Kentucky coach Tubby Smith vaulted his incoming recruiting class into the nation's elite this week when he received a commitment from Atlanta prep star Randolph Morris.

Morris, a 6-11 center who chose UK ahead of Georgia Tech, gives the Wildcats three freshman McDonald's All-Americans along with Joe Crawford and Rajon Rondo.

That's plenty of star power for a team that, while seeded No. 1 in the NCAA Tournament again, played without a true go-to guy last season.

• The University of Cincinnati is one of three schools that has been mentioned as a possible destination for C.J. Giles, a 6-11 center from Seattle's Rainier Beach High School who was released last week from the letter-of-intent he signed with Miami (Fla.).

Giles, who averaged 17 points, 12 rebounds and six blocked shots as a senior at Rainier Beach last season, asked for his release after coach Perry Clark was fired.

Miami granted the release last week. Kansas, which was his No. 2 choice before he signed with Miami, is believed to be the frontrunner for Giles, who visited Washington this weekend.

Giles' father, Chester, played basketball at Kansas.

• Xavier could be in the running to land Kentucky transfer Bernard Cote. Xavier originally recruited Cote when he came out of Champlain St. Lambert High School in Quebec. The 6-9 sophomore did not see much court time at UK (1.4 points and .4 rebounds per game this season), but his list of potential transfer schools is expected to be long.

Of course an even bigger recruiting question at Xavier surrounds Churchill Odia, whose visa process is finally nearing its end. When that is completed, the latest word is that he expects to keep his commitment to Xavier.

SCHEDULE THIS AND THAT: The recruiting benefits of making the Elite Eight probably won't show up for Xavier until November and in the coming years. But schedule-wise, XU has secured two games it might not have otherwise.

The Musketeers were able to get non-conference games next season with Miami (Fla.) in the Orange Bowl Classic and at Tennessee in the first of a home-and-home. The contracts are unsigned at this point, but it's a formality that is expected to be finished this week.

That is unlike a series with Illinois that had been proposed for Chicago's United Center next year and U.S. Bank Arena in 2005-06. Both sides all but agreed to the series, but it was never signed by Illinois and won't happen now because Illinois chose to go with Oregon instead of Xavier, although Oregon almost backed out because it did not agree with Illinois' Native American mascot, Chief Illiniwek.

ONE WAY TO GO: The Atlantic 10 athletic directors meet in Boca Raton, Fla. at the end of the month where they are expected to ratify a proposal for division alignment when Charlotte and Saint Louis join in 2005-06.

The prevailing favorite set up for men's basketball calls for one division of 14 teams. In that scenario, each team would play every member at least once and three opponents twice per season.

Xavier senior associate athletic director Dawn Rogers will represent Xavier at the meetings because athletic director Mike Bobinski is taking over as Xavier's vice president for development in June.

ABOUT THAT SEARCH: Xavier vice president John Kucia said the search committee for the next athletic director is still reviewing resumes and has not begun interviewing.

Kucia described the interest in the job as "substantial" and said the field of finalists should be narrowed to just a few before interviews take place.

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