2015 shooting guard Prince Ali announced via twitter that he is re-opening his recruitment, shunning UConn and recently extended head coach Kevin Ollie.
After talking it over with my family I have decided to reopen my recruitment! I still love the Uconn and I am still considering Uconn!
— Prince Ali (@Princesmoove23) May 29, 2014
“The UConn.” Kinda like it.
The move is fairly surprising, especially considering that Ollie has not secured any higher tier recruits that will compete for minutes with Ali. It leaves the Huskies with just one commit for 2015 — PG Will Jackson from Georgia. While Ali could still cho0se to play for UConn, a de-commitment is a pretty sure sign that he’s had a change of heart.
Ali is a 4-star recruit out of Florida who originally chose UConn over other powerhouse programs such as Kansas, Syracuse and his hometown Florida Gators.
The best option(s) left on the board for UConn is Malik Newman (Newman!), the #1 overall recruit in the country (or #2 depending on which recruiting service you prefer). Newman (Newman!) comes as a package deal with big man (and fellow 5-star recruit) Diamond Stone, who already holds a scholarship offer from the Huskies.
I’m not exactly shocked. They’ve got Hamilton, Cassell, and Purvis all coming in this year with Samuel and Calhoun not going anywhere, and he was already coming in with Turtle. Plus, Ollie was still recruiting Briscoe, Newman, and Adams. Given the way that Ali has been tearing up summer league, he’s probably looking for a school where he can start right away. That’s not likely at UConn.