Jerrod Mustaf, a former Maryland men’s basketball player and first-round NBA draft pick in 1990, died Monday on his 55th birthday.

No cause of death has been announced.

In three seasons with the Terps from 1988 to 1990, Mustaf averaged 16.6 points per game across 59 games, which ranks ninth in program history. The 6-foot-10, 238-pound power forward is one of 19 players in school history to amass at least 600 points in a single season, which he accomplished in 1989-90 when he scored 609 in 33 games.

Mustaf also grabbed 7.7 rebounds per game during his career, which is tied for 15th on the program’s all-time ledger.

Former power forward Tony Massenburg remembered meeting a 15-year-old Mustaf at a summer camp run by former coach Lefty Driesell.

Despite being two years older, the 6-8 Massenburg recalled looking at Mustaf eye-to-eye.

“He played with us, and Jerrod as a player was this flash of the future — a big guy that could handle the ball and shoot the basketball and could play outside of the paint,” Massenburg said. “I hadn’t really seen a guy like that before, and I remember getting on the phone immediately with my boys back home, and I said, ‘I just saw the best 15-year-old basketball player I’ve ever seen in my life.’”Mustaf was a member of the 1989-90 team that included forwards Rodney Walker (Cardinal Gibbons) and Kevin Chamberlain and guards Teyon McCoy and Kevin McLinton, all of whom have died. Before joining Maryland, Mustaf played his high school basketball at DeMatha Catholic in Hyattsville.

“Jerrod was a very talented big man who was very skilled in all phases of the game,” former Maryland coach Gary Williams said in a statement. “He played one season for me, which was my first year at Maryland. Jerrod was drafted by the NBA in the first round. He was an important member of the Maryland basketball family.”

Mustaf was the 17th overall pick in the 1990 NBA draft by the New York Knicks and was joined in that draft by teammate and Massenburg, who was selected in the second round by the San Antonio Spurs.

Mustaf was the first Maryland player picked in the first round of the draft after the cocaine-induced death of Len Bias on June 19, 1986. Bias, a National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Famer, had been picked second overall by the Boston Celtics two days earlier.

Mustaf spent the 1990-91 season with the Knicks before moving to the Phoenix Suns, whom he played for from 1991 to 1994. He averaged 4.0 points and 2.5 rebounds during his NBA career. Mustaf told Sports Illustrated his NBA career was cut short because he felt he was “blackballed” following the 1993 murder of his then-girlfriend, Althea Hayes. Mustaf was never charged in the murder investigation, but he was labeled an investigative lead by police.

After playing overseas in France, Greece and Spain, Mustaf became executive director and CEO of Take Charge Juvenile Diversion Program, a community organization serving as an alternative to youth detention and student expulsion. The nonprofit was founded by his father, Shaar R. Mustaf. Jerrod Mustaf was inducted into the American Basketball Hall of Fame in June.

Two of Mustaf’s daughters followed their father’s footsteps in basketball. Terah was a 5-11 point guard at Allegany College, and Imani was a 6-5 forward at Richmond. Mustaf’s son, Jaeden, is a 6-5, 210-pound guard at Georgia Tech.

Massenburg said he and Mustaf went to the Atlantic Coast Conference Legend Reunion in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, in August and hung out with former rivals such as North Carolina State’s Chucky Brown, North Carolina’s George Lynch, Clemson’s Dale Davis and Wake Forest’s Randolph Childress. Massenburg acknowledged that he and Mustaf were bit players at the event’s charity golf tournament.

“Both of us are terrible golfers,” he said with a laugh. “We were basically riding around, and we hit a little bit, but he was driving and I was riding on the side, and we talked for hours about everything — kids, life, the importance of health. He clowned me on Facebook when I hit some balls into the bushes. But we just had a good time.”

Massenburg said he was still processing Mustaf’s death.

“When I got that news this morning, I was heartbroken,” he said. “It’s hard to believe that someone you were just talking to and someone that you’ve known since you were teenagers has passed. It’s just tough.”

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