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Welcome to this week's “BOILING OVER,” GoldandBlack.com’s weekly information-clearinghouse and analysis column meant for our site members and site members only. We appreciate everyone’s cooperation in helping us keep what is sometimes delicate or proprietary information confined to this message board. This feature allows us to be more flexible in our reporting, to our readers' benefit, and we lose that ability if we can't keep this feature secure and the value of our site's membership at its peak. Additionally, we address recruiting and hiring processes in-depth and often without filter in this feature and we do it behind a subscription-protected barrier for a reason, in hopes of avoiding situations where our reporting can impact the recruiting process, which can happen occasionally.
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PURDUE BASKETBALL
So here's the latest on Purdue's coaching staff, best we can tell.
As we've expected for literally years now, every indication is that Paul Lusk will return to Purdue after spending the past few seasons at Creighton. The former Boilermaker assistant coach is one of Matt Painter's closest associates/friends in the business and was an integral part of the program's success early on under Painter, before he became the head coach at Missouri State.
He would oversee Purdue's defense, sliding right into the role Steve Lutz departs and the role he basically occupied the first time around at Purdue.
As for the other hire, we know that former Boilermaker player and current Incarnate Word head coach Carson Cunningham has been a candidate. That does not mean he's the pick, just that he's been under consideration. We're still unclear on what direction Matt Painter is headed in there, but we do know his search has touched a lot of different levels. We're sure he's looked at NBA people in addition to college assistants and current and former head coaches.
Long story short: Expect Paul Lusk back at Purdue. As for the offensive position, it remains to be seen. (BN)
PURDUE FOOTBALL RECRUITING
Vanderbilt running back Keyon Henry-Brooks remains very much a possibility — probability, actually — for Purdue but won't be solidified until he finishes out his semester at Vandy. He seems to have some academic benchmarks he needs to hit. No sure thing he will, but he's coming on board at Purdue if he gets it done.
As for Air Force defensive tackle transfer George Silvanic, that's become increasingly less likely due to complications transferring out of the Academy, so it appears as if that one will fall through and might mean that Purdue goes out and looks for another D-tackle target. (TD/BN)
PURDUE BASKETBALL RECRUITING
Can't add much more to the story of Purdue's new 2021 offer to Carmel's Brian Waddell (story) but we do assume this will fall in the Boilermakers' favor, though as he said, he does have to weigh the appeal of playing at the highest level, for his father's alma mater, against more realistic paths to early playing time elsewhere.
Matt Painter, essentially flying solo on this one without a complete staff in place, offered Waddell in order to redshirt him. Even after a redshirt year, Purdue's depth chart could still be a tough nut to crack, and Wright State and Miami (Ohio) and some others have done a good job with him over a longer period of time, so there might actually be some process involved here, same way there was another Carmelite years ago, Ryan Cline. Purdue offered him, but he took some time with it, and the plan there was for him to redshirt. That plan went by the wayside, though.
Redshirting could be a treacherous deal in the transfer portal era, so this might be something of a workaround: Recruiting players to redshirt, as opposed to recruiting players, then redshirting. This is similar to Sasha Stefanovic's story in that regard.
Waddell's addition would mean a three-man freshman class this year, but essentially four if you count Ethan Morton as what amounts to a redshirt freshman.
The Waddell scholarship wouldn't really affect the 2022 class aside from not adding a player to it, because Waddell would essentially take the spot Emmanuel Dowuona vacated. Purdue would still be recruiting to replace Trevion Williams, Sasha Stefanovic, Eric Hunter and the already departed Aaron Wheeler. That number could change if any of those players want to come back for a second senior year, conversations that probably need to begin at some point soon, at least casually.
Stay tuned Sunday night for a little more on Waddell after we see him play at the Hoosier Basketball Magazine Top 60 Workout thingy in Indy. (BN)
PURDUE BASKETBALL RECRUITING
Purdue maintains a commitment from Fletcher Loyer for the 2022 class.
Where things stand otherwise as the staff turns over ...
Camden Heide's draw to Purdue is a strong one. Steve Lutz did a good job jumping all over that pretty much before anyone even knew the kid's name, but the foundation for Purdue to recruit him remains in place, Matt Painter was already heavily involved, and the head coach presumably just takes that one over now, though Paul Lusk could inherit him to some extent as well.
Point is: Shouldn't be too big a disruption there.
Will Shaver: Might be an issue there, because Lutz was his window into Purdue, but he also has been attracted to Purdue's lineage with big men, and that doesn't change. There have been Informal plans in place for Shaver to make a visit of some kind to Purdue later this spring while in Westfield for an Under Armour event. Someone will have to pick this one up and run with it if Purdue's going to remain in play. He has great offers, and Virginia is still a real looming threat, but Purdue has been a real consideration.
Jalen Washington: We can say with relative certainty Purdue Is the strongest of anyone with him right now, but again, nothing is imminent from a decision perspective. Brandon Brantley is the point man there, and nothing should change with the other positions opening.
Status quo.
This one, not even sure how involved Purdue remains. Lutz's connections to his grassroots program in San Antonio was a big deal there. Not sure where he even stood recently with Purdue in terms of their preferences and if Baylor still wants him, you know the whole winning-the-national-title thing probably won't hurt them.
Now, what changes?
Purdue has to go find some guards to recruit.
New coaches could bring with them new names and new contacts and whatnot, and that could open some opportunities, but Purdue needs another guard in 2022. The guess here is that one parameter might be physical size. With Fletcher Loyer already part of the class, Purdue may be averse to becoming too physically slight in the backcourt. You've seen that be an issue at times with Eric Hunter and Isaiah Thompson and it was the specific reason Purdue wasn't more serious about Nijel Pack coming out of high school, before Purdue got its highest-priority guards anyway.
That part of it is where Jameel Brown made a lot of sense and was a nice counterbalance to Loyer. (BN)
PURDUE ATHLETIC DEPARTMENT
You might have seen that the University of Iowa gave its athletic department a $50-million loan to weather pandemic losses.
It's our understanding that such a thing is unlikely to happen at Purdue, even though it may have been considered at one point. Purdue's athletic department continues to raise money for this purpose and is believed to have other mitigation plans in the works, the specifics of which we're not sure about, but It's unlikely to come via a major loan from the university.
In case you were wondering. (TD)
PURDUE FOOTBALL RECRUITING
Perhaps Purdue's signature position of late has been wide receiver, a position where it'll again look for a high-end player or two.
A quick rundown on some candidates we've been able to vet as legitimate prospects for Purdue.
This has obviously been a primary target for Purdue for some time, but with the L.N. star coming off an ACL injury, the schools recruiting him are probably all going to need to track his recovery, so this one may be up in the air for the time being.
Purdue was just named to his top 20 list. We know that doesn't sound like much, but the Texan does seem to have the Boilermakers squarely on his radar screen.
Others ...
Some other possibilities for offers ...
https://n.rivals.com/content/prospects/2022/xayvion-bradshaw-267212
https://n.rivals.com/content/prospects/2022/tj-johnson-271617
https://n.rivals.com/content/prospects/2022/zavier-short-263775
Also, Easton Messer from the Christian Academy of Louisville — he's actually from Trey Kaufman-Renn's native Sellersburg, Ind. — seems to be a player Purdue's legitimately interested in, another really fast slot type who trains with Chris Vaughn at Aspirations Gym, same as Rondale Moore. (BN)
