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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
So, It's a little more than a week out from June football official visits, and Purdue has a big one added to the June 3-5 visit roster.
The Lawrence Central edge rusher is a national recruit and a player who's going to have a ton of options, but has visited Purdue a few times now. He'll be a tough get, but getting him for a visit Is a good sign and Purdue does have a track record here for getting the in-state pass-rushers it wants, though George Karlaftis and Joe Strickland had some natural connections that Mickens does not, far as we know.
We'll see what happens here, but Mickens is a headliner of a visit weekend that we think looks like this at the moment.
Best chances for commitments would probably be Heldt and maybe Thieneman, but we do think Thieneman intends to take some visits. Purdue is Washington's best offer at the moment and a legit target for them we think, so maybe. Purdue is definitely Davis' best offer right now, so maybe him, too.
Stevens, the younger brother of former Penn State and Mississippi State QB Tommy Stevens, is an absolute priority for Purdue at linebacker, but has visits to Iowa State, Virginia Tech and Nebraska on his docket the rest of the month. Spoke to him the other night and he seemed pretty positive about Purdue after making a pair of spring visits.
Not sure this is going to be one of those Junes where Purdue takes 15 commitments or whatever, but we do anticipate the balance of the month including some high-volume visit weekends. (BN)
PURDUE FOOTBALL RECRUITING
Word out of his training circle in Chicago suggested earlier this week that Iowa wide receiver/return man transfer Charlie Jones would be a real possibility for Purdue, as in "he's coming to Purdue."
Jones went in the portal yesterday as a graduate transfer. This would be his extra year of COVID eligibility.
Purdue could use some help at wide receiver and has recruited the position this spring, but Jones is a particularly accomplished return man — he's the reigning Big Ten Return Man of the Year — so we'd expect his phone to be ringing this week, but he does have connections to Aidan O'Connell and Tyrone Tracy, his former teammate at Iowa, and he's seen Purdue's offense up close with the Hawkeyes, so this would make a lot of sense.
It sounds to us like this is all Purdue right now, but others will try to change his mind, so stay tuned, but this would be a really strong late add for them if they can get it done. (BN)
PURDUE BASKETBALL RECRUITING
Purdue's awaiting word from Iowa State guard transfer Tyrese Hunter and remains very much alive there, we think. The Boilermaker staff had an online meeting with him the other.
Every Indication right now is that it's Purdue, Tennessee and Texas as the three main players there, and the interesting part of that is that both Tennessee and Texas do have other point guards and for a player who may be an NBA guy a year from now you wonder how that would play into things. Texas has a five-star PG coming in and Marcus Carr, who's more of a scoring guard, but has played point, back. Tennessee has sophomore-to-be starter Zakai Ziegler back, plus veteran Santiago Vescovi stadout (though he didn't play point guard with Kennedy Chandler there) and four-star local PG BJ Edwards coming in.
Right now, freshman Braden Smith is the only point guard on Purdue's roster. He's going to play this season no matter what, but obviously Matt Painter and his staff have made it a priority to add a veteran, starter-caliber player there, setting what he called a "hard line" on the caliber of player they're looking for.
Hunter does seem very engaged with Purdue still, but no one at any of the schools involved seems to have a read on where he'll end up. Texas is definitely a player, to the point it suggests that Hunter is not averse to remaining in the Big 12 should he so choose.
We'd expect a decision within the next week or two.
If Hunter winds up elsewhere, it comes down to Malachi Smith from Tennessee-Chattanooga or Courtney Ramey from Texas. It's funny how Purdue, Tyrese Hunter and Courtney Ramey were all on the same floor basically in Milwaukee for the first weekend of the NCAA Tournament.
Smith and Ramey remain In the NBA draft, but both will almost certainly withdraw before or on the June 1 deadline, then deal with recruiting. Both were in the portal well in advance of the deadline for immediate eligibility.
Not sure Malachi Smith is necessarily a true point guard but can play the position In a combo-guard sort of way and the opportunity to branch out as a player might be appealing to him considering his pro aspirations.
The guess here is that Purdue would take any of the three and be damned glad to have them.
Purdue does have some modest connections to Smith and Ramey in that Paul Lusk recruited Smith years back while the head coach at Missouri State and Brandon Brantley did recruit Ramey very early years ago. Ramey's dad, Michael, brought a group to Purdue's elite camp years ago.
Our guess is Purdue gets one of these guys.
Which one? Dunno. (BN)
PURDUE BASKETBALL
Couple quick notes ...
• Purdue has hired Jason Kabo from UNLV for its open strength coach position, after Braden Welsh left after one year for Kentucky and before that Gavin Roberts left after a short stint for UConn.
• Camden Heide played just three-and-a-half games at Wasatch Academy in Utah this season due to a foot injury, but told us last night he's fully clear now to be a full participant at Purdue this summer.
We did all our Entrance Interview things with Purdue's Incoming freshman this week and will roll those out in the weeks to come, but for you — our valued members — here's the video with Heide if you want to watch it before you can read it.
• Braden Smith says he should be cleared sometime in July. He's been regularly working out at Purdue as he rehabs his foot.
• Freshman numbers: Fletcher Loyer 2, Braden Smith 3, Cam Heide 23.
Don't know about William Berg, so you'll just have to remain on the edge of your seat about that one.
PURDUE BASKETBALL RECRUITING
Purdue has Kanon Catchings coming June 1, as you know, but also has visits plotted for June with Kentucky 2024 Travis Perry and Cincinnati 2024 forward Raleigh Burgess.
They're both Indiana Elite teammates with established Purdue target Cooper Koch and force of nature Flory Bidunga and both really solid prospects.
June will be a big month for basketball recruiting because team camps are back, too, and a slew of Purdue targets will be on campus for that. Elite camp may be back, too, in August, and I should mention that these things matter a little more now that the NCAA has significantly restricted the ability for underclassmen to make recruiting visits.
Seems to me like Purdue may hold off on official visits until the fall — transfers notwithstanding. Xavier Booker will make his official then, and junior visits — Gicarri Harris, JT Rock, among them — will probably start then as well, even though they could occur now If Purdue and the players wanted to do that.
