Caudill decommits from Arizona State

Kyle Caudill, a 6-foot-11 center from Brea (Calif.) Olinda and an early commitment to Arizona State in the 2011 class, has decided to re-open his recruitment.

"It is indeed true that Kyle has stepped back from his verbal commitment," said Caudill's father, Cameron Caudill, following the decision. "He has great respect for coach Sendek and the Arizona State program and sincerely hopes that they will continue to recruit him however he and my wife and I have been discussing it and want to make sure that his decision, at 18 years old, is the same as he's made at 16 years old and to do that we've go to take that step back."

Caudill, 6-foot-11, 265 pounds, committed to the Sun Devils over offers from Oregon State and USC in May after averaging 16.3 points, 12.0 rebounds and 2.7 blocks per game as a 15-year-old sophomore at Olinda.

"He loves ASU," the elder Caudill said. "We've obviously got family connections to ASU -- Caudill's uncle is ASU softball coach Clint Meyers -- and that's obviously a big plus for ASU. There is no school ahead of ASU and we genuinely hope that ASU stays interested and is in there at the end."

Cameron Caudill said the family had not been in contact with other schools prior to the decision to decommit and there is no sense that ASU is a lesser option than others who would have interest, a group that also consisted of Stanford, Wake Forest and UCLA prior to the commitment.

"It's not that anyone else is knocking at his door and it's not that there's anybody else that is a dream team or anything like that," Caudill said. "There isn't a dream team or dream school that he is hoping comes and offers him a scholarship. It's honestly more of a quest to make sure we get as much information as we can.

"I can't stress enough, it's a once in a lifetime thing. He's been blessed with god-given talent and size and he's doing his best to make the most of it and he doesn't we don't want him to look back on this when he's 30 and question whether he gave himself every opportunity to reach the decision that was best for him."

It now appears unlikely Caudill will make a decision for another full year or longer.

"I don't see Kyle making a commitment prior to the end of the AAU season next year, which would be August at the earliest," Cameron Caudill said. "It will be sometime between August and the signing period in November of next year and whether he will take official visits or not will depend on where it happens in that timeframe."