Kansas landed a commitment from five-star combo-guard Bryce Thompson on Tuesday morning.
Speaking at his high school in Tulsa, Thompson announced that he will be heading to Lawrence to play his college ball over the likes of North Carolina as well as in-state programs Oklahoma and Oklahoma State.
Thompson is the third player to commit to Kansas in the last 30 days, which is telling.
The Jayhawks were hit with a Notice of Allegations earlier this fall that alleged head coach Bill Self and the program itself of five Level I violations. From the outside, the future of the program does not appear to be on stable ground, which is what makes this commitment so significant.
I’ve made this point before, but the most disruptive force in recruiting for programs at this level is uncertainty. It’s questions about whether or not the coach is going to last or if the program is going to face significant sanctions in the future. That’s why Arizona lost an entire recruiting class when it seemed like Sean Miller was going to be fired and why they were able to land Nico Mannion, Josh Green and Zeke Nnaji when it was clear he wasn’t. It’s why North Carolina had a couple of down years recruiting while they were dealing with all of their NCAA nonsense and why, with that in the past, they are getting the likes of Cole Anthony, and Coby White, and Nassir Little.
That Bill Self is still landing players of this ilk tells you something about how the industry views that program’s future.