BOSTON -- Though the majority of the subject matter at the breakfast meeting was his old arena, college hoops, new Celtics coach Brad Stevens wasn’t getting away Thursday morning without addressing the issue that’s first and foremost on many Celtics fans’ minds as training camp approaches.

Where is Rajon Rondo in his rehab from ACL surgery?

“You really didn’t think I was gonna let this get done without asking,” ESPN’s Jeff Goodman, the event emcee, joked with Stevens. “I’m not just gonna ask how’s he's doing, but where is he at with his rehab right now?”

After first thanking the audience for attending the event, the second annual Coaches vs. Cancer Tip-Off Breakfast to raise money for the Coaches vs. Cancer program, Stevens obliged.

“Rondo is progressing well,” he said in the Legends suite at TD Garden. “He’s in the gym, he’s working. He’s been great at what he can do. He has not been cleared to do everything, and it looks like that'll be a little bit of time before he is.

“Has the date been determined? No. Does it look like he’ll be there at the start of the season? No. But he is in the gym and when he is in the gym, people are that much better because I think he’s just got a way about him that makes everyone else rise up. And that’s been a really important thing for us and he’s been great so far.”

Coaches vs. Cancer is a joint program between the American Cancer Society and the National Association of Basketball Coaches, aimed at utilizing the platform of college basketball to increase awareness of cancer, to raise money for research and to promote healthy living.

All seven Division I coaches from Massachusetts -- Boston College’s Steve Donahue, Boston University’s Joe Jones, Harvard’s Tommy Amaker, Holy Cross’ Milan Brown, Northeastern’s Bill Coen, UMass-Amherst’s Derek Kellogg and UMass-Lowell’s Pat Duquette -- took part in this year’s event.

The wide-ranging question-and-answer session led by Goodman touched on many issues facing college hoops, including an earlier start to practice for most teams this season (the Ivy League excluded), the effects of football-driven realignment on hoops leagues, the challenges of recruiting and what exactly goes into building a college basketball schedule.

Jack McCluskey is an editor for ESPN.com and a frequent contributor to ESPNBoston.com. Follow him on Twitter @jack_mccluskey.