Pitchford free from DePaul commitment
Words. Jason Jordan
After a long and drawn out process, New Creations Christian School (Richmond, Ind.) star Walter Pitchford was granted a release from his national letter of intent to DePaul.
The Blue Demons initially denied Pitchford’s request due to concerns that other schools may have contacted Pitchford, a 6-10 center from the class of 2010, while he was still committed to the Blue Demons.
“We were definitely going to play the process out,” DePaul coach Oliver Purnell told ESPNChicago.com. “I think it’s clear to the NCAA and the NLI people we were well within our rights to grant a release at this time. It had nothing to do with our desire to keep Walter at DePaul or have him not go where he wanted to do. You have to run a program in a specific way especially one at a very high level, and you have guidelines to abide by.
“We wanted to check out extending circumstances,” said Purnell. “He had recommitted to me, then suddenly we were getting phone calls about him leaving before we heard anything about it. We then got a call that Walter had changed his mind and wanted a release. The timing was all right.”
Pitchford signed with DePaul while Jerry Wainwright was the head coach. But soon after Purnell was hired, Pitchford wanted out of his letter of intent.
No word yet on where Pitchford will land. Providence, Georgetown and Michigan were just a few of the schools recruiting Pitchford before he committed to DePaul.
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