It's nothing to do with "not cool." I think some kids just want a break from parents. Others look and see that the politics at UMN make it a dysfunctional University and walk away.
Others simply want to go out into the world and be able to say, "I played bb for Duke/UNC/UK". Not that hard to understand.
Others like MennoSota said, just want a change of pace, get some distance from their parents, or just want to go out and see the world. My parents and most of my friends didn't understand why I joined the Army out of HS. Most of my friends went to UMn, UMn-Morris, SCSU, Mankato St, Gustavus, etc.. I and a few others joined the military. Got to visit 9 or 10 foreign countries, ended up in Louisiana same time as Clem's first class went there to play the 2nd weekend of the NCAA tourney.
After my 4 years in the Army, spent 2 years back in Minnesota and headed out to the West Coast to continue my college education. Just had the desire to get out and see the world. I love Minnesota, and have been back for around 2 decades now, but you can't blame some of these kids for wanting to get out and see the world...
OR, for just wanting to get out of the frigging cold. What is it today, 12 degrees out, yesterday it was even colder and windier.
Man, who cares. This isn't hockey. Let the locals go and bring in better players from elsewhere. Why not. The locals already know about Minnesota, let people from other parts of the country learn and come to appreciate what Minnesota has to offer.
I mean, yeah, I love the idea of nothing but local boys representing their home state and going on to win a Natl Title with almost an entire home grown roster, and Minnesota might be the only state that could pull that off, OR THAT WOULD EVEN CONSIDER DOING IT, or that would consider it something to be strive for. Guess Brooks and the Woogster and that whole hockey thing seemed kind of special and its hard to not think about doing that in bb, a sport with only 13 total scholarship players, so it could be done.
But most of the locals that leave to play elsewhere, we sort of follow and can still kind of be proud of. Everyone knows Fitz is from Minny and has had an incredible career in the NFL, and someone said he brings players here to the U to train or something like that? We all followed El-Amin, even after he spurned us(thanks Aurchambault or whatever your name is, btw, lol).
So why not bring in outsiders and make them one of us??? A lot of out of staters that come here, end up staying.
I guess once the hockey teams stopped going after only Minnesota grown talent, no reason for any other team to do it.
Can the State of Minnesota, honestly, EVERY SINGLE YEAR, give us enough players to do it? And if we start bringing in nothing but homeys, what happens when one year there aren't any good ones, what do the guys from out of state think when they are the only guys from out of state on the roster??? And what if we need 4 guys, and the state has 3 great guys? Do we take someone of lesser quality than we could otherwise get, to keep the whole roster Minnesota natives? Like I said, its not hockey, and it doesn't even work in hockey anymore. It just would cause too many problems.
The only reason I can think of anymore, that truly justifies going after all of the best in-state guys, is to keep recruiting expenses down. Otherwise it seems like a vain pride kind of thing, "yeah, we closed down the border, no one comes and takes one of our boys". lol Sorry, no one really cares if "our" boys don't win games. I used to think differently about this. I used to honestly believe that I'd prefer a team of all-Minnesota boys that only got to the Sweet 16, than I would a team from lots of different states that made the Elite 8. I don't think that anymore. We Minnesotans are possibly the only people in the whole country that think this way. Not saying we all do, but far more here do lean that way than anywhere else I've ever been.