Stemler will take four visits

At 6-foot-8, Southwestern Illinois star Lance Stemler is listed as a guard on the roster.

"Coaches like his ability to stretch the defense and 6-8 and that he's a very skilled player," said SWIC coach Jay Harrington. "He can pass, he knows the game and understands the game…They saw how he was double- and triple-teamed a lot of times this year and how he was still able to generate points."

And plenty of them. Stemler scored about 22 points per game and grabbed 6.3 rebounds. He also shot nearly 40% from three-point range and averaged 20 points per game at the national tournament in Hutchinson, Kan. Stemler is one of the top unsigned juco players in the country and he's got a full week coming up.

"He's already visited Nebraska and he will take three others in the next week or so," Harrington said. "He will visit St. Louis U, Marquette and Indiana."

The Marquette visit will come after this weekend's NJCAA all-star game at Kilgore College in Texas. Next week, Stemler will commute on an official visit to SLU. With the campus only about 15 minutes from Southwestern Illinois, Stemler will go to class during the day and check out the Billiken program after his schedule is complete. He'll then head to Indiana next Thursday through Saturday.

"He'd like to take three or four days after that," Harrington said. "If he's not happy with those four, then Minnesota called last week three or four times and he would look at Minnesota, but he's not going to take five trips right now."

Nebraska, SLU and Marquette have been recruiting Stemler since about December. Harrington said one of Kelvin Sampson's assistants came from Kent State, which was recruiting Stemler earlier in the year.

"As he got better and the team kept winning, a lot of the mid-majors kind of dropped off," Harrington said.

The coach expects a decision from Stemler within about a week of his return from Bloomington. Another SWIC player, Lawrence Blackledge, has visited Arkansas State and Southeastern Louisiana. He is currently on a trip to Duquesne and will go to Bowling Green next week.