The news hit the Northwestern community this morning like a ton of bricks: Rivals100 commit Joe Bamisile -- the crown jewel and only member of the Wildcats' 2020 class -- was decommitting and flipping to Virginia Tech.

Sometimes, there's just no way to spin bad news, and this is one of those instances. Simply put, it was a devastating blow for a Wildcat program that has seemingly been on its heels since its historic run to the 2017 NCAA Tournament.

Bamisile, who saw his national profile skyrocket and his Rivals ranking jump 33 spots this summer, was the hope for the future for the Wildcats, the piece that the program was building around. Now they will have to scramble to assemble a 2020 class late in the recruiting cycle.

If there's any solace in this situation for Northwestern's coaching staff it's that Bamisile said that "Northwestern did everything right" in his recruitment. But that doesn't make it sting any less.

Bamisile talks about the reasons behind his decision in this exclusive WildcatReport story.