"His situation is really, really solid," Rose said. "I had a chance to meet with him in Orlando and have lunch with him one day and talk to a lot of NBA people about him.

He's continued to perform well in these individual workouts and we're really hoping for a late first round. He's had a lot of interest from a lot teams, when I talk to his agent and teams from around the league."

Plaisted had four workouts last week and two this week, most recently with Cleveland, Boston and Houston. He has 11 workouts with the possibility of 14.

"He texts me or e-mails me and tells me how he did against certain guys who are also working out. With both Lee and Trent, they've reported to me how they think they've done and when I've compared what they've said to what NBA personnel people are telling me, they're pretty right on in the two assessments."

Rose said his two players are "well grounded" in knowing how they stack up right now and what expectations are.

Good thing.

If Rafael Araujo busted in the NBA as a No. 8 pick to Toronto, with a much higher profile than these two, the tea leaves ought to be carefully read and weighed gram by gram. Plaisted has jumped in head deep. Cummard has only a toe in the water. So far.

"We're excited about next season and our program," Rose said. "Obviously the next two or three days are very important for us and for him."

Cummard goes and Rose has a battle to overcome the loss of two All-MWC juniors.

His next team could go from a legitimate three-peat MWC to a squad that pundits will tag as a long-shot to battle out of the middle of the pack in 2009.

Interesting, outwardly, Rose doesn't appear fazed one way or the other before it ends Monday.

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E-mail: dharmon@desnews.com