Tennessee’s Jordan Bone Leaving For the NBA Draft a Sign of Changing Times in the NCAA.

The announcement Jordan Bone is leaving the Tennessee basketball program for a chance at the NBA Draft nobody thinks will happen may not be the devastating news some are repeating.

Remember five-star guard Josiah James, whom Volunteers head men’s basketball coach Rick Barnes beat out Duke and Clemson to land, comes to the program next season, so a replacement will be at the ready.

The question is how the Vols will handle the loss of Admiral Schofield and almost assuredly Grant Williams.

The Vols will regress. Don’t be surprised if it’s ETSU that becomes the nationally ranked basketball program next season out of east Tennessee.

But they should be okay on the perimeter with James. And there’s always the chance Bone will dip his toe into the pro waters, find them not to be to his liking, and return to the Vols, giving Barnes more options and a stronger chance to return to the NCAA Tournament.

What Bone has done is show how the future of college basketball might be. With the G-League paying high school recruits, how is the sport going to lure in top talent in the future?

Spare us the thought players will forgo checks for the honor of playing at Rupp Arena or Pauley Pavilion.

We can question the Ball family’s sanity, but the prospect of playing at Pauley Pavilion wasn’t enough to keep LiAngelo Ball from quitting UCLA…