By ADAM ZAGORIA
Bryce Hopkins, one of four members of Louisville’s Class of 2021 recruiting class, has decommitted in the wake of the NCAA case against the school.
RESPECT MY DECISION🙏🏽 pic.twitter.com/zzreiTlR5n
— Bryce Hopkins (@BryceHopkins) August 9, 2020
The 6-foot-7 power forward from Fenwick (IL) initially committed to Louisville last December over Illinois, Indiana, Xavier, Wisconsin, Iowa and others schools.
“I opened up my recruitment because there were a lot of uncertainties on what is going on with the sanctions,” Hopkins told 247Sports. “They also keep appealing (the sanctions) which is only making it harder on me.”
The NCAA in May hit Louisville with a Notice of Allegations in the pay-for-play scheme involving recruit Brian Bowen that ended up getting former coach Rick Pitino fired in 2017.
The Notice of Allegations covers the 2016-17 and 2017-18 men’s basketball seasons and includes one Level I allegation and three Level II allegations, including one against Pitino, now the head coach at Iona, for failure “to promote an atmosphere of compliance.”
The issuance of the Notice came after a nearly two-year-long investigation by the NCAA enforcement staff into Adidas schools Louisville, Kansas and N.C. State stemming from the FBI investigation that became public in September 2017. Kansas and N.C State previously received their Notices. Louisville was the seventh school to receive a NOA in the wake of the FBI investigation.
Chris Mack’s staff still have a three-man recruiting class for 2021 featuring JUCO point guard El Ellis, three-star guard Bobby Pettiford Jr. and three-star forward Eric Van Der Heijden. Gabe Wiznitzer, a three-star center, has also committed and will redshirt this upcoming season.
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