Please welcome new BOILING OVER sponsor T&W Design and Build, an Indianapolis construction management company since 1968 with proud Purdue graduates that specialize in changing the way customers think about construction.
Find out more at TWDesignBuild.com
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.
So again, we appreciate everyone's cooperation very much. We know there are a lot of aggregator blogs out there, and a lot of you are on Twitter and other message boards. We don’t want to come off like Darth Vader (before he turned good at the end of "Return of the Jedi" of course) here, but we would be doing all our subscribers a disservice if weren’t proactive about protecting the value of their membership.
PURDUE BASKETBALL RECRUITING
Nijel Pack arrived at Purdue this morning for what'll be a short official visit to Purdue, as we think he'll probably be out of here by Friday night or Saturday morning since coaches have to hit the road for the evaluation period this weekend.
This is the visit for Purdue.
Pack's one of the best transfers available, hits every one of Purdue's most glaring needs right now, falls into a comfort zone with the Boilermaker program because of their familiarity with one another from the initial recruiting process and so on. Purdue's got some compelling reference points with Pack to show how they can use him to get him the shots he thrives off, with all the stuff they ran for Carsen Edwards his junior year, and then all the stuff they've run for Sasha Stefanovic off the ball over the years.
Pack's going to want to go somewhere he can legit be a featured scorer like he was at Kansas State and Purdue can check boxes there more than ever.
The behind-the-scenes plan right now, we think, is that Pack is intent to make several visits and decide closer to May. How realistic that is, we don't know. We know Gonzaga and Arizona are two others who'd join Purdue as early favorites and Duke's among the other who have been interested, so this won't be a recruitment for the faint of heart.
Suffice to say, Purdue's going to do everything it can this weekend to try to get Pack committed, but to do that it would have to do enough to move him off a pretty intoxicating situation. This player who essentially had one high-major offer out of high school now essentially has the final AP poll eating out of his hand. You can understand why he might be eager to see a few different places.
He's made his feelings toward Purdue as an option clear by showing up on campus virtually the precise second the dead period lifted, so he's coming into this process with the Boilermakers clearly top of mind, so any inclination on his or his family's part to look at other places as well shouldn't be taken as a slight toward Purdue.
We'll see what happens here, but this Is the big one, because should Purdue get Pack, he slides right into being the Boilermakers' primary ball-handler and primary backcourt scorer next season and changes the complexion of this team considerably.
Pack is the only transfer visiting this weekend, contrary to what he originally suggested might be the case.
We think — think — that the alternative to Pack at this point might be Princeton's Jaelin Llewellyn, but we think this has been a pretty narrow search thus far.
That doesn't mean Purdue won't ultimately take two transfers, but our guess here is that the second guy would come later. We do not anticipate Rob Phinisee, for example, being a target at this point.
PURDUE BASKETBALL RECRUITING
As mentioned above this is the first evaluation period this weekend, and things seem pretty simple for Purdue, because Purdue we think every base they have to cover will be in either Orlando or at one of four different events in Indianapolis.
One storyline: Xavier Booker.
We're gonna take this opportunity to walk back some things our instincts suggested might be the case about Purdue pulling out of his recruitment as he struggled early in the season.
The Cathedral big man has played very well of late and was a key element to Cathedral just winning a state title after they looked pretty hopeless in that context back in December.
Purdue's gonna keep seriously recruiting Booker and prioritizing Booker even. This has been a hot-and-cold sort of deal over the course of the past few months, but there's still too many tools, and too much potential, there to not recruit.
Purdue is going to have to find some other bigs to recruit in that class, though, because it needs one to go along with Myles Colvin and Dravyn Gibbs-Lawhorn in that class and you can never recruit just one guy for a non-negotiable need.
Of course, when it comes to needs anymore in recruiting, nothing matters, because the transfer portal's always in one's back pocket. But I don't think Purdue's going to be counting on that as a primary option, so they'll proceed as they always have.
We do know of a 2024 big guy Purdue's getting involved with: South Dakota 7-footer JT Rock, who'll be in Indy this weekend.
Rock's already got offers from Wisconsin, Iowa State, Creighton and others. Needless to say, Purdue's got some swag in the market for giants right now, so maybe one to keep an eye on.
On the 2024 front, too, Purdue's going to be following Indy Heat's 16-and-under team in Orlando. That team has 2025 offerees Trent Sisley and Jalen Haralson, but also junior-to-be "late bloomer" Kanon Catchings, who'll be watched this spring in a first-offer sort of context. Purdue, Illinois and Indiana are recruiting him right now, or at least have shown interest. (BN)
PURDUE SPORTS
Big day for news tomorrow, as Friday's Board of Trustees meeting will bring with It Information on Ross-Ade Stadium plans, Jeff Brohm's contract extension and Purdue basketball's upcoming locker room project. Stay tuned.
PURDUE FOOTBALL RECRUITING
Something to make note of after a slew of visits last week:
Louisiana teammates Ethan Fields (offensive guard) and Dickson Agu (linebacker) just visited Purdue, as well as Indiana, together and both claim offers as parts of lists where Purdue does sort of stand out from the rest, especially with the number of Louisianans on the roster right now.
Both Indicated that they'll officially visit this summer.
"Purdue will forever be a top school for me because they were the first school to give me an official offer," Agu said of the Boilermakers.
Friday's visit from Winston Berglund might put him back on the clock for a decision now that he's taken a bunch of visits, though maybe official visits come into the picture for him now that he has so much more to sort through than he did when he was on the verge of a Purdue commitment in the spring.
Eventually we'll write these stories on in-state targets Will Heldt and Joe Walker from our convos with both, but we'd expect both of them on the June official visit slate. (BN)
