Some well-known names in college basketball circles have been beating a path over the past two weeks to the Mequon home of Ivars and Ellen Gailans.
Jim Harrick, the coach at UCLA, was there. So was Dick Bennett, the coach at Wisconsin; Jan van Breda Kolff, the coach at Vanderbilt; and Ron Felling, Bob Knight's longtime assistant at Indiana. Jim Calhoun, the coach at Connecticut, was supposed to show, but canceled at the last minute.
The lure for these coaches was Kaspars Kambala, a 6-foot-9 native of Latvia who will play basketball this year for Homestead High School. They were there to try to convince him to accept their offer of a college basketball scholarship.
Kambala met with coaches from six schools over a 10-day stretch -- Connecticut canceled when it got a commitment from another player -- and decided Thursday to visit five of them before making a decision.
Kambala is the biggest recruiting prize left in the state as the fall signing period in college basketball nears. The early signing period this year runs from Nov. 13-20.
Three other prospects have committed to the University of Wisconsin men's program: Andy Kowske of Whitefish Bay Dominican, Mike Kelley of Milwaukee Pius and John Moriarity of Oostburg. In addition, the UW women's program has received an oral commitment from LaTonya Sims, a 6-2 forward at Racine Park and clearly the premier prospect among senior girls this year.
Kambala left Latvia and moved into the Homestead district last year to stay with the Gailans, but wasn't eligible to play with the high school team. However, he showed enough during summer camps and tournaments to be ranked among the nation's top 50 prospects by various recruiting services.
Van Coleman of Future Stars, a national recruiting service, said he had Kambala rated the eighth-best high school center in the country.
Kambala is not an accomplished offensive player at this point and, therefore, probably not the prospect that Sam Okey and Joe Wolf were when they were seniors in high school. Okey, who graduated from Cassville in 1995, and Wolf, who graduated from Kohler in 1983, were the two most heavily recruited players in the state over the past 25 years.
But Kambala is a talented, powerful player with tremendous potential. He packs 245 pounds on his 6-9 frame and plays a mean, physical game.
"I think what draws people to him is that he has a gigantic up side," said John Chekouras, the coach at Homestead. "There aren't many kids who are 17 years old and bench press 315 pounds.
"He flies up and down the floor. He's so aggressive. But he needs a lot of refinement to his game."
The five schools that Kambala has chosen to visit are Florida, North Carolina State, UCLA, Vanderbilt and Wisconsin. The only school he eliminated after his home visit was Indiana. At this point, Chekouras said no school had the inside track and that the campus visits would be a crucial part of the recruiting process.
"Wisconsin is the only college campus he has ever been on," Chekouras said.
Coleman said he had Kowske rated as the 30th best power forward in the country and also one of the top 100 players in the country. He said he had Kelley rated No. 44 at point guard and among the second 100 players in the country.
The only other state players he has rated among the top 500 in the country are Ryan Duessler, a 7-foot center at Wausaukee; and Chad Angeli, a 6-9 forward at Wausau West.
Both Curtis Weathers, who runs an open gym at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee where players can showcase their talent for a number of Division I coaches, and John Evans, who runs a recruiting service out of his home in Pigeon Falls, rate this a good year for Wisconsin talent.
In addition to Kambala and the three players who have committed to Wisconsin, at least four others appear likely to get Division I offers.
Angeli has had home visits with Oregon State and UW-Green Bay, according to Jim Murphy, his high school coach, and intends to visit both schools this fall.
Duessler has had home visits with UW-Green Bay, Loyola, Evansville and Drake, according to Gene Pieper, the coach at Wausaukee. In turn, Duessler has scheduled visits to Loyola and Evansville, and taken an unofficial visit to UW-Green Bay.
Rice and Kent have offered Michael Wilks a scholarship, according to Jim Gosz, his coach at King. In fact, he said, Wilks visited Rice this weekend. Several other schools also have shown interest, including the University of Washington.
