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.
We love this web site, and this network, and always will.
PURDUE BASKETBALL
So, Purdue scrimmages Cincinnati Saturday in Indianapolis, presumably at an abandoned Marsh store, so that'll be the official unofficial start to the 2022-2023 season. Speaking of starting, here is our best guess on starters, which we will hedge ever so slightly.
Zach Edey — We think he's put himself in a position this preseason to probably be a contributor this season (tic)
Mason Gillis — The best guess here in that his experience playing next to Edey and his complementary value alongside the big fella matter as might the value Caleb Furst and Trey Kaufman-Renn may have as a tandem. Purdue has three starter-caliber players at this position.
Braden Smith — If you ranked players on this roster based off how much Purdue will ask of them this season, the freshman may come in behind only Edey. Edey is Purdue's best player, but you could have a long, nuanced debate over whether Smith might not be its most important player in context.
Ethan Morton — The junior didn't have his best day, I didn't think, during the Fan Day scrimmages and still wound up with a team-high seven assists. His time is now.
I know you probably hate ORs on depth charts as much as we do, but ...
Brandon Newman OR Fletcher Loyer — We do think Newman has done positive things this preseason but also know that Purdue loves Loyer and has heavily invested him. This could go either way, and I'm not sure how much it matters.
Wish we could tell you with certainty on this one, but we're curious ourselves.
Note: These are just best guesses on our part. Nothing more, nothing less.
A few more things on the Cincinnati scrimmage.
• People who cover the Bearcats do think they may be more inclined to press this season as Wes Miller's personnel starts to align more with what he wants to do. Purdue needs work on that, as has been an emphasis all preseason.
• Behold, Purdue's final (almost certainly) Rob Phinisee experience.
• Reminder that freshmen can play in these things and still redshirt. It's a moot point for Will Berg, who remains sidelined by a wrist injury, but could apply to Camden Heide, who could also be under consideration after he missed a lot of practice time this summer, then again this preseason. That, coupled with Purdue having some options on the wing.
Berg is as certain as can be to redshirt. Heide, we'd say it's probably likely, but don't want to be too definitive about it quite yet.
• Brian Waddell has been back practicing and may play some against Cincinnati. His ACL injury last year really affected his trajectory, though, and this recent ankle injury didn't help, so his outlook this season is kinda murky in terms of the role he might have projected for a year ago at this time. Had he never gotten hurt, he might be starting right now based on how he fared in practices when he first showed up. (BN)
PURDUE FOOTBALL RECRUITING
Quick heads-up: Purdue's been recruiting Matt Kingsbury, the linebacker from Chicago who visited for the Nebraska, but we believe the offer he announced on social media is more of the preferred walk-on variety.
We're not really aware of any real live pre-portal 2023 targets remaining now that quarterback has been dealt with, though Purdue is going to want to keep the guys it has and we'll see what happens on the coaching-change front in terms of what other players come available that Purdue might want to get back involved with.
Needless to say, though, there are probably more positions where Purdue will want help from the portal than positions where it won't. (BN)
PURDUE BASKETBALL RECRUITING
• Yes, Trent Sisley does seem to be trending toward Indiana, which shouldn't be considered altogether surprising. That's a player IU should get eight or nine times out of 10, his sister goes there and Trey Kaufman-Renn was the exception for Purdue getting players out of that part of the state, not the rule.
• Remember, big man JT Rock is now a couple weeks from his in-season official visit to Purdue for the Marquette game. That one's gonna be a battle — Kansas has offered now, and Iowa State is among those who've also been strong with him to this point — but getting him to a game will be big.
Ohio's Raleigh Burgess has been wanting to visit for a game also, so we'd expect him to be in during the season, also, officially or otherwise. (BN)
SITE NOTE
If you're not already ...
Please be sure to follow us on our social channels in the event that one day we should ever need them to get important information to you.
Twitter: @GoldandBlackcom | @AlanKarpick | @brianneubert | @TomDienhart1
YouTube: GoldandBlackcom
Facebook: GoldandBlackcom
