Was Jeff Bzdelik ever a serious candidate to become the head coach of the Chicago Bulls?

Well, Bulls general manager John Paxton flew out to Colorado and met with Bzdelik for four and a half hours before ultimately deciding to offer the job to Vinny Del Negro.

Bzdelik -- who grew up about 22 miles northwest of Chicago, played college basketball at the University of Illinois-Chicago and served as an assistant coach at Northwestern -- said he was flattered by the interest but remains focused on rebuilding CU's program.

"It's easy for me to say because they got somebody else," Bzdelik said on Thursday. "But what's the right thing to do? Stay here. That's the right thing to do. And I just want to get this thing done here."

Three of the five freshmen the Buffs will throw into the Big 12 fire next season -- Austin Dufault, Trey Eckloff and Ryan Kelley -- are already on campus taking summer classes and working out with their new teammates.

Toby Veal is going to represent Team USA with some other freshmen-to-be during a tournament in France beginning June 21. And Australian point guard Nate Tomlinson is spending the summer Down Under where his father is the coach of a professional team.

"I really believe in these young men that we've got coming in here, I really do," said Bzdelik, who will likely start three freshmen and two sophomore next season. "We're just going to be young. ... If people stick with us they're going to be special."

Williams moving on

Bzdelik said Jeremy Williams will not be a part of the CU program next year. The sophomore forward needed to enroll in summer school in order to get himself academically eligible for next season but has not returned to Boulder after leaving for his hometown of Memphis last month.

Williams showed promise at CU as a true freshman under Ricardo Patton but redshirted last season due to academic issues. He will likely play at a junior college next season.

Bzdelik will have three scholarships available for the 2009 class. Drawing interest from the Bulls has actually helped on the recruiting trail recently.

"In talking to just a couple of recruits here lately (they think) that's pretty cool," Bzdelik said.

Quotable

"Austin Dufault is a heck of a player. You ask our players and they go, 'Whoa, he can play Coach,' " Bzdelik said on the early impressions of the freshman forward from North Dakota.