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Stephenson, the 6-foot-5 guard known as "Born Ready" from Lincoln High School in Brooklyn, and Cheek, a 6-5 wing from St. Anthony in Jersey City, are among an elite group of high school basketball players who have chosen to wait until the spring to pick a college.

"Right now, I'm just worrying about basketball and at the end I'll do all that college stuff," Stephenson said. "I'm going to do my high school season and after that I look forward to telling everybody what school I should go to."

Eight of the top 25 players in the Rivals.com rankings for the Class of 2009 have yet to choose a college. Among them, No. 1 John Wall, No. 3 Xavier Henry, No. 4 Derrick Favors, No. 9 Stephenson, No. 10 Renardo Sidney, No. 15 Latavious Williams and No. 16 Cheek have all indicated that they will or may sign late.

According to Rivals, only five five-star players signed in April last year. This year eight will likely wait to ink a letter of intent.

"This is definitely a unique year with so many elite prospects waiting to sign late, but it is not a surprise," said Jerry Meyer, who analyzes recruiting for Rivals.com. "I expect more and more guys to wait it out in the future primarily because of the uncertainty in the coaching profession.

"These players want to know the coach is going to be there when they get there. And the fact is that these prospects have leverage because of their ability and it only makes sense for them to avoid locking themselves into a potentially negative situation."

Although each player has his own reasons for signing early or late, there appears to be a number of unifying factors at work.

First, as Meyer mentioned, turnover among college coaches is always a concern. Once the college season ends in April, a slew of firings and hirings inevitably follows. That can leave recruits in a precarious position if they've committed to a particular school because of a coach.

A year ago, St. Anthony guard Tyshawn Taylor initially committed to Marquette, but when Marquette coach Tom Crean left after the season to take the Indiana job, assistant coach Buzz Williams, who had one season of head-coaching experience at New Orleans, took over and had to re-recruit Crean's commits.

"When it comes down to it, Coach Williams has only been a basketball coach for one year," St. Anthony coach Bob Hurley said in April. "We sat down for a couple hours, he talked to Ty and he spoke to me for an hour and a half. And at the end of that, he still had only coached for one year."

Hurley requested that Marquette release Taylor from his National Letter of Intent, and the player ended up at Kansas.

More recently, legendary Arizona coach Lute Olson retired before the season started because of health problems. All three of Arizona's commits from the Class of 2009 decided to withdraw as a result.

Other factors are at hand, too.

Henry, a 6-5 shooting guard out of Oklahoma City Putnam City High ranked No. 1 at his position, initially said he would decide in the fall between Kansas and Memphis, where his older brother, C.J. Henry, plays.

But the younger Henry was injured in a car accident Oct. 22, he underwent surgery to replace a fractured cheekbone and ultimately decided to push his decision back until the spring.

Kansas and Memphis, who last year played for the NCAA championship, are involved with many of the same players, including Wall, Stephenson and Cheek. Some observers figured that once Henry picked his school in the fall, he would be the first domino to fall.

The theory went that Cheek, Stephenson and Snaer would then choose schools other than Kansas where they figured to be the main man.

But the dominoes aren't falling because Henry has opted to wait.

"Xavier is the first domino for the shooting guards and his waiting has to have at least a limited effect on the mindset of the other shooting guards," Meyer said.

Cheek is considering Kansas, Memphis, Villanova, Pittsburgh and Rutgers. Some speculated that if Henry chose Kansas, Cheek might end up at Villanova, which has recruited him hard.

The other factor at work here relates to Brandon Jennings.

A 6-1 point guard from Los Angeles, Jennings opted to sign a three-year deal to play professionally in Italy instead of attending Arizona. There had been some question as to whether Jennings met the academic criteria to play college ball.

Because of the NBA age limit, which says a player must be one year removed from his high school class, Jennings couldn't jump straight to the NBA.

Instead, Jennings will make $1.2 million this year playing for Virtus Roma. If he plays well and doesn't cause any problems while in Italy, he could become a lottery pick in the 2009 NBA Draft ... and a trendsetter.

"He has to come back where he didn't cause any disruption on the team, where he didn't throw the ball in the stands, if he does that, that was the advice I gave him, he wins," grassroots basketball guru Sonny Vaccaro, who helped broker Jennings' Italian deal, said in a television interview. "And other kids will win in the future."

Carl Henry, Xavier's father, said his son "would have" jumped to the NBA if there were no age limit.

"I wish they could go directly from high school [to pros]," Carl told KUSports.com. "If they are ready -- if their bodies are physically ready -- they should be able to go. His body is together."

He added that Europe was not an appealing option for his son.

"Some don't want to go to Europe. It's a long way from home for kids who are in high school," Carl said. "We've had offers to play in Europe. If a kid is not even through his senior year of high school, why would you even consider Europe right now?"

Jennings says that three players in the Class of 2009 -- Stephenson, Los Angeles wing Jordan Hamilton and 6-10 California big man Renardo Sidney -- are talented enough to play professionally in Europe.

"I would ask them this: What do you want to get out of it?" Jennings told The New York Times. "If they're coming over here for the money, don't do it. If they want to learn and get better, they should think about it. If you have a bad attitude, it's not going to be good."

Even though both Stephenson and his father, Lance Sr., said they are intrigued by Jennings' move overseas, Stephenson says he would like to play in college.

"I'm looking at Brandon right now, see how he's doing," Stephenson said before Jennings made his decision to go. "If I do it, then I'll do it, but right now I'm thinking about college."

The St. John's coaches hope Stephenson will wind up on their campus next year, but several Big East coaches also think Lance could easily head to Europe.

"I think he's going to try it," one Big East assistant coach said.

One thing's for sure: We won't know how this saga ends until the springtime.