Thanksgiving arrives the day after the last day of this year's signing period. The irony will not be lost on many of the nation's top college basketball programs.

For those who received early verbal commitments, it meant weeks and months of monitoring and mother-henning those early commits, hoping to hold on to what they already had. Several were sweating out last-minute duels with another school for a commitment in the week prior.

The winners will have no problem digesting their proud bird with all the trimmings. The losers will likely put down some Pepto Bismol with their Swanson Turkey Dinner.

While the one-week fall signing period isn't over yet, but it was basically over before it began. There were few surprises regarding top players who had verbally committed to a school and then reneged.

There was some concern at Oklahoma, but 6-foot-4 DeAngelo Alexander (Midwest City/Midwest City, Okla.) did sign a Letter of Intent (LOI) and of course rumors persist that 6-5 Kelenna Azubuike (Victory Christian/Tulsa, Okla.), who committed to Oklahoma, will never play a minute of college basketball since his father is convinced that his son is ready for the NBA.

There was also some drama at California and Alabama, where some question as to where 6-6 Kennedy Winston (Blount HS/Prichard, Ala.) would wind up was finally solved Tuesday when he signed a LOI with the Bears. Winston made an early verbal commitment to California, yet there are reports that Winston -- a top 50 prospect -- has signed with Alabama.

When the period is over we will be taking a closer look at which programs took home the goodies. That said, there were some fairly recent commitments that could be considered notable down the line.

Temple has a history of taking enigmatic big men who are marginal academic prospects with suspect work habits and turning them around. Case in point: 7-foot Keith Butler (Celestial/Philadelphia, Pa.) is a talented player who, like a magician, can magically appear and disappear in the middle of a game. He could be a significant factor for Temple down the road after he "gets with the program." The Owls also received a commitment from 6-5 Michael Blackshear (Simon Gratz/Philadelphia, Pa.), an outstanding rebounder despite being a "tweener".

Georgia head coach Jim Harrick has been a man on a mission this month. The state of Georgia annually produces a lot of talented players. Harrick knows that for his Bulldogs to climb up in the SEC he must be a strong in-state recruiter and keep a lot of that talent home. So, convincing 6-9 shot-blocker Alexander Johnson (Dougherty/Albany, Ga.) to play in Athens instead of going to Cincinnati was a big coup for Harrick.

Louisiana Tech, which has moved up to the WAC, had a very good class of recruits last year and recently scored a commitment from 6-3 Eric Woods (Leesville, La.), who happened to be the state's 4A player of the year as a junior last season.

Arizona State gained a key commitment from 6-8 power forward Ike Diogu (Garland/Garland, Texas) who figures to impact as a freshman. ASU was the favorite, but had to hold off a strong late run by Connecticut to keep Diogu, outlasting Illinois and Seton Hall among others along the way.

Connecticut did get a commitment from 6-4 Rashad Anderson (Kathleen/Lakeland, Fla.), but was unable to get the frontline commitment the Huskies need.

Under new head coach Karl Hobbs, a former UConn assistant, George Washington is trying to get up off the mat. The 6-11 Alex Kireev (Evangel/Shreveport, La.), an unsung big man with potential is the kind of sleeper who can help the Colonials get there in a few years. Louisiana Tech was one of those schools hoping that bigger programs wouldn't do a thorough job of looking at all the "mattress testers."

A relatively recent trend is that of the better junior college transfers making early commitments, something we have seen more of over the last few years, with the number of those committing early showing a sizeable increase this year. Antwain Barbour (Wabash CC, Ill.) is one of these highly talented junior college players.

NBA rumors abound with the 6-5 Barbour, who has committed to Kentucky. Almost everybody is recruiting junior college players these days and it speaks volumes when you see a school like Kentucky dipping into the juco ranks. But with Tayshaun Prince and probably/possibly leaving after this season, and Keith Bogans exiting school after the season, a talented transfer provides more of a cushion during the transition period while waiting for the next prep All-American to arrive.

Despite reports to the contrary, when we checked with the USC, it was not able to confirm 6-1 point guard Brandon Brooks (Indian Hills CC, Iowa) had signed a LOI. It does appear that Brooks has made a verbal commitment to the Trojans, and that commitment would be huge for a Trojan team that crashed the Elite Eight last year.

Along with Sam Clancy and David Blutenthal, point guard Brandon Granville is a senior, and plugging in an accomplished player like Brooks at a crucial position, not to mention adding his maturity instantly to the lineup, would help USC try to maintain the program at the current level, with a minimal amount of slippage while some of the younger frontline players mature. Brooks has a lot of work to do, however, and USC may not be able to breathe a sigh of relief until late spring regarding his academic/admission status.

We continue to be puzzled over the fact that no highly ranked prep big man is interested in selecting North Carolina and walking into major minutes as a freshman. The Tar Heels have gotten a trio of talented recruits, including power forward Sean May to commit, but it appears that 6-9 Jason Fraser (Amityville/Amityville, N.Y.) has now eliminated UNC from consideration.

Fraser's list has been trimmed to Villanova, St. John's and Louisville. Of those three, should Fraser wait until the spring to make a decision, it would certainly help Louisville's chances the most, although Villanova may currently be out in front.

Outside of Lenny Cooke and DeAngelo Collins, Fraser is the highest ranked player out of our top 100 recruits left on the board.

David Benezra and Mark Mayemura cover the national college basketball recruiting scene, both high school and junior college recruiting, at their Recruiting USA (www.recruitingusa.com) website. Call (818)783-2244 for subscription information or e-mail them at hoopsusa@mindspring.com.