Mike Krzyzewski (center) and the Duke coaching staff anxiously await Greg Paulus' letter of intent. Craig Jones/Getty Images

To dribble, or to pass? That's the question Greg Paulus was supposed to answer this week. He had answered it plenty of times over the last few months, yet now, just when decision time has officially arrived, it appears Paulus has suddenly decided he is undecided. He has not, in fact, made up his mind -- unless he has.

Welcome to the season's oddest recruiting story.

Paulus is a 6-foot-2 high school senior from Syracuse, N.Y., who is widely regarded as one of the top point guards in his class. During the summer before his junior year, he committed to Duke. He's a very, very good player, but he's not the kind of guy who makes people wonder whether he'll turn pro early. The fall signing period for high school seniors ends on Wednesday, yet as of Tuesday morning, Duke still had not received Paulus' signed letter of intent, despite his repeated promises that said letter was forthcoming.

Why the holdup? Well, Paulus is also an elite football prospect at quarterback -- some recruitniks have him as the top QB in the country -- and he may be considering the option of waiting until the spring to decide what sport he wants to play, and where. This, to say the least, is a cause of great consternation for the Duke coaching staff, which didn't recruit another point guard over the last two years based on Paulus' consistent assurances he wanted to play hoops.

Paulus recently told my Sports Illustrated colleague Gene Menez why he had chosen to play basketball instead of football. "Basketball has always been my first love. Second, I want to be the point guard at Duke. I don't want any obstacle to get in my way of that, even if that means giving up football."

I spoke Monday night with Paulus' father, Dave, who was traveling in New York City on business. Dave insisted Greg was still committed to playing basketball at Duke, but that his son hadn't signed a letter yet because he didn't want to create a "distraction" from his team's march through the New York Class AA football playoffs. Which begs a few questions: Is it really that much of a distraction to sign a letter and drop it in the mail? If Greg is so committed to playing basketball, what's holding things up? And by holding things up without any explanation, isn't Greg creating a distraction, one that will surely hound him through the basketball season?

As to that first question, Dave said, "I think he'd like to have a little something more than just send a letter back in the mail, and that's the end of it. There would be a press release, a press conference. It's a special day. We're pretty business savvy about it." Dave acknowledged that if Greg doesn't sign with Duke this week people will assume he's still considering playing football. After repeating that that was "not necessarily the situation," Dave added, "The other thing people see and know is, as a quarterback Greg is a Joe Montana. There isn't any question about it. Anybody who's ever seen this kid play football knows that."

It's possible that Paulus will decide he can handle the "distraction" and send Duke his letter on Tuesday or Wednesday. I know this: If he declines to sign a letter this week, it will come as a surprise to the Duke staff. Even if he eventually signs with Duke in the spring, that isn't the best way to begin a relationship.

Another possibility is the Pauluses are intentionally waiting until the last days of the early-signing period to sign so they can stir up maximum public interest. That would indeed be business savvy, but it's still not the best way to begin a relationship.

Or, maybe Paulus simply wants to wait until the spring to get a better feel for what his prospects are as a quarterback before committing to basketball. Dave told me he honestly wasn't sure what Greg was going to do, but that they would talk it over after Dave got back from his business trip.

Only one problem: The signing period ends on Wednesday. Dave gets home Thursday.

"Stay tuned," he said.

Villanova's Fraser returns to practice

Jason Fraser (here, in Big East tourney in March) has been hampered by injuries throughout his tenure at Villanova. Al Bello/Getty Images

When Jason Fraser decided to attend Villanova three years ago, he was hailed as the savior of a program and the gemstone of the nation's top recruiting class. But the 6-10 center's career has been saddled by injuries. Chronic tendinitis in his knees and a stress reaction in his heel cost him 15 games during his first two years, and most of the time he played he was less than fully healthy.

So it was understandable that Wildcats coach Jay Wright expressed much caution in the wake of Fraser's return to practice on Monday. It was his first workout since Oct. 22, when he had his left knee scoped after experiencing swelling following Villanova's second practice. "He looked real strong," Wright said. "Now we have to be concerned with how his knee responds after every practice. We're going to take it very, very slow."

Wright said it was unlikely Fraser would play in Villanova's season opener against Maryland-Baltimore County on Nov. 23, and if he didn't like the pace Fraser was healing he would consider redshirting him. "We just want him to have a full, healthy year," Wright said. "He's an incredible kid who's been really upbeat through all of this. He's had more adversity with injuries than any player I've ever coached, but he's very spiritual, and he's always positive and upbeat. We'll just have to wait and see."

