I just want to pass along some info on all that’s gone into the last few days leading into today’s news that UVa has been told by Trent Perry that he isn’t going to be coming.
The best way I can describe this entire situation is that everyone around the kid (parents, HS folks, the training world, etc) did all they could to get him to come to UVa and it just never could happen. Whether he didn’t want to come across the country (which has been the consistent theme from all sources) or if it was something else, we don’t truly know because the kid himself hasn’t been talking to people. That’s important to keep in mind. At no point, at least to our knowledge, was he ever a silent commit or anything. (To that point: As I discussed on the podcast, my Forecast for him was not because it was done; I’ve never used that feature that way. Some folks certainly do but to me, having data that makes you think something is happening is a forecast. That’s not the same thing as knowing it has happened and so when I know something is done done, I don’t do the Forecast thing. Given the info I had at the time I put that thing in, I would very likely still do it again.)
As of this week, the universal expectation remained that UVa would be the eventual pick. As everyone seems to know, per a source that asked we keep it close, on Friday his transcripts moved through admissions. That fueled a lot of the perceived momentum. Also on Friday, word from sources was that Warley had committed. That also fueled optimism on Perry from some sources. By Saturday morning, the Warley news broke and the expectation was Perry would likely follow suit within the next day or so, which was the long thought timeframe.
Several hours later in the afternoon, UVa (for reasons that still perplex me) put out a “bat signal” tweet that seemed in relatively quick hindsight to be about Warley. At the exact same time, though, a confluence of multiple sources passed along what they believed was good intel on Perry and that it was either done or happening. Not too long after, confusion lifted and there was a resetting of the deck. Through the night last night, this thing went back and forth. Even as late as this morning, sources on the west coast had flipped from UCLA last night to UVa this morning.
I know this is a tough beat and there’s no way to frame it otherwise. I feel pretty confident in saying that UVa did about as much as it could possibly do (OV, PT, and especially NIL) to get him short of TB camping out in his driveway like a crazy person.
It’s the strangest recruitment I can remember since the entire time UVa seemed to be recruiting against air. But if the kid doesn’t want to come, you can’t make him. And unfortunately for the Hoos, that’s the bottom line on this one.
The best way I can describe this entire situation is that everyone around the kid (parents, HS folks, the training world, etc) did all they could to get him to come to UVa and it just never could happen. Whether he didn’t want to come across the country (which has been the consistent theme from all sources) or if it was something else, we don’t truly know because the kid himself hasn’t been talking to people. That’s important to keep in mind. At no point, at least to our knowledge, was he ever a silent commit or anything. (To that point: As I discussed on the podcast, my Forecast for him was not because it was done; I’ve never used that feature that way. Some folks certainly do but to me, having data that makes you think something is happening is a forecast. That’s not the same thing as knowing it has happened and so when I know something is done done, I don’t do the Forecast thing. Given the info I had at the time I put that thing in, I would very likely still do it again.)
As of this week, the universal expectation remained that UVa would be the eventual pick. As everyone seems to know, per a source that asked we keep it close, on Friday his transcripts moved through admissions. That fueled a lot of the perceived momentum. Also on Friday, word from sources was that Warley had committed. That also fueled optimism on Perry from some sources. By Saturday morning, the Warley news broke and the expectation was Perry would likely follow suit within the next day or so, which was the long thought timeframe.
Several hours later in the afternoon, UVa (for reasons that still perplex me) put out a “bat signal” tweet that seemed in relatively quick hindsight to be about Warley. At the exact same time, though, a confluence of multiple sources passed along what they believed was good intel on Perry and that it was either done or happening. Not too long after, confusion lifted and there was a resetting of the deck. Through the night last night, this thing went back and forth. Even as late as this morning, sources on the west coast had flipped from UCLA last night to UVa this morning.
I know this is a tough beat and there’s no way to frame it otherwise. I feel pretty confident in saying that UVa did about as much as it could possibly do (OV, PT, and especially NIL) to get him short of TB camping out in his driveway like a crazy person.
It’s the strangest recruitment I can remember since the entire time UVa seemed to be recruiting against air. But if the kid doesn’t want to come, you can’t make him. And unfortunately for the Hoos, that’s the bottom line on this one.
