The Terrapin men’s basketball team announced yesterday the commitment of Berend Weijs, a 6-foot-10, 210-pound center from Harcum College in Bryn Mawr, Pa., and the reviews are starting to pour in.

Coach Gary Williams spoke highly of Weijs in a press release. “Berend is a 6-10 very agile and mobile post player,” Williams said. “With his size, skill and athleticism he will be able to contribute to our team immediately. He played on a very good junior college team and for a very good coach. We are extremely excited about Berend joining our program.”

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On the same day that the Terrapin men’s basketball team lost assistant coach Chuck Driesell to The Citadel and former Terps’ recruit Terrence Ross all but committed to Washington, the Terps gained their first commitment for the 2011 class: Seton Hall Prep (N.J.) point guard Sterling Gibbs.

The three-star recruit picked the Terps over Seton Hall, Rutgers, Indiana, Wake Forest, Pittsburgh, Florida, Virginia and St. John’s. Driesell’s departure from College Park was not enough to shake Gibbs’ desire to commit, according to reports.

“I knew that this was definitely where I wanted to be,” Gibbs told collegehoops.net. “At the end of the day, coach Williams is the one making the subs.”

Gibbs is the younger brother of current Pittsburgh guard Ashton Gibbs, and according to ESPN (subscription required), the two have similar styles:

“Their games are carbon copies of one another. Sterling has point guard size but more of a two guard game. He is a scorer. He is good at creating his own shot. He has a solid mid range game and get to multiple spots on the floor to get his shot off. He has range on his jumper to 19 feet. He is a scrapper and plays with heart. He is a solid defender that is always competing. Sterling is a solid combo guard that should follow the same career path as his brother and have a solid 4 year college career at a high major school.”

With guards Greivis Vasquez and Eric Hayes graduating and no clear-cut favorite to start at the point in 2010, Gibbs could contend for significant playing time when he arrives the following season.

Jeremy Schneider is The Diamondback’s Terrapin softball beat writer. He can be reached at schneider@umdbk.com.

One measure of Gary Williams’ success as Terrapin men’s basketball coach has been his ability to groom assistants for Division I coaching jobs.

Assistant coach Chuck Driesell will be the latest addition to that list, according to multiple published reports. Driesell, the son of former Terps’ coach Lefty Driesell, is expected to be named the head coach at The Citadel as early as today.

Driesell would replace Ed Conroy, who accepted the head job at Tulane earlier this month after guiding the Bulldogs to a 16-16 (9-9 Southern Conference) record last season.

An athletics department spokesman at The Citadel would not confirm the hiring Monday afternoon. But Comcast Sportsnet reported the school will introduce Driesell at a 4 p.m. news conference today, and Williams is preparing for the fourth-year assistant and leading recruiting coordinator to move on.

“A lot of really good assistants, they want to be head coaches. That’s what makes them good,” Williams said by phone Monday night. “Chuck worked hard for a couple years. I’m glad to see it worked out.”

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Two weeks after his Terp career ended on Korie Lucious’ heartbreaking buzzer-beater, Greivis Vasquez continues to pile up the hardware.

The ACC Player of the Year won the Bob Cousy Award yesterday, given to the nation’s top point guard, edging out a star-studded group of finalists.

The Venezuelan addressed the local media at Comcast Center this afternoon about an hour after the announcement, thanking his teammates, coaches, family and home country for supporting him in the 10 months since he decided to return for his senior season.

“It’s an unbelievable feeling,” Vasquez said. “Winning that award just says a lot not only about myself but my team and the people that surround me. I’m so thankful, and I’m really happy.”

Vasquez, who will appear on CBS’ Early Show in New York tomorrow morning for a segment on Justin’s Quest, will head to Indianapolis, site of this year’s Final Four, to accept the award Monday.

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I thought I’d hop on here and provide a little more context on the feature sports story from today’s paper, a “Where are they now?” piece about former Terp basketball player Byron Mouton.

The story will be the kick-off to a small series about former Terp athletes we’re calling “For Love of the Game.”

But I got the idea to focus on Mouton, an integral part of the Terps’ 2002 run to its lone National Championship when I was waiting to interview Greivis Vasquez after practice a month or so back for this piece.

During my wait, I struck up a conversation with university alum Mark Grey, who was waiting for Mouton to finish practicing with the team so they could record a segment for Mouton’s radio show on Grey’s Web site, www.playersvoice.com.

I thought it was interesting that Mouton, who famously toiled in a number of different leagues for a number of different teams in an effort to prolong his pro career, still maintained such a connection to the team.

With the Terps season officially over, I set about tracking down Mouton. On Friday, I attended the Maryland Greenhawks’ game at Coolidge High School in D.C. Two days later, I sat down with him after a tryout at Comcast Center for his AAU program, the 6th Man Warriors.

As I conveyed in the article, Mouton seems to be loving his basketball-filled life right now.

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