The rest of the next generation.(COLLEGE BASKETBALL)

If all you know about the 2007 recruiting class is O.J. Mayo, well, you know a lot. He is special. He is not quite LeBron James special or Greg Oden special, but he has been good enough to start for any Division I program since the summer of 2004. He was just finishing up ninth grade then.

As gifted a point guard as Mayo is, the quality that makes him most appealing to college coaches is not his jump shot or amazing body control. It's his availability. Among recruiting analyst Dave Telep's list of top 25 junior recruits at Scout.com, 11 already are committed to college programs.

So you might think I'm bringing up the subject of 2007 recruiting early, but it's possible I'm late.

These are some of the players still on the market with only six weeks to go before the major shoe company camps get going:

Kevin Love, PF, Lake Oswego (Ore.) High School. Enthusiasm for Love is growing as he improves his body. He was thick and earthbound at the Reebok ABCD Camp last summer--partly because of a knee problem--but still showed off amazing skills in the low post.

One analyst, Scout.com's Jeff Goodman, went so far as to suggest that Love's return to health and improved conditioning had allowed him to pass Mayo as a prospect. That's a bit rich, but Love is a powerful rebounder and passes out of double-teams with flair.

North Carolina is fighting UCLA to land him.