Paul Kraft, a 6-3 guard from Seymour, had a visit scheduled with UW-Green Bay this weekend, according to coach Jon Murphy, and appeared to have a good chance of getting an offer from the school.
Several other players, no doubt, could receive Division I offers if they meet the academic requirements to be eligible as freshmen.
Weathers, for example, rates Terry Black of Milwaukee Messmer the second-best prospect in the state, behind Kambala; Roy Boone of Madison East, the fifth-best prospect; Wayland White of Milwaukee Pulaski, the sixth-best prospect; and Damien Ninkovic of Milwaukee King, the seventh-best prospect. However, all four may not meet NCAA eligibility requirements.
In most cases, Coleman said he didn't rate players in the fall who weren't going to be eligible. At a later date, he said, he compiles a list of junior college prospects.
"It's not that they don't have the ability but you have to have it above the shoulders to go with that ability," he said. "There is a lot of great talent up there but they are not going to get there through normal means and the big schools aren't going to mess with them."
Coleman also said Greg Zens, a 6-6 forward from Greendale, had emerged as a sleeper at a shootout he held last weekend in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
"He played really well," Coleman said. "Northern Illinois and Wisconsin-Green Bay are going to take a hard look now, where they weren't recruiting him before."
Sims was clearly the class of the prospects this year in girls basketball and she committed to the Badgers during the summer.
"UConn. Tennessee. Georgia. Everybody wanted the kid," said Keith Noll, head of the state's Amateur Athletic Union girls basketball program.
It appears, at this point, that the only other girl in the state who might sign with a Big Ten program is Melissa Yuska, 6-2, of Merrill. She has had offers from both Indiana and Minnesota, according to Bob Yuska, her dad and coach.
However, she also has had offers from UW-Green Bay, Butler, Evansville, Illinois State and Northern Illinois and hasn't decided if she wants to go to a school with a large or small campus.
Teri Stoltenberg of Pulaski has drawn serious interest from Northwestern, another Big Ten school, as well as De Paul, Northern Illinois, Illinois-Chicago, UW-Green Bay and UW-Milwaukee, said Larry Banaszynski, her coach. He also said UW-Green Bay and UW-Milwaukee were showing interest in his 6-3 center, Betsy Brawner.
Monica Wittrock of Colfax and Alison Langham of Clayton, two other girls who probably rank in the top five this year, have narrowed their options to about three schools each.
Langham is leaning to Evansville but is also still considering UW-Green Bay and Montana State, said Ed Langham, Alison's father and coach. Wittrock has narrowed her choices to Drake, Evansville and Stetson, Noll said.
Overall, this isn't expected to be a strong year for girls basketball. The junior class is expected to be much stronger. In fact, Noll predicted that there might be 40 or more players who get Division I offers next year.
Some of the top juniors are Jerica Watson, 6-0, Milwaukee Washington; Kristy Loiselle, 5-8, Kimberly; Myesha Bledsoe, 5-8, Milwaukee Washington; Corrin Von Wald, 5-9, Hudson; Kristi Johnson, 5-6, Holmen; Kristen Buelow, 5-8, Pulaski; and Kristin Seffern, 6-1, North Fond du Lac.
The junior class in boys basketball also appears to be deep in talent and headed by a potential national recruit: Robert Jackson, a 6-8 forward at Milwaukee Washington.
"When I look at that junior class, I'd have to say Robert is head and shoulders above everybody," Weathers said. "They've got him ranked in the top 15 in the country in a lot of national publications."
Other top juniors among the boys are Jose Winston, 5-11, Milwaukee Vincent; B.J. Brant, 6-6, Portage; Charlie Ramberg, 6-8, Granton; Mario Boyd, 6-1, Whitefish Bay; Marius Boyd, 6-3, Whitefish Bay; Drew Diener, 6-3, Fond du Lac; Marcus Johnson, 5-10, Whitefish Bay Dominican; and Shane Krause, 6-2, Racine Horlick.