Peyton commits to AM?

It is not the end of the world for Texas. Best of luck to her. The situation, however, illustrates the unfortunate state of the Longhorn program.

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Seattle
 
Like I said the last time we discussed this, Mack, Augie, Rick, and Jerritt have all dealt with decommitments; it happens; and said recruit sometimes ends up at a rival conference school.

And, since we will never really know the whole story unless recruit or family tells us, here's what upsets me, if my assumptions are close to being accurate:

1) 5'10 Peyton Little commits to Texas in June 2010

2) Incoming Texas 2010 unheralded freshman, 5'10 Chassidy Fussell, lights it up for Texas during her freshman campaign

3) (Most likely) Peyton continues to work on strengthening relationship with Texas throughout the Fall and Spring, and probably makes a few unofficial visits to Austin to watch practices, games, tour campus, etc.

4) A&M wins the national championship in April 2011

5) Late April 2011, news of Peyton decommitting from Texas and opening up her recruitment goes public; reasons sited as "she committed too early"

6) Peyton visits OU the last weekend in April

7) Peyton visits A&M the first weekend in May; three days later, news of a commitment to A&M is made public

So, my speculation is that she has been "flirting" with A&M and OU coaching staffs for quite a while, despite being committed to Texas for 10 months (unless she decommitted earlier than the public announcement).

Everyone knows that recruiting is based on relationships, and she must have formed one with A&M coaches prior to the recent visit to commit so quickly (considering the excuse for de-committing from Texas was that she "committed too quickly/early").

Yes, I know, pure speculation on my part. In the end, the reason is unimportant. For all we know, she liked the depth chart at A&M better than at Texas based on Fussell's success this past season. A&M graduates their two best backcourt/wing players next season; probably gives her a great shot to start; Texas has a lot of backcourt and wing players (Fussell, Moore, Bass, Peoples, Sanders) who will be juniors/soph's when Peyton would have arrived.

Or, she had reasons completely different than my speculation. Someone posted on here a while back that the de-commitment was based on Peyton worrying that Coach G won't be around all 4 years of Peyton's career. Well, Gary Blair is already 65 years old . . .
 
You must have been typing while I was thinking this through, and I was having pretty much the same thoughts. Either something fishy was going on or this is a girl who has trouble saying no.
 
I wish Peyton well. That said, and obviously none of us knows the full story, I don't think she - and others involved in the decision making process - handled the situation very well. Every recruit has the right to sign wherever they choose, and sometimes decomimiting is a part of the equation. But she was committed for a long time and to sign with another school so quickly indicates something more was taking place during the time she was on board with us.

In the end, given how things have unfolded, I think it's probably for the best that she went elsewhere. The way I look at it her departure opens the door for someone better, and who knows, maybe she changed her mind because she got wind of another top 2012 recruit likely to sign with us. It's all speculation but as we've discussed on this forum, scholarships are few and far between for the Horns in the coming years. If I've calculated correctly we now have two openings for 2012 (given the two already committed for 2013), and just one depending on what's going on with Okde. At the end of the day we have amazing recruits coming in next season, and a 2011 roster of 14. Those are the players I'm focused on and Fall can't get here fast enough!
 
Championships draw top players. Average teams have a tougher time doing so. The lady Longhorns are perenially average.
 
Come to think of it, 2012 Courtney Walker from Oklahoma, who was committed to OU since July 2009, de-committed from OU in September 2010, and then in December 2010, committed to Texas A&M (after supposedly also considering Baylor, OSU, and Texas).

I know a recruit is fair game until they sign their LOI, but many coaches back off contact with a recruit once they make a verbal commitment to another school; some coaches don't believe in that principle.
 
Or, maybe A&M didn't have a spot for her until Moriah Jefferson committed to UConn recently? When she committed to us last summer, I don't believe it was ever mentioned who else had offered her a 'ship up to that point.

Bottom line is we just don't know the reason, and probably never will.

Her coach seems a bit embarrassed by the decommit:

The Link
 
This was actually quite interesting to me. Looking at what I've seen from her defensively and the way she plays offensively I don't think it'll be such a good fit for her. And I know exactly what sealed it, to anyone who hasn't ever talked to Gary Blair let me tell you that man is one of the best wheeler dealers I know and he is an even better person glad to see him enjoy so much success because he has done a lot for high school girls basketball in Texas. But I wish her all the best in her future
 
nice observation, utfann. I actually think that she would have really helped us because she has that "aint taking no s** of anyone" attitude which I think we need more of. We are getting some of that from our sophs and incoming frosh. I think Peyton will adjust just fine to Blair's system. Gonna be hard to see her in maroon twice a year playing against us, though.
 
Lot's of speculation here, some right, some off base.
I won't go into details, but suffice it to say our tenuous coaching situation will continue to cost us top recruits.
Sadly, our athletic directors appear to care little about "non-revenue" sports.
 
Coach G has three years left on a seven year deal, how does that translate to "tenuous"? Or is that being used to mean something different from my understanding of what the word means?
 
So am I the only one who feels like A&M sucker punched us!?!?!? I know I know...Peyton is young and can change her mind, yada, yada, yada. But somebody was in this young lady's ear. I'm just saying.
 
bevaux and moooo, who is providing so much speculation about your coaches future to the recruits? I guess what I'm asking, who has the player/family been in contact with over the past several months that could have provided lots of information about ut's coaching uncertainty, etc? who is tight with in AAU circles? do she or her parents spend a lot of time talking to "reporters" from hoopgurlz or similar sites?

just curious what you think
 
bularry,

I don't have any inside information, unfortunately. Honestly, it never crossed my mind that other coaching staffs may have been using negative recruiting against our stafff; I only deduce that she was in contact with other coaching staffs while committed to Texas based on the quick turnaround time of her new commitment. My speculation is based purely on Peyton's quotes and those of her coach.

She said in that last article that she had been thinking of visiting other schools for quite a while. Who knows if she communicated that to our coaches while she was having those thoughts/doubts? Who knows if she contacted other coachings staffs trying to express her interest in visiting them?

In this article on AggieSports.com, she says that "I committed at such a young age". Well, she's only 10 months older now than she was then.

I've said before, we don't know the reasons for the decommitment other than what she or her coach have said publicly. But, the timing of the events are facts (based on what has been said publicly).

The bottom line is that she was committed to Texas for 10 months, and with 6 months or so remaining until the November signing period she decides to open up her recruitment, only to make a new commitment to A&M three weeks later.

The Link
 
I don't know any inside details other than what has been said publically, but A&M just won the NC and Gairy Blair seems to have caught the attention of many recruits of late. It's much like Baylor a couple years ago when they got Griner and every recruit seemed to want to transfer there to play with her. I think A&M is just on the upswing and the timing was right to catch her eye and they'll be a NC contender right off the bat next year as well. Her family is West Texas and i'm sure the good ole boy that is Gary Blair, didn't hurt any either.

She's also good friends and AAU teammates of Alexia Standish, who will be there next year. It all fell into place it appears. It's never easy to swallow to lose a commit, regardless of who they go to, but inner-conference is even tougher.

The pecking order in the Big 12 is done complete flip from what we saw 10-11 years ago.
 
Just let Peyton go. She's an Aggie now and nothing we say or do can change that. What did Texas do to keep Peyton from commiting so fast to another conference rival? Nothing from what I've seen and read.
 
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