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With the spring signing period freshly underway and no solid information on either Ahmed HIll or Satchel Pierce to be found, it was only a matter of time before we got some movement.
In this case, Hill himself provided information on his Twitter account on Friday, first apologizing to Marquette fans everywhere, and then following it up with a screencap of the Notes app on his iPhone that explained why he sought and received his release from Marquette.
Attention all MU fans!!! I'm truly sorry!! pic.twitter.com/8Yku5scWCe
— Ahmed Hill (@MedHill_14) April 17, 2014
In case you can't get the picture to resolve properly on your end, here's the text of his message, unedited:
To all the Marquette fans, students, and alumni. I truly love Marquette and wish that I could have put on that uniform and played In front of you guys. Unfortunately I chose Marquette because of the relationship me and coach Buzz an coach Chew had. I just didn't feel that same relationship with the new coach. You guys school was great it truly was. I have been released from Marquette an I will decide on another college. This was a difficult decision that me an my family thought and prayed about. Sorry if I let any of you guys down, sorry MU nation love you guys.
All in all, a very classy way to go about announcing his release, and bonus points for the subtle indication that he hadn't quite gotten a handle on spelling Wojciechowski (even I have to slow down and think about it) and not even trying to stumble through it.
Hill was the top ranked recruit amongst Marquette's four signed recruits, but it's hard to say exactly what that means as far as playing ability at the collegiate level. Remember, Davante Gardner was the least heralded player in a recruiting class that included Jamail Jones and Reggie Smith, and I think we can all figure out whose Marquette career turned out the best out of that group.
More important than the variance on recruiting rankings and player development is the player's desire to be there. Personally, I don't want Hill attending Marquette because he feels that he signed a commitment and he's going to honor it regardless of the changes in the situation. I want guys who want to run through a brick wall to get to their game day uniform, and if Hill wasn't fired up about playing for Coach Wojo, then so be it, and I wish him the best of luck in his future endeavors.
Hill's release from his national letter of intent means that Marquette now has two unattached scholarships for the 2014-2015 season, and while pocketing one for future use may have been a viable option, leaving two of your 13 available roster spots open is not. Steve Wojciechowski will be out scouring the recruiting paths looking for at least one, if not two players to bring in between now and late May when the spring signing period ends. As we still do not know the official status of Satchel Pierce, the number of open scholarships for this coming fall may still climb to three before things are said and done.
