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.
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This is going to be as quick as it is late, for a number of reasons.
As you know, Anderson was leaning heavily to Purdue after it became his first big offer in March — Purdue offered him from the NCAA Tournament — and he's admitted that he almost committed.
But since, Michigan and Indiana have offered and had him on campus, on top of the random offers he got in the spring from Connecticut, DePaul and some others.
There have been some indications privately that Purdue still stands in a very strong position with Anderson but you never know how any more how many schools are being told the same thing. There's no reason to think anything cagey like that is happeing, but it does always give us pause with this kind of stuff.
But it is also worth noting that in the games we've seen Anderson play in the spring and summer — many of which Purdue, too, was at — he was very up and down, with the down being just as ugly as the up was impressive.
Purdue would take a commitment from Anderson, though, should he want to issue one, we're quite certain. Our guess is this is probably a Purdue-Michigan sort of thing.
We'll see. (BN)
Not sure what level of other opportunity may come his way, but Dowuona did show a flash of dominance today in Atlanta with the block-dunk-rebound sequence with Bill Self watching (for others, too), but then fouled out early.
But he will have opportunities and will look into them.
A team to be wary of may be Georgia Tech, which can match Purdue's engineering rep and keep Dowuona closer to his support system in South Florida. And it's our understanding, too, he has a brother living with his own host family in Atlanta, so there's that.
But Purdue's pitch should endure, given the importance to him of academics and its reputation for helping big men get better. Dowuona has started talking about NBA aspirations now in underscoring his emphasis on academics, and if that matters, so might Purdue's pitches about Caleb Swanigan and A.J. Hammons, who now happens to play in Miami.
Not that those guys at this point are all-star players or anything like that, but they're two pros who's college careers were defined by their improvement from Day 1 to their last day.
Aaron Henry's become that guy in Indiana that stands the best chance to jump from mid-major type to high-level recruit and it seems as if the Ben Davis forward is this close to that happening.Butler offered him not too long ago, and Indiana, Michigan State and Pitt have been among those watching him during the evaluation period, specifically there to watch him.
Purdue has been recruiting him seriously for some time, but Henry said today it's fallen off and he hasn't heard from Purdue "in a month." Whether that's reality or not, we don't know, as schools often keep in contact with kids' coaches and parents in addition to the players themselves, but it just doesn't seem right now like it's going to happen for Henry with Purdue.
Height is a concern for a player who's going to likely play as a positionless 4 type. But height is much less of a concern at that spot now than it would have been traditionally and it obviously wasn't something that kept Purdue from offering Talen Horton-Tucker, who's longer and stronger and Henry and similarly skilled, but may not be as athletic.
We don't have it completely confirmed, and nothing will be formalized until later in the month, but we do think it's Church, who plays at Missouri State for former Purdue assistant coach Paul Lusk, who's close with Matt Painter and his staff.
Church averaged 6.6 points and 5.8 rebounds as a junior for Lusk's Bears and shot 64 percent from the floor.
Teams can only carry 13 players in the World University Games, and with Haarms out due to being a non-U.S. citizen, that opens a spot. In these situations, teams go over officially as Team USA and not their specific college team, technically, so the rules allow for players to be picked up on a temporary basis, as Kansas did with SMU's Nic Moore last time.
The added kicker to the Haarms deal is that since he can't play in the World University Games, he can't prepare for them either, so while Purdue is permitted unlimited practice this summer, the redshirt freshman is stuck on an island under the standard NCAA summer workout limit of two hours per week. (BN)
• Purdue was supposed to host a visit Thursday from Florida defensive end Willie Lane this week. He's been offered and is another one of these guys where Purdue's his best offer at this stage of the process, so you never know regarding the commitment possibilities. If he wasn't a guy Purdue wanted and might be willing to take right away, he probably wouldn't be visiting.
BREAKING: Willie Lane just committed.
• A potential early commitment to keep a close eye on: Texas running back Trenton Kennedy. Not sure he's visited yet as he said in the spring he would, but he's a real Purdue target and Purdue's his best opportunity as of now. Conceivable he commits early, particularly if he gets to campus.
Running back will be important in this class, because Purdue didn't take one for 2017.
Florida's Andrew Cunningham is a priority as well and visited in the spring.
South Carolina's Kyle Wright has Purdue on his tentative list of seven with Colorado, Temple, East Carolina, App State, Navy and Georgia State.
• Purdue's in on some really good linebackers in Chase Kline and Justice Dingle, but another visits on the 21st as well, as Ohio's Antwuan Johnson visits for Purdue's last camp.
The former Michigan commitment has been seriously interested in the Boilermakers since the spring, part of that appeal being the fact former high school teammate Terrance Landers was working on him. Landers is no more, but Purdue still has Johnson's attention and seems to be a legitimate contender for him. (BN)
There has been a great response to our request for messages and memories for Joe Tiller. Post a message on KHC and we will print them out and mail them to Joe. If you wish to send it via e-mail, you can do so to AKarpick@GoldandBlack.com. We will mail all the message board posts or e-mails we receive on Tuesday, July 18. Because (TIC) at age 74, Tiller isn't going to start looking at the Internet now. (AK)
Finally, a reminder that we still have a few copies left of our Gold and Black Illustrated FB Preview issue for the reduced rate of $8.95 plus free shipping. Order online and we will mail you one right away. If you happen to be in the Lafayette area Friday night, stop by the Lafayette Aviators' game and you can pick up a free copy of the FB Preview at the Purdue Center for Research booth. Mention the Center and $2 of your ticket will be donated to the PUCCR. And, make sure you heckle the person throwing out the first pitch which should happen right about 7 p.m. (AK)
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