De-commiting explored

Dave Telep has an interesting article exploring very early commitments who eventually decided to go elsewhere and:how this can be 'predicted' if you will:

How to spot the signs
Decommitments don't just happen, players and programs offer up tells constantly
Dave Telep -- ESPN
October 26, 2010

In this business of scouting, you're taught to look for markers. They can be large, like the athleticism of John Wall, or small, say an innocent comment that sticks with you. Over time, you learn to keep your radar up for players whose pledges might not be on solid ground.

Ryan Boatright's decision to decommit from West Virginia isn't the first of the year, and it probably won't be the last. By our count, 31 players out of the roughly 900 prospects we evaluated have changed their pledges, with Austin Rivers, who traded Florida for Duke, being the highest-ranked player to do so.

While 31 might not seem like an enormous number considering a few thousand players are signed each year, but it's 31 non-binding covenants between a player and school that, for whatever reason, were broken before signing day. And try to explain that it's no big deal to the jilted party sometime. They're all big deals, including Boatright's decommitment from WVU.

It all started last week when Jabarie Hinds became the second point guard to commit to West Virginia. Did Bob Huggins really convince two highly-regarded senior point guards from a weak national crop to attend the same university? Plausible, but definitely the kind of commitment that gets you thinking...

Go here for the remainder.