It will take some time for Jeff Bzdelik to prove Wake Forest athletic director Ron Wellman made the right decision hiring him, but the new Demon Deacons coach is off to a promising start.

Remember the top 10 recruiting class many thought would splinter when Wellman unexpectedly fired Dino Gaudio? Well, Bzdelik and his assistants met with Travis McKie, Carson Desrosiers, J.T. Terrell, Anthony Chennault and Melvin Tabb in 36 hours on Friday and Saturday and all five have decided to remain in the fold.

Keeping the group intact is critical for a Demon Deacons program that loses seniors Ish Smith and L.D. Williams and sophomore Al Farouq Aminu off a team that faded late last season and lost by 30 to Kentucky in the second round of the NCAA tournament.

Since only five scholarship players return from last year, the recruits will be counted on to contribute immediately to help Wake Forest avoid a rare season of falling short of the NCAA tournament.

Maybe the biggest reason Wake Forest

When Missouri coach Mike Anderson rejected a lucrative offer from former Oregon athletic director Pat Kilkenny this past weekend, the Ducks lost more than one of their top coaching targets.

That was also the moment sophomore guard Matt Humphrey decided he would transfer.

Although Humphrey enjoyed his two years at Oregon and likely would have played a significant role on next year's team, his father, Darryl, said the "uncertainty" surrounding the program left his son no choice but to leave. Humphrey requested and received his release on Monday and will begin searching for a new school immediately.

"When the coaching search turned sour, that's when we started to think about it," Darryl Humphrey said by phone. "It was something we had to do because of the uncertainty about who was going to be there and the fact that whoever's going to be there was not the No. 1 choice. Matt didn't want to be burn a year of eligibility going through a transition year."

Humphrey is the second Oregon player

When Oregon State coach Craig Robinson hits the talk show circuit this week in support of his new book, "A Game of Character," his connections to Barack and Michelle Obama will surely be the dominant subject matter.

An excerpt the Oregonian unearthed this morning, however, may be of greater interest to basketball fans.

Robinson offers a detailed behind-the-scenes glimpse at how he chose Oregon State as his next destination after he decided to leave Brown in 2008. At one point, we find Robinson at Gill Coliseum after he had verbally agreed to come to Oregon State when a Providence official calls with an intriguing last-ditch offer.

"Just as I was headed toward the athletic department's main office to sit down and officially accept (Oregon State's) offer - and then step in front of the cameras and hold a press conference - my cell phone rang. Providence wanted to offer me the job - a major program with the tradition of winning, and without the obligation of relocating yet again, clear

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• It's easy to forget that Washington was maybe the Pac-10's worst program prior to Lorenzo Romar's arrival, but the Huskies showed their appreciation for his efforts by rewarding him with a 10-year extension worth $1.7 million per season on Monday. Romar's contract makes him one of the Pac-10's highest paid coaches, just behind UCLA's Ben Howland and Arizona's Sean Miller, who both make about $2 million a season.

• A nearly two-week standoff between Rutgers and Fred Hill ended Monday night when the basketball coach agreed to accept a settlement worth between $800,000 and $850,000. Hill's profanity-laced tirade at a Rutgers baseball game gave school officials reason to believe they could waive the entirety of the $1.9 million buyout the coach was to receive, but the two sides compromised eventually

It may not have been as dramatic as Joakim Noah screaming "We're back, baby" into a microphone at a pep rally celebrating Florida's first championship, but Kyle Singler's decision to return to Duke is no less significant.

Noah, Al Horford and Corey Brewer passing up NBA riches to defend their title made Florida the instant preseason favorite to repeat four years ago. The effect of Monday night's surprise announcement from Singler will be the same for Duke.

"I love being here at Duke and am excited about next year," the three-time all-ACC forward said in the statement released by the school. "I had two great options in front of me, but I did not want to miss out on all of the great things to come in a senior season."

At a time when practically every NBA prospect with a pulse has declared for the draft, defending champion Duke is the only one of this year's elite teams besides Michigan State that will return all its underclassmen.

Yes, Jon Scheyer, Brian Zoubek and Lance Thomas each

When the Phoenix Coyotes announced their new home venue would be known as Jobing.com Arena in 2006, fans quickly anointed that as the nation's worst corporate stadium moniker.

It took four years, but a new contender for that crown has emerged.

Kentucky-based fast food giant Yum Brands, which owns Kentucky Fried Chicken, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell, will pay $13.5 million a year for the next 10 years to be primary sponsor of Louisville's sparkling new downtown arena. As a result, the school announced Monday that the 22,000-seat venue will be known as the KFC Yum! Center.

Nobody should be naive enough to think we can stop the encroachment of corporate America into collegiate athletics, but this would have been a nice place for Louisville to draw the line. Instead of shaving a few million dollars off the asking price and going with something like the Louisville Center sponsored by Yum Brands, the school chose money at the expense of class.

What will fans call this arena? The Yum? The Bucket?

The most important recruit newly hired Colorado coach Tad Boyle will have a chance to land this year is a player already on his roster.

Alec Burks, the Big 12's freshman of the year last season, had publicly campaigned for Colorado to hire assistant Steve McClain after coach Jeff Bzdelik bolted for Wake Forest earlier this month. Colorado athletic director Mike Bohn instead opted to pluck Boyle from Northern Colorado on Monday morning, leaving Burks to decide whether to adjust to a new system next season or transfer.

"We don't feel like he's ready to go to the NBA yet, so we'll have to evaluate our options," Rodney Perry, Burks' former AAU coach, said by phone Monday morning. "Alec is comfortable at Colorado because he has been there a year already. Before we start looking at any other schools, we're going to give the new coach an opportunity to see if Colorado is the best fit."

For Bohn to risk losing Burks and undoing the gradual progress made during Bzdelik's three-year tenure, he

Pull up a chair and sit down at the breakfast buffet, an assortment of all the freshest newsworthy college hoops stories on the net. To make a submission, contact me via email or Twitter.

• It didn't take long for former Rutgers star Mike Rosario to choose a new school. The 6-foot-2 sophomore signed with Florida on Sunday morning during his first official visit since getting released from Rutgers on Wednesday. "The biggest thing that Florida offered me was, 'We're going to win,' " Rosario said. "That's something that I've missed doing. Now I'm going to have the chance to do it with a lot of good guys that are passionate about the game."

• Commitments from Brandon Knight and Josh Selby last week make Cory Joseph the top available guard prospect in the nation, but the point guard said he won't decide among UConn, Texas, Minnesota, Villanova and UNLV for at least another week or two. Then again, McDonald's All-American C.J. Leslie insists he's also still considering UConn and Florida even