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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
First off, should be very soon that a decision comes down from four-star defensive tackle Kendrick Gilbert. Our guess right now would be Purdue.
Gilbert would complete a really strong five-man defensive line class for Purdue.
Stay tuned.
PURDUE BASKETBALL RECRUITING
Our belief here is that Purdue 2024 target Jack Benter Is going to really zero in on assessing things recruiting-wise at the end of this month and could make a decision then.
We have every reason to believe that he got the offer he wanted when Purdue came through, so it's very possible, and probably likely, that that one falls in the Boilermakers' favor before August or shortly into August.
Should Benter fall in place, all eyes should then turn to Kanon Catchings. We don't have as much reason to believe he'd move quickly but we do know that the family is not looking to make this a long, protracted thing. For a family that's used to the public eye, they sure don't look for it.
Purdue's way out in front of the field on Catchings, but this weekend at the Peach Jam 16U event will be a big one for him. If he keeps flying under the radar — or if people think they're better suited recruiting older, more ready-made guys — then it may be an easier decision for him if he wants to make one early.
That 2024 class is setting up OK.
If Purdue gets Benter, that's a player skilled and versatile enough to play with pretty much anyone. If it gets Catchings, that's a wing different enough from Benter where the two could play together and complement one another well.
Then It just comes down to numbers.
On paper, Purdue has four in that class.
It must have a point guard and suffice to say, it would not want to sign a four-man class with no frontcourt presence.
Now, the first question becomes the COVID year. Does Ethan Morton, or Mason Gillis, or Brandon Newman, or most unlikely Zach Edey, come back for an extra year? Any player who does would deduct a spot from the available number on paper.
Assuming no attrition between now and then, that would force Purdue into oversign for a guard or big. We're getting ahead of ourselves here, but we'd expect Purdue to have at least three spots for that class. Ethan Morton would stand out as the fairly obvious sixth-year possibility since his freshman season was kind of a wash.
There Is plenty of time for Purdue to expand Its 2024 recruiting board, but at the moment, the two established targets for the point guard spot are Gicarri Harris and Travis Perry and one of the big man targets is Ohio's Raleigh Burgess.
Expect them to feature prominently during this fall's official visit slate.
Prior to the fall, August should be pretty active.
Aug. 1 means Class of 2025 prospects can taken unofficial visits for the first time, so Purdue will probably be trying to get guys like Trent Sisley and Jalen Haralson and Malachi Moreno and so on up for unofficials.
Furthermore, now that COVID is behind us (lol), Purdue will be having its elite camp again this year at the end of August. They've always done a great job getting a ton of really good players on campus for that, and we'd expect this year to be the same deal. (BN)
PURDUE BASKETBALL
Tonight, Coach Matt Painter takes his first step toward his dream job of being general manager of the Chicago Cubs, throwing out the first pitch at Wrigley Field tonight for the Cubs-Mets game, which begins at 8:05 ET. It's the first time that Painter has done first pitch duty at Wrigley, and he is the first Boilermaker coach to do it since Jeff Brohm had the honor on July 21, 2018. (staff)
PURDUE FOOTBALL RECRUITING
We do not expect Purdue to recruit Nebraska graduate transfer running back Markese Stepp following the loss of Sampson James, which probably did not come as a surprise to the coaching staff.
Stepp is from Indy and nearly came to Purdue out of high school, but has been hurt at Nebraska and Purdue's got to be looking at a pretty full roster at the moment. (BN)
