He was a leader, a trailblazer and someone who made a lot of things possible for us. He went down the path first to get the rest of us here. The decline The current state of college basketball is the product of many years of evolution, but the most drastic changes to the game have taken place over the past two decades. The lure of money and fame in the NBA has transformed college basketball into a multi-million dollar industry, yet one with a huge turnover rate. The best college players rarely stay in school for all four years, and some high school stars have decided to forgo the college arena altogether.
College basketball is only a skeleton of what it once was.
Thompson's personality has been an anachronism for years and his resignation has been inevitable. His system works best when rookie players can sit on the bench and become accustomed to the academic rigors of Georgetown. The game's focus on young talent forces Thompson to thrust new players into massive on-court responsibilities. Last season, the Kenny Brunner fiasco showed the potential consequences of overloading 18-year olds in their first year of college. Thompson's system also suffers because his emphais on academics conflicts with some recruits' egos.