It's funny how such a major piece of info ("...oh, and by the way, this 'Megan Walker' girl is close to committing to UConn. But anyway...") just snuck it's way into an article about a different player whose recruitment is two years further down the road!
That said, my instinct is that it's legit! Even if perhaps this was not something Walker expected or perhaps wanted printed on record in a newspaper article at this time.
Can't imagine Megan Walker committing to UConn if Geno was heading off to the NBA, lol! And I'm sure she knows better than any of the folks who wrote those articles what his plans are.
Also, it looks like there could be another dominant era for UConn on the horizon—the "Megan Walker" period. And this isn't to say Katie Lou Samuelson won't score a million points as a Husky (she will) or that Megan Walker will be as dominant as Breanna Stewart (she doesn't need to be). Every class needs a #1 player, but there are #1 players and undisputed #1 players—and it seems like Megan Walker has been in that latter category for a while. And the timing of her arrival puts her in a great position just as long as UConn can get a couple elite post players from 2017 or 2018 to join her.
While it's slightly curious how the two '17 commits—Espinoza-Hunter and Gordon—fit into this equation, it now makes sense why Geno doesn't seem to have really looked at #2 Rellah Boothe and #3 Evina Westbrook (he's focused on Walker and confident this is the right move).
Notre Dame does have an advantage with academic prestige. But Geno was able to sign Katie Lou Samuelson out of California despite having two sisters playing at Stanford, which was in her home state and has more academic prestige than Notre Dame. I think Notre Dame would need a stronger (likely even perfect) "pitch" to sell to Walker in order to have a shot at landing her over UConn. Unfortunately, I think this pitch would've had to include Lauren Cox for starters and Asia Durr the year before would've been nice, too. Furthermore, while I would call the early departures of both Jewell Loyd and Taya Reimer "red flags" per se, it just raises a couple more questions. Also, the early exit this past season in the Sweet 16 is simply bad timing when you're going for a player like Walker and every little detail counts (of course if Loyd and Reimer were still around and playing at full force, that likely wouldn't have happened).