Peterson decides to play the waiting game

All of the pieces appeared to be falling into place in the recruitment of DeMatha High School point guard Jeff Peterson:

Xavier received an oral commitment from coveted recruit Brad Redford.

Steve Alford announced he was leaving Iowa to take over the head coaching position at New Mexico.

Peterson had initially indicated that he was prepared to make a decision after his visit to SLU this past weekend. With one potential suitor out of the race and the front-runner for Peterson’s services lacking a head coach, the stage was set for Brad Soderberg to seal the deal. Finally, it looked as if good fortune was about to smile on Billiken Nation. That was, until Peterson announced Tuesday that he will wait to see who Iowa’s next head coach will be before deciding where he will play next year. Said Peterson:

"I still really like Iowa, so I'm planning to wait until they get a coach, and then see if the new coach wants me like coach Alford did. I'm content right now to wait, because I'm still leaning toward Iowa; it's just a matter if I have the same connection with the new coach that I did with coach Alford."

The fact that Soderberg could not outrecruit a coachless basketball team does not bode well for his chances of eventually landing Peterson. With Gary Correia committing to UMass last week and Marcus Walker apparently uninterested in SLU, it appears that Soderberg may once again be left scrambling to fill out his roster. The only other point guard from the class of ‘07 rumored to be recruited by SLU is Paul Eckerle of Borgia, who has supposedly been offered a preferred walk-on spot and an academic scholarship.

As usual, it’s not easy being a Billiken fan…