Just to give a timeline (and people can say its revisionist, but whatever), this is the info I have.
On Monday, I got a tip that Thomas was leaning towards getting out if Miami and that this might lead to dropping Kirkland. I was skeptical, but the source is pretty impeccable. Then the Kirkland news drops yesterday. Cash is $, so his news about a meeting makes perfect sense. But we also had our in-home last night, and a UM source I spoke to at 11 pm was confident on Thomas.
Bottom line? Welcome to recruiting. I will say this: if Thomas leaves, he was never going to stay. We could not have done more.