Kentucky’s Terrence Jones is one of the top-rated forwards projected in the 2012 draft, but has struggled with a tendency to disappear against elite competition.

Will Purdue, a 13-year NBA veteran and current NBA analyst who also trains players for the draft, spoke with several NBA officials about Jones.

“Just so we’re clear, I haven’t had a single scout question me about his ability, about his basketball knowledge,” Purdue said. “I’ve just had scouts say, ‘How many times have you seen him play? And how many times has he had these instances where he’s just kind of disappeared for a while?’ Some of them are just questioning his aggressiveness and his mental toughness.

“The first half of that North Carolina game (this year), he puts it on the floor and dunks over two people. There’s not a lot of big guys in college that have that explosiveness off one dribble or the quickness to get by the initial defender and finish before the help-side defense gets there. Then all the sudden he disappears in the second half and doesn’t score. And now the Indiana game where, everybody has bad games, but what’s he doing on the sideline?

“Perception and reality can be very different, but right now there’s a perception that mentally for him, it’s not all there all the time. The scouts are all so confused.”