Coming or going? Are Caron Butler and Dajuan Wagner NBA-bound? Will Tubby Smith bail on Kentucky? Those are just a couple of the key offseason issues that will shape next season.

College basketball has become such a fluid sport of late, teetering annually on a handful of postseason issues--early entry into the NBA, the coaching carousel, impact freshmen and transfers and the pitfalls of recruiting.

This offseason could be one of the most interesting, judging by the most significant issues that will shape it.

Decision time

For the top teams, much of the game has become coping with elite players jumping early to the NBA and the resulting effects. Coaches now recruit with departures in mind, but it doesn't make the losses any easier. Some of the top candidates to leave for the June draft would leave considerable voids behind.

Caron Butler, F, Connecticut. As a sophomore, he was the best player in the Big East and the reason the Huskies returned to the nation's elite. Look for him to make a quick decision to depart--which would leave the Huskies without a legitimate scorer. But Butler is 22 and physically ready to handle the grind of a long NBA season.

Dajuan Wagner, G, Memphis. He carried the Tigers to the NIT championship as a freshman and clearly has the game to play at the next level. With him, the Tigers would be an NCAA Tournament team; without him, they would struggle to break .500 in Conference USA. The only question marks are his maturity and ability to play the point in the NBA.

Jared Jeffries, F, Indiana. If Jeffries returns for his junior season, the Hoosiers are primed for another Final Four run. But 6-10 players who can put the ball on the floor and shoot are hot commodities in the NBA. Reserve forward Jeff Newton's development in the NCAA Tournament would help relieve some of the sting of Jeffries' departure.