Not a rhetorical question or sarcasm - Is there a specific word for the type of idealized relationship that people imagine athletes and college students have with their university?
As a generalization, most of us idealized Wake as teenage applicants, then spent 4+ formative years at Wake, then years after that following Wake sports and networking with other Wake grads. All of that adds up to a much much stronger affinity for Wake Forest than a basketball player who chose to transfer to Wake after being recruited by coach Forbes for (2?) months, visiting once or twice, and then spending the vast majority of their Wake time at basketball practice and traveling /playing with a team, of which 75% are also transferring out.
Being straight up, these dudes just don’t have the emotional relationship with Wake that we assume they do. Wake is a convenient place to play basketball and prepare to find a more lucrative opportunity to play basketball elsewhere.