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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 FOOTBALL RECRUITING
Big day tomorrow, as expect Rivals.com four-star and Rivals250 defensive tackle Kendrick Gilbert to announce his decision, and our expectation would be for him to choose Purdue over Kentucky, LSU and Iowa, among others.
Should Purdue land the Cathedral lineman, he'd complete — at least for the time being, considering the portal could always come into play later — an outstanding defensive line class, joining prior commits Drake Carlson, Micah Carter, Saadiq Clements and Will Heldt and he'd mark the third time under Jeff Brohm that Purdue's kept a nationally recruited defensive lineman home, with George Karlaftis and Joe Strickland being the first two. The difference here: Gilbert has no Purdue connections the way those two did.
At any rate, we can't say for sure it's Purdue, but that's been our guess for some time now. The worm kinda turned on this one in June after his Purdue visit and around the time LSU got a bunch of other defensive line commitments.
Purdue's benefited from there being a bunch of other Cathedral guys either in the program or coming into the program, as well as the fact they've got some momentum as a program right now, Mark Hagen's an excellent recruiter and Purdue's becoming viable in the NIL world.
Anyway, stay tuned. (BN)
PURDUE BASKETBALL RECRUITING
There have been some indications around the state that five-star Cathedral forward Xavier Booker may be working toward a decision in the near term.
Should that happen, we'd expect it to be Michigan State, thus ending Purdue's strange and uneven recruitment of the Indianapolis big man. When Booker was just average back in the winter, Purdue did ease up on him, I think, at a time when it maybe could have seized absolute control of his recruitment. Michigan State stayed on him full throttle, either unaffected by his mediocre play or oblivious to it altogether.
Booker improved late in the season, seemingly turning a corner, and this spring, vaulted up the national rankings, all the way to No. 2 according to one service. Our strong suspicion is Purdue's renewed pursuit had at least something to do with the obligation to recruit such a highly regarded player in one's home state.
Even with Booker's five-star/top-five status, things have still often looked different from reality.
He was listing Duke for some time and planning a visit there, even though Duke didn't really actively recruit him after offering him and learning he didn't want to play center, from what we've been told. Michigan offered and was listed on Booker's final list of 10, but Juwan Howard hasn't been so enamored with him that the Wolverines have really zeroed in on him. Indiana never really had a chance, but they also didn't seem to put a ton of effort into him. As mentioned above, Purdue has been hot and cold here.
Truth be told, I am not sure Booker was an ideal fit for Purdue. He's not their prototypical big; he's not really a center. If he's going to be a 4, then Purdue should still have Caleb Furst and Trey Kaufman-Renn when he'd enroll, among others. What are you going to, bring the No. 2 player in the country off the bench? The Big Ten may actually not be the best fit for Booker, as he's probably better suited for the open floor and playing in space than he is getting beat up on in the most physical league in America. These are all the weird angles we've been trying to write around for a year, as to not come across like we were trying to talk a kid out of coming to the school we cover. There's just a lot about it that doesn't seem like a perfect fit.
Anyway, we'll see what happens with Booker short-term and long-term if a commitment doesn't happen relatively soon. Purdue will keep recruiting him, I suppose, but a short-term no would really free them of their obligation with him. Matt Painter's been willing to oversign for Booker. Maybe he'd do the same for someone else, either a big or a guard.
The Markus Burton would have been a consideration, but he just — finally — got offered by Notre Dame and it looks like he's committing there tomorrow. (BN)
PURDUE BASKETBALL RECRUITING
Purdue's going to have a ton of targets as its elite camp toward the end of the August, Including two major 2024 and 2025 priorities.
To the latter class, Kentucky center Malachi Moreno, an elite player in his class who was offered by Purdue some time ago, will be on campus. Keep in mind that 2025s can only now start making recruiting visits starting Aug. 1, so getting him on campus is big.
Kanon Catchings, also, will be at the camp, and then probably return for a fall official visit. He's a huge priority for Purdue, and it's not outside the realm of possibility Purdue can get him on board sometime relatively soon.
Remember, Purdue has 2025 priorities Trent Sisley and Jalen Haralson visiting on Aug. 1 and Aug. 2, respectively.
PURDUE BASKETBALL RECRUITING
Purdue's offer to Flory Bidunga yesterday shouldn't be taken as any sort of indication that anything has really changed there, but anyone will have an opportunity to at least offer him and communicate with his group.
Yes, whatever staff Drew Adams is on is going to have a huge, maybe insurmountable advantage here. This has all hit public view now. Purdue's stance, though, has been that if anything ever changes in that regard, it wants in. It has kept up on Bidunga and the offer is just kind of procedural, we think.
Purdue's also recruiting Travis Perry and Raleigh Burgess off that same team.
No harm in offering. Everyone in the country will, even with the dynamics at play. May as well be one of the first just in case. (BN)
