UGA hoops signee released from letter of intent

Daniel Miller (#5 in the video above) has been released from his letter of intent at Georgia. Per the release:

"The family of Daniel Miller expressed a desire for Daniel to be released from his letter-of-intent," said Fox. "After meeting with them over the weekend, I have granted Daniel his complete release. I wish him well in the career path he chooses for himself."

I expect him to sign with Georgia Tech almost immediately. This is a bit of an unusual situation, and it really comes down to what version / rumor do you want to believe?

Do you want to believe ESPN.com who calls him a Top 100 player (#98) who is a 6'8" 240 lb center ranked at #11 in his position nationally? Or do you want to believe Rivals.com who list him as a 3 star center at 6'10" and 235 lbs who is unranked. Or do you ignore rankings because they are meaningless, but look at offers. Well...his other offers were GT, Minnesota, UT-C, Furman and Davidson?

Or do you look at stats? The AJC (who thinks he's 6'11") reports that he averaged 21 points, eight rebounds and 4.5 blocks per game as a senior. Granted, he left games early because of big leads, but that's common among quality players.

So...do you want to believe the best or the worst of this situation?
Did we lose a big time recruit who wanted to go to UGA badly last week only to ask out of his LOI days later? Or do you want to believe this isn't that big a deal in the grand scheme of things, and it's not going to move the needle either way next year.

I'm of the opinion that no one in the Fox or Miller household is going to lose any sleep about this one going forward. He wasn't going to beat out Jeremy Price, AJax, Trey Thompkins or Chris Barnes next year anyway. And he's not going to beat out the front court talent stacked up at Tech next year either.

I've heard that this is a simply a situation of "fit," and it's not clear that it's as simple as he doesn't want to come to UGA or that Mark Fox doesn't think he's good enough.

So I'm writing it off to a typical transition period.

I will just add this....in the video above, he is playing one of his peer schools in the "Independent Christian Schools of Georgia and Alabama" league. For those of you unfamiliar with the I.C.S.G.A, that's a league lower than G.I.S.A. private schools in terms of athletic competition. The level of play depicted in that video and described to me by guys who've seen those teams play would be..."the lowest level of basketball competition available in this state...against males" (Update: GWA....Miller's opponent in the video above....is in GISA. Which doesn't change my point except to make me look less knowledgeable about ICSGA.)

Regardless, a Top 100 Center doesn't pull down 21 points and 8 rebounds a game against those guys.

It could end up being a blessing in terms of scholarship numbers, or it could be a kid that blossoms at Tech and haunts Fox. That's why recruiting is interesting for fans and a gigantic headache for coaches. I know I was pleased when he initially signed...then again...I didn't know what the ICSGA was either.

You could safely say that I'm assuming the best on this one.

PWD


(Note: I tried really hard not to sound like a sour grapes guy on this one. If that's how you read this, I wrote it wrong.)