Unable to import library into Android Studio manually

Question

Situation
I am trying to use Custom-Calendar-View libary with my current project. Library's source code here:
https://github.com/npanigrahy/Custom-Calendar-View

I can get it to import if I use Gradle to import the library:
compile 'com.github.npanigrahy:Custom-Calendar-View:v1.1'

Note that I used v1.1. The README on the Github says to use 1.0. After digging around http://stacktips.com/tutorials/android/custom-calendar-view-library-in-android, I found that v1.1 has the latest updates and properly imports the library.

However, I am trying to manually import the library so I can play around with the sample project to better understand how things are working because I will eventually need to fork and modify the library to fit my usage.

Error:
Configuration with name 'default' not found.

My Setup

.
./app
./app/build.gradle
./libs
./libs/Custom-Calendar-View
./libs/Custom-Calendar-View/settings.gradle
./settings.gradle

What I added
1.Downloaded a zip of Custom-Calendar-View. Unzipped it. Copied it into ./libs

2.Added in ./settings.gradle include ':app', ':libs:Custom-Calendar-View

3.Added in ./app/build.gradle

dependencies {
    compile project(':libs:Custom-Calendar-View')`
}

4.I tried Clean Project, Rebuild Project, Sync. Nothing works so far.

5.I even tried git submodule init and git submodule update

Note that Custom-Calendar-View uses a submodule located at Custom-Calendar-View/library

My Questions
1.Do I need to import the library to be able to use play around with the sample project? If I import the library using Gradle, I don't see it in my project.

2.I really don't know what I am doing wrong. I feel like all these links give the same advice.

Links
Cannot change dependencies of configuration (after enabling instant run)

Configuration with name 'default' not found while building android project on gradle

Configuration with name 'default' not found. Android Studio

Error: Configuration with name 'default' not found in Android Studio

How to import a sample from a library on github into android studio

https://github.com/MagicMicky/FreemiumLibrary/wiki/Import-the-library-in-Android-Studio