With his family behind him and his Blake High School teammates to his side, in the very gymnasium where he’s made a name for himself while staying connected to his roots, Baba Oladotun stood and unzipped his jacket to reveal his decision.

He’s staying home for his college basketball career, he announced.

The five-star small forward committed to Maryland on Wednesday night, ending a frenzied recruitment that was sped up a year after he decided last summer to graduate early. He had over 40 offers and picked the Terps from a final four that included Arkansas, Kentucky and Georgetown. Oladotun is 6-foot-9 and the No. 8 recruit in the class of 2026, according to ESPN.

Despite the opportunity to go almost anywhere in the country, Oladotun decided that sticking to his roots was most important to him. Georgetown and Maryland, the two closest programs, were his top choices, he said.

His father, Ibrahim Oladotun, had meetings with both programs this week, and, after the talks with Maryland on Tuesday, Baba Oladotun said his decision was clear.

“The relationship I built with coach Buzz Williams and the entire Maryland staff, it was really crucial to me; it was key,” he said. “They took the time to get to know me and my entire family. I think it’s a blessing to play for the hometown you grew up in. I’m really excited. I’m ready to get to work.”

For Oladotun, staying connecting to his family members is key. They’ve been instrumental in helping him, and now he’ll be able to see them almost every day. His two older sisters attend the university. His father has multiple rental properties in the area, so he is in College Park nearly every day.

Because it’s only a 20-minute drive from their house, the rest of the family will be able to easily make quick trips to visit. The family wants its younger son, Wale, to stay connected to Baba, and they realized after an official visit to Arkansas that taking him out of school to fly across the country to see his brother was going to be complicated. Wale has his own budding basketball career and is expected to be a sought-after talent in the class of 2030.

Ibrahim Oladotun also wants Baba to go to church with them every Sunday that he’s in town, and multiple members of the congregation attend the university.

“How many people are lucky to have only a 20-minute drive to an institution with 20,000 fans and they want your son very, very bad?” Ibrahim Oladotun said.

For Maryland, adding Baba Oladotun provides a local connection it is lacking on its roster. It gives the Terps their second five-star recruit in three years. Derik Queen, from Baltimore, played just one season in college, helping the Terps advance to the Sweet 16 of the NCAA tournament last year before becoming the No. 13 pick in the NBA draft.

Queen is a member of the New Orleans Pelicans.

Oladotun’s journey to becoming one of the top recruits in the nation began at DeMatha, before he transferred to Blake for the rest of his high school career. It was a rare move — a top recruit leaving the private school scene to play in a public school league that rarely sees talent of Oladotun’s caliber. But his decision to do that, much like his college choice, centered around his desire to be in his community. He wanted to play with the kids he grew up with, and his father wanted to eliminate their lengthy drive across town in traffic.

Before he heads to college, Oladotun has one more season left with his high school teammates.

“He set a very high standard being how highly ranked he is,” Blake basketball junior Ben Gottfried said. “Every day, we compete with him. When coaches started coming in here, it became very real.”

Oladotun also plays on Kevin Durant’s AAU squad, Team Durant. He played up an age group at the personal request of Durant.

Oladotune was the top recruit in the class of 2027, according to ESPN, before he reclassified last summer to the class of 2026. The decision will allow him to graduate high school and go to college a year early, giving him the opportunity to be in the NBA by 2027, if he chooses.

He felt comfortable moving up a class, in part, because he has put on 28 pounds over the last year and a half, his trainer Blair O’Donovan said. That puts him over 200 pounds, which gives him the physicality and strength he thinks will prepare him to compete in college.

The way he’s added weight is the same way he’s maintained his schedule as an elite high school basketball player: meticulous planning by him and his family. He has three to four training sessions a day, including strength work with O’Donovan; high school practice at Blake and private skills sessions, all of which are carefully jigsawed together around schoolwork.

His sister and mother prepare his meals — they bring in a chef if they aren’t available — and Oladotun carries the meals throughout the day to maintain his weight.

“The family system of the organization, they know that he is a super talent,” O’Donovan said. “They are not chasing the money that they could have gotten to play at different high schools. They really value time and the way that they’re going about their scheduling.”

Soon, Oladotun will head to the next level with his family by his side. And he plans to keep them with him, regardless of where he ends up after that.

“For the future, [I want to be] a great college player,” he said. “Then play in the NBA and be a great NBA player as well.”

This article has been updated.