Hayes will remain with Florida
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After two of the four current signees had already asked out of their signed Letter of Intent, Florida finally received some good news on Tuesday when Kevarrius Hayes met with Mike White and decided that he will remain with the Gators.
Suwannee (Fla.) High School head coach Jeremy Ulmer told InsideTheGators.com that a two-hour meeting between the two sides sealed the deal.
"We went and met with Coach White yesterday and probably spent an hour and a half or two hours with them," said Ulmer. "When we left Kevarrius was very secure in the fact that he's going to be happy to be a Gator. So he's sticking around."
Before Hayes met Coach White, the two text a few times but the meeting may have been the first time they talked to each other.
"I'm not sure if they actually spoke on the phone," said Ulmer. "I spoke to him on the phone once but about halfway through the call Jeremy Foley came in and needed him and when the boss needs you, you've got to go. Yesterday we had his full attention and he had our full attention."
Hayes' mother is in the military and was unable to accompany her son to the meeting Tuesday due to a training assignment in South Carolina. Ulmer said that White and his staff, assistant coaches Darris Nichols, Jordan Mincy and director of basketball operations Kyle Church, impressed Hayes during a discussion of how the Gators will play under his leadership.
"The one thing that he did say was that their style of basketball is going to fit Kevarrius very well and they showed us some video on how they run the floor and all and I think that's going to fit into his style of basketball," Ulmer said. "I think Kevarrius really wanted to go to Florida, but meeting the coach really helped him get a feel for the guys and the coaching staff and just making sure he was making the right decision."
Prior to the meeting, the Gators coaches put a few of the current Gators through individual workouts. Devon Walker and Alex Murphy stopped by to greet Hayes and sit in on the meeting for a while. Coincidence? Maybe, and maybe not
"I think the thing that helped sell him was that there were a couple of other players there and they were pretty gung-ho about it. I think he was already pretty secure, but that helped push him over the edge."
In addition to the meeting with the new Gators coaching staff, Hayes had another reason to be in Gainesville - he was named one of the Meldon Law TV20 Scholar Athletes of the Year and the awards banquet was last night.
Russ Wood is a contributing national basketball recruiting analyst for Inside the Gators & Rivals. You can click here to follow him on Twitter.