NBA Draft History: Maryland Terrapins

The Maryland Terrapins have had some highs and lows in their history when it comes to the NBA draft.  From Joe Smith and John Lucas being the only two players in Terrapins history to go number one overall in the NBA draft to the tragedy of Len Bias who passed away after he was selected with the second overall pick in 1986.

With the Terps currently getting attention from big time recruits and current players, the men's basketball program won't be slowing down anytime soon. Things will only get better in the draft.

Here is a run down of former Terps who were drafted in the first round and second round of the NBA draft:

The Terps have had six players selected in the top five. The only question mark among them would be Bias unfortunately. Many people believed that if Bias didn't pass away too soon, he would have rivaled Michael Jordan in the NBA as one of the greatest ever. That would have been a tall order but to others who saw him play, it was very realistic.

It is also interesting to note that between 1974-2002, the Terps never went more than six years without having a player selected in the top 10 in the NBA draft.

Below, here are the remaining Terps who were drafted in the NBA history from rounds two through eight:

Looking at the above lists, most of the players are not household names which would come as a surprise to some or even a bit of disappointment to others as well considering the fact that the Terps are in the Baltimore/Washington D.C. area which is a hotbed for college recruiting in basketball.

All of the big name schools around the country try to recruit in the area and unfortunately for the Terps a good number of schools have had success.

Part of the lack of success from the Terps in the past is the fact that the basketball program for a good while was not connected with AAU basketball players as well as they should have been. When the program was missing out on some local talent such as Kevin Durant, Allen Iverson, Carmelo Anthony or Ty Lawson to name a few it just never sat well with Terps fans despite the level of success the Terps have had over the last 25 years with legendary and former head coach Gary Williams.

However, with credit to current Terps head coach Mark Turgeon, expect the list of high profile players who have NBA caliber talent from the Terps basketball program to grow rapidly in the next few years especially in the first round as current players such as Melo Trimble, Jake Layman, Diamond Stone and Robert Carter Jr. are going to receive a lot of attention in the 2015-2016 season from NBA scouts. In this upcoming season, the Terps are projected to be one of the favorites to win another national championship.