You guys are right and I am totally off base here. Kyle was certainly entitled to change his mind.
I wish the young man nothing but the best, he is a local kid and I would love to see him thrive as he moves forward in his basketball career.
While I am far from a conspiracy theorist and definitely understand why a player would choose UCLA. I do find it interesting that Howland has pulled his best recruiting class while he is on the hot seat. While rumors were flying he was out of a job he was able to obtain the services of 2 of the top 3 players in the class.
I'm a firm believer you can't really rate a recruiting class till 4-5 years down the road. Getting recruits hs NEVER been an issue for Ben Howland at UCLA. But so far, this is not his "best class" - The reason Howland was "on the hotseat" is because he actually had a "better" recruiting class than this one 4 years ago - that completely didn't pan out for the school - #1 overall Jrue Holiday, #20 Malcolm Lee, #25 J'Misson Morgan, #29 Drew Gordan, #41 Jerime Anderson. Holiday scored 8 pts as frosh then jumped to the NBA. Malcolm Lee was behind Holiday and All America Collison as frosh, struggled as a soph, then jumped to the League as a Junir. J'Misson Morgan (Bobo) was kicked off the team after a non-contributing 2 years. Drew Gordan couldn't get off the bench as a frosh, as a soph was such a cancer he was kicked off the team. Jerime Anderson was a 4 year disappointment. If you can be a "journeyman" college player, Jerime was it.
The following class after that one included Reeves Nelson who'd been the #11 recruit in the country as a Jr. before getting hurt playing football, and dropping in the rankings as a senior due t lack of play - his problems are well documented. Mike Moser was a top 50 recruit - transferred after 1 season of 5 minutes a game. Tyler Honeycutt was the #21 recruit , who left for the Sac Kings after his soph year. Brendan Lane was a top 60 recruit, who got recruited over, and has now transferred to Pepperdine for PT. Additionally, 6'10 Anthony stover was brought in as project. A 10 minute agame reserve, he still finished 4th in the Pac 12 in blocked shots this pst season.
Since that group, and in the intervening 2 classes before this new class, Ben brought in FOUR McDonalds All Americans those two subsequent classes. A 6'10 center in Josh Smith, 2 6'10 PFs in the Wear Twins, and and 6'2 PG in Larry Drew, plus a #21 recruit in Tyler Lamb, and a #41 recruit in Norman Powell. And landing formre ESPNU top15 prospect Matt Carlino - who transfered to BYU without ever getting into a regular season game at UCLA. So landing 3 top players (so far) in THIS class Shouldn't be a surprise or shock.
This could be a great recruiting class. I believe it will, because the top 2 are really special in both talent and ATTITUDE. But there are no real guarantees.