So why did Jim Calhoun and UConn decide to come out with a press release on Thursday telling everyone that Calhoun would be back for at least another season?

Well, Calhoun had been getting plenty of phone calls from family, friends and – perhaps most significantly – recruits, wondering what his future entailed. Calhoun has decided to nip all the rumors in the bud.

Calhoun may be meeting with the media some time next week, as he normally does a week or so after UConn's season ends. After that, he's off to a wedding somewhere warm (not sure where) for a little R&R to get away from it all. He could use that right now.

Calhoun said that Hasheem Thabeet will spend the next couple of weeks with his family, trying to decide whether to turn pro or return to UConn for his senior year. Thabeet's mom is here from her native Tanzania, and they were slated to head down to head to Thabeet's aunt's home in New York on Thursday afternoon (though judging by his reported encounter with Michael Phelps recently, it appears Hasheem is already in the Big Apple).

Calhoun said he's "tentatively" slated to meet with Thabeet on Monday. The conventional wisdom (not from Calhoun, mind you) is that Thabeet is definitely going pro. We may not know for sure for a couple of weeks.

"Given his history, (he won't decide) until the end, which is April 25," Calhoun said.

I asked Calhoun if, like last season, any transfers were forthcoming. He said that it's too soon after the season to truly determine that, but added that no one has approached him about a transfer to this point.

Oh, and in other news: Darius Smith, the combo guard out of Chicago who verbally committed to UConn a couple of weeks ago, makes his first trip to Storrs this weekend for an official visit.