A local basketball prospect who recently signed with a Pac-12 Conference school will now be headed to BYU.
Woods Cross sharpshooter Trevin Knell, who signed a national letter of intent with the Cal Golden Bears last November but was released from it in the wake of the Bears’ head coaching change in late March, announced via Twitter late Monday night that he has committed to the Cougars.
"I felt like when the coach left, it was just a lot of unknowns there," said Knell, who averaged 25.4 points per game as a senior for the Wildcats. "I still love Cal. I hope they do amazing, but just with (former coach) Cuonzo (Martin) leaving, I feel like this is the best thing for my family. A lot of players started to leave, so it was kind of scary as well. There's just a lot of unknowns there."
The 6-foot-5, 190-pound Knell told the Standard-Examiner last week that he’d be reopening his recruitment and visiting Provo over the weekend. He confirmed with the Deseret News Monday night that his release had been in the works and was finalized last week.
Soon after, he got calls from a number of schools that he'd been in contact with during his initial recruiting process, including Washington, Washington State and Texas, among others.
BYU, which hadn't initially offered Knell, also came calling.
"It was crazy to get back into the swing of (the recruiting process), but I'm excited that it did move fast and that I made the decision," he said.
A big reason Knell was happy the process moved quickly was because he'll be leaving on his LDS Church mission to Uruguay July 4, and he didn't want the uncertainty of his future playing career distracting him.
"I felt like it would always be on my mind, and I feel like I wouldn't dive into the mission all the way, so it was definitely a huge factor," he said. "But the reason why I felt like BYU was the way to go was when I went down there, it was just a family experience. I felt like all the coaches were like my second dad. They have a plan for me, and they feel like I fit into their system really well."