An article from the Seattle Times offsets what Evan Daniels from Scout.com reported yesterday(or Friday or whenever it was). Here is the interview with Terrence Jones’ Coach [B]Pat Strickland[/B] :
[QUOTE]
(Any new developments?) “I haven’t directly asked him. The last time I talked to him was Saturday, but from what I’m hearing from other sources is that he’s said he hasn’t changed his mind, but for whatever reason he’s not signed the letter of intent.”
(Has he de-committed from Washington?)[B] “As far as I know, he’s still committed to Washington. [/B]But how committed, I don’t know because he hasn’t signed the letter of intent.”
(So what do you think will happen?) [B]”I think he’s going to end up at Washington in my opinion.”[/B]
(Is any of this surprising to you?) “It’s kind of surprising to me that it’s went this far. But what’s not surprising, regardless of who the kid is, it’s a 17, 18-year-old who’s trying to make a huge decision that’s going to affect his whole life. In that respect, I’m not so surprised. But I am surprised that T.Jones has let it draw out this long. I think his problem is it’s tough for him to tell people no. What I try to tell him is you got to look at this from a business standpoint. Any of these guys that’s recruiting you or have recruited you, they will open their mouth and tell you no in a second so you can’t look at it that way. If you hurt somebody’s feelings, then that’s on them because this is a business and decisions have to be made and you’re making a decision that’s in the best interest of you and not these coaches. You got to look at it from that perspective.”
(What was that conversation like on Saturday?)
“It was real quiet and it was by phone. Obviously I had a dialogue with him on Friday, but after Friday on Saturday it was a phone contact. It was pretty quiet. I wasn’t beating down the door with all these questions that the media and all these coaches are having. For me, I told him that if you really feel that you need time, then there’s no rush because you have some more time. I just wish he would have let everybody know before he even had the press conference that he needed more time and not rush into something.”
(So what happened during after he picked up the UW hat that made him have doubts?) “I got a sense that most people have gotten because I haven’t directly asked him about some of these things. I think he really didn’t and I kind of felt this going into it too that he really was unsure until he stepped up there to that table and saw those hats and actually picked one. If you look at the replay, it looked like he was going to grab the Kansas hat first. I really feel that he didn’t have a clear idea on what he wanted to do. My feeling was that it was always between Washington and Kentucky.”
(Will you ever have an event like this at the school for one of your players?) “I would advise not only my players, but any player if you have a press conference just make sure you’re ready to have make decision if you’re going to call a press conference. Just make sure. You got more time and you don’t have to throw a date out there to please people. This is about you. It’s not about nobody else. It’s about you so take your time. As long as you meet your timeline, you don’t have to give a date that you’re not ready for.”
(How is this being played out at the school?) “Throughout this whole process Terrence has been pretty tight lipped so I don’t think a lot of people are really shocked about what’s going on just because he’s been so tight lipped and so undecided and indecisive on what he wants to do as far as his college choices. Not a lot is going on at the school. They treat it like a regular day because we know what we’re dealing with. We’re dealing with Terrence Jones and he’s been undecided for a long time and he’s still somewhat undecided.”
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[URL=”http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/huskymensbasketballblog/2011781027_jones_hs_coach.html”]Entire Article[/URL]
This has been an unreal situation which really needs to end. It just seems like everyone is guessing about what Terrence will do. I really don’t think Terrence still knows either. It is getting about time to toss a coin up!!!
