Cowan comfortable at UA All-America Camp

CHARLOTTE, N.C. - It's still about a year before Maryland 2016 pledge Anthony Cowan will officially become a Terp, but that doesn't mean Mark Turgeon and his staff haven't already started coaching him up in preparations for his future in College Park.

While attending the Under Armour All-America Camp in Charlotte, N.C., July 7-10, Cowan told TSR that when talking to Maryland coaches-which he said is still pretty much an everyday occurrence-they already critique his game and make sure that he's developing into a well-rounded point guard that can score and facilitate.

"Coach Turgeon just makes sure that I'm holding up my end of the bargain," Cowan said. "Just making sure that I get my teammates involved as much as I can and then be able to score too. One thing he really pointed out to me was just working on my floater. Because he just said I was going into the trees too much and that's not really going to work too much at the next level. So he's just been telling me to work on my floater, my pull-up game and my mid-range. So I've just been trying to work on that as much as I can."

Cowan is also continuing to work on his relationships with the current Terps players. He's always sure to mention how close he is with Melo Trimble, Jared Nickens and Dion Wiley when talking to TSR, but Cowan said recently, he's been building bonds with some of Maryland's newest arrivals.

"I met Jaylen [Brantley] last week," Cowan said. "We actually hung out and went to the mall and all that, so we are already becoming close. Me and him, we just clicked."

Cowan added that one of his strongest ties at Maryland is with assistant coach Dustin Clark, which is also helping him feel very comfortable with his decisions to stay home.

"[Coach Clark and I] probably talk about twice a week, and just about anything," Cowan said. "It doesn't have to be basketball related. So me and him are just building a great relationship."

As a fully committed Terp, Cowan has spoken many times about his mission to recruit other top talent across the country-and especially in the DMV-to come play with him in College Park.

Cowan said he doesn't hesitate to walk up to any player at the various camps he's attended and ask, "How you feel about the Terps?" He added that, with Maryland's recent success in recruiting, getting other players interested in the Terps isn't that difficult.

"They had a big recruiting class come in last year, so it definitely just made it open for anybody to come to Maryland," Cowan said.

Cowan said he didn't exactly have a list of guys that he's trying to talk to at the UA camp, but he did mention that he knows the staff really wants to pair him up with another local guard, DeMatha (Md.) five-star shooting guard, Markelle Fultz.

At 6-foot-4, 180 pounds, Fultz is exactly the kind of guard Cowan said the Maryland coaches have expressed to him that they are looking for.

"Coach Turgeon made it clear that he likes guards on the team," Cowan said. "He thinks a good team runs on guards. I'm already kind of a small guard, so we aren't really looking for a small guard. We're kind of looking for more of a two guard-maybe like a 6-foot-5, 6-foot-3, sort of guy."

The 5-foot-10 Cowan admitted that, because of his size, he found it hard to score in the lane at times while playing at the NBA Top 100 Camp a few weeks ago. But Cowan was one of the better passers at the camp and said that was an area he wanted to showcase in order to standout. And eventually, his ability to score also showed when he dropped 28 points in one of his last games.

"It definitely took me getting comfortable," Cowan said. "I knew I could score but I just thought I'd show how well I could pass. I knew everybody else wanted to score, so I thought that might be a way that I could separate myself."

Cowan certainly looked comfortable during the Friday night session of the All-America camp, scoring 30 points and just missing a triple-double with 10 assists and nine rebounds. He also added four steals.

Besides working on his game so that he can overcome his height, Cowan said he is also focused on hitting the weights and bulking up for the next level.

"I just need to continue to stay in the weight room and just get big," Cowan said. "I know I'm kind of a smaller guard, so just staying in the weight room and just getting my body together."