What's going on at Virginia Tech?

It seems that the shooting tragedy at Virginia Tech a few months ago is having a significant impact - although insignificant in the grand scheme of things - on the recruiting for the men's basketball program. According to this thread on TerpsSportsReport.com, Virginia Tech recruit Nigel Munson is having second thoughts about attending the university. According to the poster:

That's what VT fans are saying down in SWVA. Munson never really liked Blacksburg and wants to be closer to family and friends. Everyone seems to think it is a done deal

There's no mention of the shooting in that statement, but there's no doubt it is not having a positive impact on anyone's decision to attend Blacksburg. Josh Barr weighs in on the rumor on his Recruiting Insider blog, citing George Washington as a possible destination for him. Barr, you'll remember, first reported that August Gilchrist wanted out from his signed letter-of-intent with Virgina Tech, specifically citing the school shooting as a reason why.

"I'm not mentally prepared to go there for this (coming) year. I think the campus needs time to mourn the first year. I don't know if I'm prepared to do that next year."

Daily Press columnist Dave Fairbank was less than enthused with Gilchrist's decision, believing that he and his handlers were using the shootings as an excuse to reopen his recruitment:

Gilchrist certainly is entitled to his feelings. If he and his family are uncomfortable with Tech, if the wall-to-wall images of law enforcement officers and murder victims and a deranged shooter and a campus in mourning were too unsettling, fine. Good luck and Godspeed.

If, however, Team Gilchrist has been led to believe that his stock is on the rise and is using the killings as an out, then this is a new chapter in the wonderful world of big-time college recruiting, a world that gives toxic waste and snail trails a bad name.

Virginia Tech coach Seth Greenberg says later in the column that he wouldn't be surprised if other recruiters use the shootings to try and sway players away from enrolling at Blacksburg. This obviously would be a new low in an industry that regularly redefines the term "sleezy". Whether it's corrupt AAU programs, non-existent charter schools, paying recruits, etc., using the worst school shooting in U.S. history for alterior motives sets the bar extremely low.

There's no evidence that the shooting was motivation for Munson's decision as it was for Gilchrist, but regardless, Virginia Tech is seeing arguably its best basketball recruiting class in the program's history falling apart piece-by-piece and you can't help but wonder if a lunatic decision to kill 32 innocent students is going to become just another sad element of college recruting.