Other hoop thoughts

	MAILBAG Seth Davis will periodically answer questions from SI.com users in his Hoop Thoughts column. Your name: Your e-mail address: Your home town: Enter your question:

•  Marvin Williams, North Carolina's silky 6-8 freshman, may be ultra-talented, but people who expect him to start and dominate right away don't understand how important 6-9 senior Jawad Williams is to this team.

•  You know who I'm rooting for? Mike Davis, that's who.

•  I realize Dee Brown is a fabulous player who gets most of the hype for Illinois, but Deron Williams is the guy who makes that team go.

•  Don't get discouraged if you see lots of bad shooting performances in the early going. Remember, the offense is always light years behind the defense this time of year.

•  This week's player who's better than you think: Notre Dame guard Chris Quinn, a 6-2 junior. A solid three-point shooter who can trade off with Chris Thomas at the point, and he's tough as all get-out.

•  Cal's loss to St. Mary's was even more stinging considering the Gaels were without 6-3 senior Paul Marigney, who was the leading scorer in the West Coast Conference last season but is missing the first few weeks of this season for academic reasons.

•  Give some credit to John Calipari for putting together a terrific schedule this season. Besides playing in the Coaches versus Cancer this week (where Memphis will play sixth-ranked Syracuse on Thursday), the Tigers are also playing Maryland in Springfield, Mass.; Pittsburgh at Madison Square Garden; Providence and East Tennessee State at home; and Texas on the road. You can be sure the NCAA tournament committee will take notice if the Tigers are on the bubble. People assume that getting left behind by the Big East is a blow to this program, but Calipari proved at UMass he can still play a national schedule while dominating in a less-than-stellar league.

•  I don't understand why the rules committee is putting in an experimental extension of the 3-point line again. The coaches might say the line is too close, but they obviously don't really feel that way, or they would have approved a permanent extension by now. Let's face it, today's 3-point percentages aren't exactly through the roof.

In honor of my hero Peter King ... 

Non-hoop thoughts of the week

•  If Auburn goes undefeated and gets left out of the Orange Bowl, Tommy Tuberville can look at his schedule and see nonconference games against Louisiana-Monroe, The Citadel (a Division II program), and Louisiana Tech as the reasons why. (Auburn's strength of schedule is ranked 91st. USC and Oklahoma are eighth and 14th, respectively.)

•  Great news that Tom Lehman was named the Ryder Cup captain. Of course, the captaincy has no bearing on how the U.S. team does, but besides being a two-time Major winner, Lehman is one of the most well-liked and well-respected people in the game. He's also a HUGE college basketball fan. Reason enough to love the guy.

•  I grew up reading Tony Kornheiser's columns in The Washington Post, but that new TV series based on his life and starring Jason Alexander couldn't suck more.

•  I'm glad Joe Gibbs finally replaced Mark Brunell with Patrick Ramsey in the loss to the Bengals on Sunday. I just wish it didn't take him so long.

•  I'm sure you're as happy as I am that Grant Hill is back.

•  The Heisman is Jason White's to lose.

•  Phil Jackson's book on his final Lakers season is a real page-turner, but it was extremely disloyal for Jackson to reveal so many dark secrets. Kobe's no Cub Scout, but hasn't the guy been through enough?

Final word

•  Word out of Austin is Brad Buckman is stronger, faster and playing harder than ever.

•  A little birdie tells me that during a recent practice at Maryland, junior point guard John Gilchrist got whistled for not one, but two, technical fouls during a 10-minute scrimmage officiated by the assistant coaches.

•  An interesting recruiting tussle took place down south recently, when Jeff Lebo, about to begin his first year at Auburn, got two recruits from Birmingham, Ala., to renege on their oral commitments to Tennessee coach Buzz Peterson and instead commit to Auburn. Lebo and Peterson are both members of the famed North Carolina family, but apparently family and recruiting don't mix. (Both men say there are no hard feelings.)

•  It's a good sign for Syracuse that 6-8 sophomore Demetris Nichols is providing another scoring option from the perimeter, but the Orange still need another ballhandler out there. Freshman Josh Wright isn't quite ready to be a starter, and junior Billy Edelin, who was recently given academic clearance by the NCAA, won't join the team for at least another couple of weeks.

Sports Illustrated staff writer Seth Davis covers college basketball for the magazine and is a regular contributor to SI.com. Davis' first book, Equinunk, Tell Your Story: My Return to Summer Camp, is available through Chandler House Press.