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Arizona Wildcats Looking for Answers as T.J. Leaf Becomes the Latest Top Prospect to Back Out of Early Commitment

By Chris Godfrey

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The Class of 2016 has already proven to be quite indecisive when it comes to making their college decisions. Earlier this week, T.J. Leaf became the latest highly touted prospect to renege on a pledge. Leaf, who was originally committed to the Arizona Wildcats and head coach Sean Miller, has reopened his recruitment. A new leader for his signature is unknown at this time, but several teams have reached out since the announcement was made.

Leaf joins former Michigan commit Tyus Battle and former Oklahoma commit Payton Pritchard as impact prospects who have already backed out of verbal commitments. Battle has since committed to Syracuse, and Pritchard remains undecided with a gaggle of teams looking to sign him.

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Leaf was set to be the centerpiece of Arizona’s 2016 class. His commitment looked to be a continuance of the Wildcats recent dominance of the recruiting landscape out west. Without Leaf, Arizona doesn’t have a single commit for next year’s class. However, they are circling several top prospects as potential additions in the near future.

Making up for the loss of Leaf will be difficult. Sean Miller doesn’t figure to be involved with another top 10 prospect in this class, but he is keeping tabs on a host of additional talents that could keep his class near the top of the rankings. Still, Leaf’s unique inside/outside skill set will be hard to replace. Leaf has drawn comparisons to a more nimble version of Kevin Love, which twists the knife of betrayal in terms of the caliber of talent that Miller is losing.

The decision for Leaf to decommit comes as a surprise. He just recently returned from Europe where he represented Israel at the U18 European Championships, which led to some interesting speculation from Ricky O’Donnell of SB Nation.

Sean Miller controversially made the decision to cut Leaf, his own recruit, from the American team that he coached at the FIBA U19 World Championships this summer. O’Donnell seems to imply that the cut caused Leaf to question Miller’s confidence in him.

[Editor’s Note: A friend from Zona Zealots, FanSided’s site dedicated to University of Arizona athletics, reached out to point out a flaw in O’Donnell’s logic. Sean Miller did not pick the roster for the U19 World Championships. The actual selection process is detailed here.]

In a more outlandish angle, O’Donnell also posed the idea of Leaf being interested in a move overseas before entering the NBA Draft a la Brandon Jennings or Emmanuel Mudiay. This doesn’t seem like a viable option in my opinion, but it is most definitely an option. Leaf will have increased value overseas as an Israeli national, due to the fact that he won’t take up one of the limited spots that are reserved for American imports.

Leaf’s next move shouldn’t be of primary concern to anyone at this point in the process. Verbal commitments have long been one of the most confusing aspects of college sports. They can’t be regulated, trusted, or made binding in any way. It’s the sports world’s version of hearsay, and it fuels the decision-making of both programs and athletes every season.

What if Leaf changed his mind later in the process? Would losing the top player in their class be a crippling blow to the Cats, causing a mass exodus of recruits? Probably not, but this is a possibility at less prestigious programs. What about an even earlier decommitment? Would Zona be where they are now with so many top 100 prospects if they didn’t have a shiny verbal commitment from Leaf to bandy about to the rest of their 2016 targets? These questions are asked every year, yet we still report verbal commitments every year as if they are written with lightning on stone tablets.

T.J. Leaf won’t be the last player to decommit from this class, and when the next person does, we will pretend to act surprised like the concept is foreign to us. College recruiting may be the most dishonest thing about our sporting culture, but year after year we continue to take everyone’s word at face value. At some point, we’ll eventually realize that commitment means signing the paperwork or showing up on campus. Until then, the recruiting landscape will be rocked yearly by the likes of T.J. Leaf.

Next: Chris Obekpa Transfers to UNLV

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