Luanda is a vibrant city. The capital of Angola, and its primary port on the west coast of Southern Africa, is home to a breathtaking waterfront boardwalk and a stretch of museums rich with local history.

By population, it’s about the size of 16 Baltimores.

There, the University of Maryland is a household name.

“It’s like people just know Maryland, Maryland, Maryland,” Bruno Fernando said, leaning into his Angolan accent by clicking his tongue past the ‘r’ and ‘y.’ “Every Angolan kid’s dream school is probably Maryland, for real.”

Fernando grew up in Luanda and introduced Angola to College Park nearly a decade ago. That unlikely connection of school and country, separated by an ocean, coincidentally with matching color palettes, has continually been fostered by Terps fifth-year senior guard Selton Miguel.

On the Instagram page for Agostinho Van-Dúnem, tucked between a video montage of the Angolan ambassador to the United States rubbing shoulders with high-ranking officials and a picture walking beside former President Joe Biden, is a grainy cellphone video of Miguel knocking down an 18-foot jumper against Canisius.

After the game, Van-Dúnem posed beside Miguel holding a comically large Angolan flag standing on the court at the Xfinity Center. The Embassy of Angola’s social media page has a run of four pictures showing Van-Dúnem with Biden. In between is the photo with Miguel. What does that say about the esteem with which the ambassador holds one of the only Angolan college basketball players in Division I right now?

“I don’t think Maryland realizes how much impact they’ve had in Angola,” Fernando said.

The seeds of such impact began with Fernando. The 6-foot-10 center and four-star prospect out of Florida’s IMG Academy grew up in a neighborhood called Morro Bento, an 11-minute drive from Miguel’s childhood home in Talatona.Fernando committed to the Terps in October 2016 — at the time, considered a good get for former coach Mark Turgeon. He took only two seasons to find his way into the program’s history books: top 10 in eight statistical categories, including tied for the second most single-season double-doubles (22) and the sixth-best single-season field goal percentage (.670). Fernando received first-team All-Big Ten honors while leading the Terps to the second round of the NCAA Tournament before a second-round draft pick made him the first Angolan player to make the NBA.

When Miguel entered the transfer portal last April, Fernando never pressured him to pick College Park. “This is your choice,” Fernando told him, adamant that his success wouldn’t guarantee Miguel’s. But Miguel, who bounced from Kansas State to South Florida, was sold on the idea of playing his final year of college basketball at a school that wrapped its arms around basketball and had a history of winning.

“[Fernando] was telling me to be one of the two Angolans to ever play for Maryland,” Miguel said. “I’m just trying to continue his legacy.”

Miguel has started every game this season and is the Terps’ fifth-leading scorer (11.9). Coach Kevin Willard has plainly called him a “bucket getter” and the kind of guard that he won’t need to put restrictions on. Miguel is fourth in assists (57) and steals (22). In stark contrast to his Angolan predecessor, he’s No. 13 Maryland’s sharpest 3-point shooter (42.4%) heading into the final game of the regular season.

Miguel and Fernando’s basketball careers had different launch points before finding friendship on the local club team, De Agosto.

There was a local park up the street from Miguel’s childhood home with a basketball court that became the meeting ground for kids in the neighborhood. “I was just happy to be there,” Miguel said. “I probably didn’t know what I was doing.” Then he shot up from 5-4 to nearly 6-foot by the time he was 10 years old. His dad suggested maybe it was time to take basketball more seriously.

Fernando grew up with strict parents, four older brothers and two sisters, so if there was a park nearby that could have kickstarted his basketball career, he didn’t know about it and wasn’t going. His brothers played soccer and “the only way [my dad] would let me go outside is if I was going with my older brothers.” Then Fernando — who Miguel remembers being 6-8 at 14 years old — joined what they called the best club team in Angola.

De Agosto is where the friend group formed: Miguel, his older brother, Rifen, Fernando, Silvio De Sousa and Eric Amandio.

Four of the five are the same age. Miguel is two years younger. Basketball consumed them. Neither Miguel nor Fernando offered any particular memories of those formative years. The group of rule followers “were mainly playing basketball,” Fernando said. They started taking the game seriously at an early age. It’s all they wanted to do: go play ball, come home, eat together and go play some more.

When Miguel was 11, he and Rifen moved to Portugal with their dad. Fast-forward, they met up with the rest of the quintet in Florida to play high school ball.

Fernando and De Sousa went to IMG before Fernando transferred to powerhouse Montverde for his senior season. Miguel, Rifen and Amandio chose West Oaks Academy, a private school in Orlando that has become a feeder school for Angolan basketball talent (in part, thanks to Miguel).

According to RealGM, a site self-described for basketball completists, there have been only 15 Division I college basketball players from Angola. De Sousa, a Terps recruiting target, played sparingly at Kansas before transferring to Chattanooga. West Virginia reserve big man Eduardo Andre was born in Luanda but moved to London before he could pick up a basketball.

It’s safe to say no Angolans have reached greater basketball heights than Fernando and Miguel: a Maryland icon now in the NBA and a Terps starter on a team that could feasibly make noise in March.

Those two plus De Sousa, who is currently playing professionally in Israel, suited up this past summer for the Angolan national team, playing in the Olympic qualifying tournament.

“We felt like we were that first generation that kind of changed the culture,” Fernando said “Obviously we came to the US as a group and we all started to have success in our own ways. And we made a huge impact back home.”

The youngest of the group is continuing the legacy at College Park and working hard to pay it forward.

With the help of his two brothers, Rifen and Henrique, Miguel started the nonprofit foundation, M3M. It’s a way for him and his family to invest back in their home community. That’s partly through donations of basketball equipment and school supplies. “All these kids look at Selton, and that’s what they want,” Rifen told umterps.com. It’s why he and Fernando are welcomed with open arms in meetings by Angolan politicians or community leaders. And why Miguel gets a round of applause when he visits his old elementary school or his former club team.

“I can tell you, it’s a lot more kids that just because it has happened,” Fernando said, “now, they think they have a chance and a possibility to one day attend Maryland as well.”

Have a news tip? Contact Sam Cohn at scohn@baltsun.com, 410-332-6200 and x.com/samdcohn.