By Lenox Rawlings
SportsLine Regional Columnist

As spring gusts and the winds of change whip through the Gothic campus, Duke students study for exams and glumly wait for the other Nike to drop.

Any day now, Corey Maggette will announce his plans to stay for his sophomore season or turn pro.

The magnetic Maggette dismissed the NBA option as outrageous fantasy on the eve of the Final Four, but now he whistles a different tune. Relatives describe him as undecided. The longer he says nothing about coming back, the chances increase he will leave.

Amid the unsettling uncertainty, the Blue Devils entourage has experienced a dramatic mood swing. Once confident Maggette would return, loyalists now wallow in morose resignation, almost sure he will join pro Elton Brand, pro William Avery and transfer Chris Burgess on the U.S. 15-501 exit ramp.

That pessimism attained semiofficial confirmation last week. Coach Mike Krzyzewski's staff made a belated rush at one of America's five hottest prep prospects, 6-foot-7 LaVell Blanchard of Ann Arbor, Mich. Blanchard, apparently hesitant about playing for Michigan's Brian Ellerbe, lists his final choices as the hometown Wolverines, Virginia, California and Penn State.

Duke didn't expect to pull an overnight coup. The fact the Blue Devils pursued Blanchard in the same week they signed point guard Andre Buckner demonstrates how unforeseen departures have rocked a program that stood on dynasty's doorstep only a month ago, before the upset loss to Connecticut in the NCAA final.

Buckner, the 5-10 brother of Clemson alumnus Greg Buckner, planned to pay his way at Tennessee and try to make the team as a walk-on. When Avery reversed courses and ignored Coach K's advice, the Blue Devils were left with only one point guard, incoming freshman Jason Williams.

Will Duke's Corey Maggette be driving in college or in the NBA next season?(AP)

DUKE HAS EXPERIENCED A RADICAL TURNOVER RATE for a coach once celebrated as the only man who could keep solid NBA prospects on campus. Coach K repeated a simple truth -- the college lifestyle exists only once in life -- and the Duke superstars bought it.

In hindsight, though, Duke's retention rate had more to do with circumstances than Krzyzewski's lobbying tactics, which jealous rivals ridiculed as a selfish denial of the players' opportunities.

Johnny Dawkins, now Krzyzewski's top assistant, made some All-America teams as a junior but says he never gave the pros a second thought. Danny Ferry could have become a lottery pick as a junior because of his height, versatility and reputation, but his father was a general manager and former NBA player who advised against going early.

The Ferry family didn't need the money, nor did Grant Hill's family. Hill's father is a football millionaire with a Yale degree and his mother is a successful attorney who roomed with Hillary Rodham at elitist Wellesley College.

Christian Laettner repelled suitors in 1991 and won a second consecutive national championship, then was picked third in the 1992 NBA Draft.

During the two dark years between Hill's graduation and Krzyzewski's talent revival, the pro-college equation changed. Kevin Garnett, a 6-11 reed from South Carolina with Chicago playground experience, chose the NBA straight out of high school, the first such canyon jumper in a generation. He stuck and now makes more money than any player on any team in any sport, an average of $21 million a season for six years.

Garnett was the first prep-to-pros star of his time but not the last. Kobe Bryant, 20, could have made all the All-America teams but spends his third NBA season shooting and cashing big checks.

Stephon Marbury, another third-year pro, left Georgia Tech after his freshman season. Vince Carter and Antawn Jamison could have taken North Carolina back to the Final Four but followed the well-worn path of top-five draft selections.

As the younger players disappear from rosters, college teams suffer and pro teams become even more inclined to take ill-prepared prospects based on potential rather than performance. That's how reserve Maggette fits in.

THE CYCLE EVOLVES INTO A FEEDING FRENZY gobbling up the NCAA talent long before basketball maturity sets in.

"I think it's more of a temptation and there are more people out there tempting," Krzyzewski said last month. "It creates an environment that's more conductive to kids thinking of leaving or not ever coming. There's no question about that."

He blames the NBA's recent agreement with the players union for accelerating the timetable. Rookie contracts can last four years, encouraging players to sign quickly so they can get to the sometimes richer second contract sooner.

Beyond that, the entire ethos has changed, or at least hardened into a mercenary circus. Duke and North Carolina recruit the foremost athletes, worrying far less about academic credentials than once imagined. Those athletes want the millions as fast as they can get them, a business condition that makes Duke, North Carolina and other heavyweights mere weigh stations.

Those colleges help the players improve and teach them a few things while sustaining their own economic machines. All that Nike money and TV money enriching coaches and financing unprofitable sports comes at a price: Status-seeking colleges can't hide their selfish motives behind veils of amateur purity or wails for lost loyalty. They're part of the larger money game. Players are the free agents, and pros pay infinitely more than colleges on the reigning value scale.

Players are just free agents a lot sooner than ever, taking their services to the NBA or other colleges long before the graduation bells ring at the Duke Chapel.