Roy Williams is out to sign a few good men make that four or five good men this college basketball recruiting year.

Kansas University’s 15th-year head men’s coach has deemed this season one of those “nucleus” or “core” recruiting years where he wants and needs to corral four or five high schoolers with talent and lots of it.

“I’ve been going pretty hard,” Williams said of his recruiting schedule, which included four in-home visits last week and four more this week. That follows a busy July, in which he traveled the country assessing top prep talent.

“I’ve been traveling quite a bit. I think we’ve had a good reception in the homes we’ve been in,” Williams assessed.

Yet, he also reports he has no idea if any of his targets will eventually join Oklahoma high school seniors-to-be Jeremy Case and J.R. Giddens as future Jayhawks. Case, 6-foot, from McAlester, Okla., and Giddens, 6-5 from Oklahoma City, committed to KU last spring and will sign during the Nov. 6-13 signing period.

Williams can’t comment on specific recruits, according to NCAA rules, but it’s been pretty obvious he’d like to receive commitments from David Padgett, 6-11, Reno, Nev., and Omar Wilkes, 6-4, Los Angeles. He was in each of their homes early last week, the start of the latest contact period.

Padgett is considering KU, North Carolina, Stanford and Arizona. Wilkes is down to KU, California, UCLA and Stanford.

“It’s like farming you can do everything you can, but until the very end you don’t know if you did any good or not,” Williams said of recruiting. “At the end of farming time, if the weather’s been good not too much rain, but enough rain; enough sun, but not too much sun you do all right. Recruiting is same way. You do everything you can possibly do and at the end you might get lucky and have things break and you say, ‘Boy, I was really good.’ And if it doesn’t break you say, ‘Boy, I was really bad.'”

As in most recruiting battles, there’s no way of telling whether KU is in the lead in the race for Wilkes and Padgett.

“I’m asked every day who is his leader, but there is no leader,” Padgett’s dad, Pete, told the Raleigh News Observer on Saturday. “When we finish the in-home visits, we, as a family will probably go to a good restaurant and talk about the decision. The decision is totally David’s.”

Padgett has completed his recruiting visits. Wilkes will visit UCLA, where his dad starred, and Stanford, the next two weekends, respectively.

Meanwhile, Williams was in the home of 6-5 Fayetteville, Ark., guard Ronnie Brewer on Sunday night. Brewer will visit KU for Late Night With Roy Williams on Oct. 11. He’s also considering Arkansas, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State and Mississippi.

Another Late Night visitor will be Ekene Ibekwe, 6-9, 200 pounds from Carson, Calif. Ibekwe told rivals.com analyst Shay Wildeboor he’s down to USC, Arizona, Maryland and KU.

Another KU recruit, Thomas Gardner, 6-5 from Portland, Ore., is slated to visit KU from Sept. 27-28, despite the fact KU has no home football game that weekend.

“I want to make a decision by early October, so I wanted to (visit that weekend),” Gardner told the Journal-World. “I always liked UConn growing up. For me to get that opportunity to play there if I want, is exciting. Missouri the coaches, players and staff made me feel welcome. I had a great trip there. Kansas to have the opportunity to have three guys from one high school on the same team would put our school on the map.”

Gardner is a former Portland (Ore.) Jefferson High teammate of KU’s Aaron Miles and Michael Lee. He indicated there remains a chance he could commit elsewhere before his KU visit.

He was asked if Missouri was trying to get him to commit now.

“Everybody is trying to get me to,” he said.

Brian Butch, a 7-foot center from Appleton, Wis., will visit KU for Saturday’s KU-Bowling Green football game. He’s already visited North Carolina, Arizona and Marquette. His final visit will be to Wisconsin on Oct. 5.

Marcus Dove, 6-7 from Long Beach, Calif., had an in-home visit with Williams last week and will visit KU for Late Night With Roy Williams. Dove has pretty much indicated he wants to be a Jayhawk and will commit if he receives an offer. He’s also considering Oklahoma State and Arizona State.

Williams will visit the home of Stephen Verwers, 6-10 from Weatherford, Texas, on Thursday. KU also has expressed some interest in Boubacar Coly, 6-9 from Laurinburg Institute in North Carolina, and Longar Longar, 6-9 from Rochester, Minn.

As always, there are lots of players to recruit.

“I think it’s about the same (as past years). Some years there are more kids we feel we can recruit than there are in other years,” Williams said. “I think there are more kids this year we felt more comfortable recruiting than last year.”

Williams said in Saturday’s J-W he was “ticked” at juco forward Jeff Graves, who reported to KU about 290 pounds, at least 30 pounds more than his listed playing weight at Iowa Western Community College.

On the positive side, though: “I was pleased with everyone (else),” the coach said of his players’ physical condition upon returning to school.

Senior guard Kirk Hinrich and freshman walk-on Stephen Vinson were especially impressive at the back-to-school 12-minute run. Also, frosh Moulaye Niang reported in tip-top shape. Niang’s expressed desire to red-shirt likely will not be considered if Graves is unable to get back in the coach’s good graces. KU’s only returning big men are Nick Collison and Wayne Simien. Niang has shown a nice touch in the lane at pick-up games, but as NBA forward Scot Pollard indicated is a bit “raw.”

Niang, who hails from Senegal, is a stringbean 6-9, 215, and has been playing basketball just eight years.