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Message: [QUOTE="orangecuse, post: 2509059, member: 668"] JB is old, and old school. As with most of the elder, adapting to change is extremely difficult and a struggle. I think JB struggled with the incredible wisdom he's attained through the years and his deep knowledge of the game, players, their skill sets, talent level, etc. His extensive knowledge and expertise in evaluating where someone is at [I]in that moment[/I], is where maybe he has used his assessment and whether or not he felt they were ready to play and make a contribution, or play any significant role of any kind the next year (after they left). His mindset likely may have been if you can't dominate in college, or even achieve college AA status, how the hell can you go off the following year and be relevant in the NBA. He's not wrong in that capacity, because none of our guys that left early really play a significant role for any team, except maybe Waiter's before being injured this year. Although, JB I believe, stated he never had a player more ready (at least physically) to leave early than him. The NBA drafts guys (after the lottery picks) based upon the pure unknown or potential and JB probably wasn't looking at the same thing, but from more of a productivity and [I]non watered down[/I] standpoint. Again, his wisdom and extensive knowledge being in conflict of today's climate of guys going (regardless how late in the first round) because of the easy coin/low hanging fruit proceeds of potential vs. actual production. JB being antagonistic is likely a result, again, from his extensive knowledge of the game, and, again, along the lines of thinking in the now vs. down the road. And, right now, these guys aren't ready to play today and be productive. I guess, no different than how he typically views his bench players that come in and generally only get minutes of action when the game's outcome isn't in doubt. Maybe JB's rigidness over the past few years til now can be attributed to his apparent laziness (for lack of a better word) on the recruiting trail (as some have mentioned here) knowing that he hadn't worked as hard filling the roster, etc. and if guys go prematurely, there's no one waiting in the wings (without a significant drop off) to take that spot. Maybe, with Hop out of the picture, and JB getting another 5 years as he wanted, has revitalized him along this front (as others have alluded to) and we'll see an uptick in recruiting talent as it appears so for next season. Calipari has embraced this to date as he knows, next year he'll just have another "platoon" of Mickey D's and top prep players for replacement. That's not the case with SU, even if our recruiting continues to improve, we don't get that type caliber of recruits as UK does with Calipari. Regardless, it does appear JB has moved off his rigid position, taking on a new mindset (at least publicly) moving forward. [/QUOTE]

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