Brett Kingma had a big summer, especially at the Las Vegas Fab 48 tournament, and now the Mill Creek (Wash.) Jackson point guard is starting to reap the benefits.
Washington, Oregon and Vanderbilt are the three latest offers for Kingma, a 6-foot-1, 171-pound prospect who developed a reputation as a scorer but also wanted to show he can handle the ball, defend and get out in transition this summer.
He proved that to coaches and now is hearing from some more big-time programs.
"It's nice to know that all the hard work has paid off and really hasn't gone to nothing," Kingma said. "Boston College called (Sunday), the assistant coach called me and told me the head coach is going to call. I think I'll get an offer from there sometime this week. The other school is Colorado. It's just good to know all the hard work I've put in over the years is really paying off so I'll have a lot of options to choose from.
"I got a bigger appreciation for the other parts of the game this summer and I just wanted to show it off. I always knew I could if I wanted to but some games I'd say I'm kind of tired. Game-in and game-out, every game, I wanted to show I can consistently do everything at a high level and I think that's what made the coaches say we want this guy at our school."
Oregon and Washington both have a good chance at landing Kingma, who said the Huskies are the hometown team and have to be considered and that he's a big fan of Luke Ridnour so the Ducks are under serious consideration.
"Just because Washington is the hometown school they have that advantage going for them," Kingma said. "I grew up idolizing Luke Ridnour so that Oregon offer is something special just because Luke Ridnour chose Oregon over Washington. He's from my area."
Vanderbilt is definitely in the running, too, mainly because of what Kingma has heard from the Commodores' staff and their recent competitiveness in the SEC.
"Vanderbilt was a four-seed last year and they send people to the NBA," Kingma said. "The fact that they said we want you to be at our school, we know you can contribute in the SEC, and they were wondering why I hadn't already committed to a top-five school in the country. They were like why hasn't anybody scooped up this kid?
"That was really good to hear. It's nice to know they think this is the kid we want out of anybody else in the country."
The next step for Kingma is to start narrowing his list from 10 to a more manageable number where he can schedule official and in-home visits before making a decision. Over the next few weeks, Kingma doesn't plan to do much except take calls from coaches to figure out which schools are interested in him. It could be busy especially now with Pac-10 and SEC teams now involved.