Editor's note: ESPN.com's Andy Katz has taken a season-by-season look at the Three-Year Plan. Today, he looks at the junior season. On Tuesday, he examined the sophomore season after taking a look at the freshman season Monday.

Juniors talk like seniors used to. They speak about being the leader, making sure they know they are "The Man," the one who has been around and knows every nook of every building.

They are nearly set, ready to make the jump to the NBA, largely because they've done their time.

	Casey Jacobsen is still honing his skills, but is clearly the leader of the Cardinal as a junior.

"As a junior, you're polished, and you're the leader," Missouri junior Kareem Rush said. "If you're a senior, then it seems that when you start to slow down a bit."

Outside of the few exceptions like Duke's Shane Battier, Iowa State's Jamaal Tinsley and Arizona's Loren Woods, the best players in the game last season were underclassmen. The same is true this season, with the majority of the marquee players being juniors who might not make it to their senior season.

But what is the game plan to get to this point? Rush said the freshman season is where a player finds his groove, gets used to the game and simply matures a bit on the court. The sophomore season usually comes off a decent summer of improvement on the actual game and then the player spends his second season having a breakthrough year.

The summer between sophomore and junior season is usually spent on fine-tuning the game, according to Rush, to set up a star-like junior season.

"Then you're ready for The League," Rush said.

It sounds almost too much like a tidy package, but he might not be that far off for the elite player. But, the junior year can also mean adding another aspect to a player's game.

Rush improved his ball skills and can put the ball on the floor with more ease, making him a much more dangerous threat. Stanford's Casey Jacobsen is learning how to make 3s with someone on him, rather than mostly hitting the shot wide-open off a drive-and-dish, inside-out pass to the post. He's also learning how to take the ball to the basket with more aggressiveness.

UCLA's Jason Kapono was forced to play the point in the absence of injured freshman Cedric Bozeman. The knock on him was that he couldn't put the ball on the floor or lead a team from the point. He's doing both for the Bruins and that will certainly improve his skills. All three could certainly use another season to improve their lateral defensive quickness.

And they all want to get another shot at leading their respective teams to the Final Four because none of them have made it yet.

"If I were a coach and had really good players for three years then I would feel lucky," Jacobsen said. "If you talk to any junior or senior, they'll tell you that the older you get, the more you learn about your own game, the more you'll be able to get to the next level and be ready to play. I really question if some of the young guys who are 18 or 19 years old really think they can play with the NBA players."

Jacobsen said that leadership quotient is something Battier had last season mostly comes as an upperclassman. Making big-time shots usually is put in the hands of the junior or senior, too.

"Juniors think they can make an impact in The League as a rookie, be a contributor," Jacobsen said. "The junior today is considered the Tim Duncan-type, and the veteran guy and coaches treat them that way now. There's no way that players who leave after their freshman season know as much about basketball."

Unfortunately, a trend that a player who stays too long -- as in his senior season -- is somehow damage goods permeates the junior class. They don't want to become labeled the way Terence Morris was at Maryland. But he got to the Final Four by staying for his senior season, even though his draft status dropped with each season he stayed in school. Although any NBA scout will tell you that was more to do with Morris' decline then any plan to not pick seniors higher in the draft.

"For some reason, if you stay to be a senior people think there's something wrong," Kapono said. "Somehow they think you're passed your peak."

Battier scoffed at that myth during the pre-draft discussions last June. He said how could a player at 22 be on a decline. He is proving to be correct. He's one of the top rookies in the league with Memphis.

Battier's leadership, his knowledge of the nuances of the game, his overall ball skills weren't there after two seasons. And for him, not as much after three seasons, either, as they were after his senior Tour de Force.

"Every year, I have improved my game," Kapono said. "I expanded my role as a scorer from freshman to sophomore year. I'm increasing my rebounding and now my assists as a junior. Each year I've become more of a team player. That's something that you can't get after just one or two years of college."

Andy Katz is a senior writer for ESPN.com.