surprise here is likely Roddy Peters. Peters was considered to be a player that could really develop into a great one for the Terps.

The first thing to note is that Maryland is going to be losing a lot of minutes due to these transfers. Though none of them were the top players for the Terps, each made some big contributions over the year. Here are some basic stats on the three players:

That's a combined 56.3 minutes per game that's leaving Maryland. No matter how you break things down, that has to be considered a hit. Still though, the other way to look at this thing is that those were 56.3 minutes per game on a team that failed to make the NIT. Just because guys are contributing doesn't mean they are good contributions.

Along with this, it's important to remember that there are replacements who can help ease these losses. Faust was going to be a senior and Cleare was going to be a junior next season. It's great to have experience, but on the other side, it's also nice to use those 3 spots for some major recruits, who have the potential to make a big difference to a team that struggled last year. Maryland's 2014 class is loaded with talent and there are at least capable options to replace each player. Melo Trimble should work to replace Peters, Dion Wiley should work to replace Faust, and Michal Cekovsky will work to replace Cleare. Will they make the same contributions right away? Probably not, but at least there are replacements to help ease the loss.

Here is what SBNation's Maryland site (Testudo Times) had to say about the transfers:

The transfers of Faust and Cleare won't come as too big of a surprise to many, as they had been rumored for some time to be potential transfer candidates, but the move from Peters comes as a bit of a shock. Peters had just finished his freshman season at Maryland, a season where he saw his playing time diminish as Seth Allen got healthier.

Here is what Mark Turgeon had to say about the transfers:

"I really enjoyed coaching Nick, Shaq and Roddy," head coach Mark Turgeon said. "It is unfortunate that they will no longer be a part of the program. I wish them the very best in their future endeavors."