Maryland men’s basketball adds South Florida transfer Selton Miguel as it continues reshaping roster

Maryland men’s basketball coach Kevin Willard vowed to “retool the roster” after a disappointing second season ended in early March. In the month since, he’s added plenty of help.

South Florida guard Selton Miguel announced Tuesday on social media that he’s transferring to Maryland, joining fellow transfer guards Ja’Kobi Gillespie (Belmont) and Rodney Rice (Virginia Tech) on the new-look Terps.

The move leaves Willard with two open scholarships as the team looks to replace top scorer Jahmir Young, longtime starter Donta Scott and departing reserve players Jaime Kaiser Jr. (Butler), Jahnathan Lamothe (North Carolina A&T), Caelum Swanton-Rodger and Noah Batchelor (Buffalo).

Miguel, a 6-foot-4, 210-pound Angola native who started his college career at Kansas State, is the reigning American Athletic Conference’s Most Improved Player and Sixth Man of the Year. He averaged a career-high 14.7 points per game, shot 39% from 3-point range and ranked second on the team in assists (71) and steals (38) as the Bulls went 25-8 and reached the second round of the National Invitation Tournament.

Earlier this month, Miguel announced that he was declaring for the NBA draft while entering the transfer portal and maintaining his final season of college eligibility. The former three-star prospect from Orlando, Florida, is No. 89 in On3.com’s transfer portal rankings.

After starting 11 games under coach Brian Gregory in 2022-23, Miguel excelled coming off the bench in Amir Abdur-Rahim’s first season. Abdur-Rahim called Miguel the “MVP” of the team after the Bulls’ regular-season finale on March 5.

“There’s not even a question about it because he trusted me when he didn’t really have to,” Abdur-Rahim said, according to the Tampa Bay Times. “He could’ve bumped up … but he said, ‘You asked me to do it, I’ll do whatever you need me to do, Coach. I got you.’”

The addition of Miguel — the cousin of former Terps star and fellow Angola native Bruno Fernando — only adds to early 2024-25 optimism for the Terps, who went 16-17 and lost to Wisconsin in the second round of the Big Ten Tournament this past season. In ESPN’s way-too-early Top 25 rankings after the national championship game, Maryland ranked No. 20 thanks to Gillespie and Rice joining former top recruit DeShawn Harris-Smith, star forward Julian Reese and incoming five-star prospect and Baltimore native Derik Queen.