It's a pride thing for UW (e.g.) to say they kept so-and-so in-state...
It is also a leftover from the Don James era when he used to regularly say that he wanted to put a fence around the state and at the time, mostly did. uw fans still live in the past and yearn for those years.
The fact is that times have changed. There was a time when the state of Washington was regularly putting players in the NFL, including two number one overall draft picks. This state no longer is producing NFL players like it once did.
You evaluate the state of Washington players, but you do not spend a lot of time on any player if they show they are not really interested.