Lyle not narrowing field
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Bradenton (FL) IMG Academy five-star guard Jaquan Lyle has had an interesting recruitment.
Lyle is attending his third school in three years. He withdrew his commitment to Louisville, then reopened and eventually signed with Oregon as a member of their 2014 class. All set to fly with the Ducks, the NCAA ruled him ineligible two weeks before the fall semester started in Eugene and Lyle was off to IMG Academy for a prep year.
While talk swirled that following one semester at IMG Lyle would head to Oregon in December, the combo guard chose to reclassify to 2015 and reopen his recruitment. He is ranked No. 24 nationally in the 2015 class.
Now, Lyle wants to make sure his next move is the right move.
"I haven't narrowed anything down, I'm just taking my time really so I can make the best decision for myself," Lyle said. "I haven't made a list or narrowed it down."
Since reopening his recruitment, Lyle says Ohio State, Missouri, Oregon, South Florida, Florida State and LSU are among the schools that have come to watch him in games or at practice. LSU, Missouri, Oregon and South Florida have remained in consistent contact.
"Oregon is still high on my list," said Lyle. "There's a reason why I committed there the first time. Just my relationships with the coaching staff, like Coach (Tony) Stubblefield and Coach (Dana) Altman the head coach. Coach Altman probably came to see me four or five times just the last semester alone and that's the most that any head coach has come. That was huge and let me know that I'm still a high priority for them. I talk to coach Stubbs almost everyday; I talk to coach Altman at least twice a week so they're still there (in the mix) for sure."
While Missouri is in regular contact, Lyle did wanted to clarify reports that he took an official visit there recently.
"No I didn't," Lyle said. "I don't know how that got started. I don't know if I'll take an official visit there in the future, but that was never planned so I don't know how that got out."
Lyle's former Huntington Prep head coach, Rob Fulford is in his first season as an assistant on Kim Anderson's staff at Missouri, so it is more than understandable that there's mutual interest.
One school that Lyle did take an official visit to recently, LSU, received a verbal commitment from five-star shooting guard Antonio Blakeney last week but remains hot on Lyle's heels
"Oh yeah, they're still in the mix with me," he said. "Coach DP (David Patrick) is coming this weekend, I spoke with him Wednesday. I feel like Tone (Blakeney) and Ben (Simmons), we're real close friends. They think that me and Tone can co-exist and me and Tone think the same thing, so they're real high on my list right now."
Another school that Lyle feels has made him a priority is South Florida. Tuesday night, Lyle and a three of his teammates made the one-hour drive to Tampa to watch USF take on Connecticut.
"Coach (Orlando) Antigua came down once not too long ago," Lyle said. "I talk to him about twice a week. Coach Antigua is a great coach. You're down two to the national champions at halftime. They don't have enough guys to pull out the win against a team like UConn, but coach Antigua is a good coach, he was under coach (John) Calipari for a long time."
Since the Evansville, Ind., native found what he was looking for in Oregon once, what will it take for another school to overcome that and get his signature?
"That's a tough question," Lyle said. "At the end of the day I'm just going to go with my heart and my gut feeling. If it's not Oregon, then it's not Oregon. But if I felt that Oregon is the place I need to be, then it will be Oregon, but at the end of the day I don't know. I don't know if I'm going to go back to Oregon. I don't know what I'm going to do as of now. I just take it day-by-day and step-by-step and I hope I get it done soon.
Russ Wood is a basketball recruiting analyst for Rivals.com and Inside the Gators. You can click here to follow him on Twitter.
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