Eighth grader no longer committed to DePaul

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Garrett Duncan

DIBS flies the Blue Demon flag at the men’s basketball game. (Garrett Duncan / The DePaulia)

The hits keep on coming for the DePaul Blue Demon men’s basketball team in the recruiting department.

Eighth grader Amari Bailey, who is from Chicago and originally committed to DePaul University in August, renounced his commitment to DePaul via his Instagram account yesterday.

Bailey attends Skinner West Elementary School on Chicago’s Near West Side and is regarded as one of the top players in the class of 2022 (fifth on Coast2Coastpreps.com and nyaabasketball.org and first on gghoops.com). The 6-foot-2-inch guard also stars in the Lifetime reality series “Bringing Up Ballers.”

Screenshot of Amari Bailey’s now-deleted Instagram post decommitting from DePaul. His mother later reuploaded the post on her own Instagram account, @johannaleia, reiterating his decision to decommit. (Paul Steeno | The DePaulia)

Current Blue Demon assistant coach Tim Anderson was previously Bailey’s trainer with the MeanStreets AAU program.

Unfortunately, Blue Demon basketball fans have become all too accustomed to this narrative. Infamously, Tyger Campbell committed to DePaul last May, reopened his recruitment in September, before ultimately choosing UCLA over DePaul in early February.

The Blue Demons have two recruits coming to Lincoln Park next year: sharpshooting guard John Diener from Cedarburg, Wis. and 6-foot-9-inch power forward George Maslennikov from Atlanta, Ga.

Former University of Illinois shooting guard Jalen Coleman-Lands, who sat out last season in accordance to NCAA transfer rules, will also play his first season in a DePaul uniform next year. Four-star recruit Bryan Penn-Johnson announced on Twitter that he’ll make his college decision on March 21 and DePaul is a finalist among a handful of other schools.

The Blue Demons could use some good news after a forgettable season both on and off the court.