Which makes this year a bit of an anomaly. This year's NCAA fall evaluation period begins on Friday night with the bonus evening hours, but how many staffs actually will be out, beating the bushes, en mass at the evaluation events?

The eyes, after all, remain trained on the 2008 class, where half of HoopGurlz.com's top 10 still are uncommitted. That includes No. 2 April Sykes of Crawford, Miss., and No. 3 Glory Johnson of Knoxville, Tenn. Almost half - 14 - of the top 30 have not made a college choice.

With No. 7 Nneka Ogwumike in for an official visit, what's Stanford coach Tara VanDerveer going to do? Take Ogwumike up the road to the East Bay Xplosion's event, where our Chris Hansen will be? Not likely. Not with USC still working on Ayana Dunning, the No. 3 post in the class, with wing Briana Gilbreath, point guard Ashley Corral and forward Michelle Jenkins. The Cardinal has an interesting class going with Sarah Boothe, the 6-foot-5 post out of Illinois, plus sharp-shooting Nevadan Lindy LaRoque. Ogwumike would provide the splash of athleticism the best Stanford teams usually possess.

The very top of the recruiting classes features the Cold Warriors - UConn and Tennessee - who are stockpiling talent as relations have about been completely broken off. Auriemma's Huskies have No. 1 Elena Delle Donne, No. 10 Caroline Doty, No. 11 Tiffany Hayes and No. 31 Heather Buck. Pat Summitt's Lady Vols counter with No. 4 Amber Gray, No. 8 Shekinna Stricklen, No. 15 Alicia Manning and No. 20 Alyssia Brewer with unranked but obviously talented Briana Bass a fifth commit.

Things could get really interesting if Sykes goes to Connecticut and Johnson stays home and goes to Tennessee. However, those are believed to be second choices for each, with Sykes expected to go with Van Chancellor at LSU and Johnson expected to pledge to Sylvia Hatchell at North Carolina. That's the speculation anyway. Sykes has thrown a bit of a curve ball by agreeing to visit Louisiana Tech.

Chancellor would have a danged good opening class with No. 2 Sykes, No. 12 LaSondra Barrett and No. 55 Taylor Turnbow. Hatchell's class wouldn't be too shabby, either, with No. 3 Johnson, No. 22 Chay Shegog, No. 45 She'la White and No. 49 Candace Wood. This amounts to an elite wing, center, point guard and shooter - all in one class.

And if all the dominoes tumble a certain way, we all could be hailing the emergence of ... Florida State. Just wait and see.

One thing's pretty clear - it's not time to turn the page yet on recruiting, no matter what color the leaves have turned.

RIM SHOTS

The second-best Sykes in the 2008 class would be Candace Sykes of Momence, Ill. She's a guard and ranked 58th in the HoopGurlz Hundred. She's also down to Alabama, Ball State and Illinois State. Word is, she's likely ending up at Ball State with former club teammate Patrice King, who's recommitted there. ... Ashley Field, a 6-2 forward out of Marble Falls, Texas, has committed to Baylor. ... Another Texan, Tamara Torru, a 6-foot guard from Bellaire High School, verballed to North Texas. Torru averaged 11.3 points and 8.1 rebounds for Bellaire and defends every position but the post. ... Rachael Hackbarth, a 6-2 forward from Milwaukee, Wis., has committed to Drake. The two-time all-area choice picked the Bulldogs over Bradley, Evansville and Loyola. Morgan Herrick, a freshman at Drake, used to train with Hackbarth in the Pacesetter Basketball program. ... Morgan Schwegler, a 6-1 forward out of Tumwater, Wash., has chosen to play for The Masters College in Santa Clarita, Calif.

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