Arizona basketball recruiting: Tyler Dorsey decommits from Arizona

Arizona basketball recruit Tyler Dorsey announced his decommitment from the Wildcats on Saturday, just more than five months after verbally agreeing to join Sean Miller's team. The 5-star guard from St. John Bosco High School in Los Angeles was the first recruit to join Arizona's 2015 class, but his decision comes as UA continues to search for perimeter players for next season's class.

Dorsey released a statement via email to CBS Sports, among others:

It's been about 5 months since I decided to accept a scholarship offer to the University of Arizona.

In those 5 months, I have learned a lot about that decision as well as the importance, pressure and scrutiny of making such a major educational and career choice.

As much as I love the Arizona basketball program as well as the awesome Wildcat fans and highly respect Head Coach Sean Miller and the entire Arizona staff, I realize that, in hindsight, I rushed my college choice and did not provide myself with the greatest opportunity to explore and thoroughly investigate all my possible college options.

After very careful personal reflection and discussing this issue in depth with my parents, I feel I owe it to myself to open up my recruiting at this time and fully experience the recruiting process in order to allow myself to make the best possible choice for my future. I am pleased that Coach Miller understands and respects my decision to do this and hope that Arizona will continue to be a college option for me.

I believe that I am entitled to make sure that my ultimate college choice will provide me with the best possible experience and opportunity to maximize my potential as a player, student and person.

I know there are some in the media, Arizona fan base and public that will criticize this deeply personal decision. But I hope that most will realize and respect my right to do what I feel is best for my basketball and academic career.

Thank you for your understanding.

Tyler Dorsey

Following Dorsey's commitment, the Wildcats received a verbal from a similar guard in Justin Simon, who is ranked a 23rd in the entire 2015 class, one spot ahead of Dorsey. Miller is an assistant at the USA Basketball Under-18 team this summer, and that squad recently cut both Dorsey and Simon in the first paring down of the squad.

It could be that Arizona was conscious of Dorsey's incoming decision, as it has actively recruited other guards, including Isaiah Briscoe, Allonzo Trier and Chase Jeter. All three are ranked ahead of Dorsey and Simon and sit in the top-20 of the 2015 class.

While Dorsey's decommitment is a hit to one of the best classes thus far, there is the potential for the Wildcats to fill in the hole with an even more highly-sought out player. That Dorsey released such a professional statement was a mature thing to do on his part, and it could be that he will keep UA in the mix as a courtesy more than anything. He'll have his choice at where to land and according to AAU guru Dinos Trigonis, who told CBS the talented guard could land anywhere from a big-time school like Louisville to an up-and-coming program like Tulsa or SMU.

And if he lands at ASU, UCLA, Washington, Cal, Oregon or Oregon State, then Arizona fans will get to keep their eyes on his progress even moreso.