Welcome to this week's "BOILING OVER," GoldandBlack.com's weekly Ultimate Ticket information-clearinghouse and analysis column meant for our subscribers and our subscribers only.
We appreciate everyone's cooperation in helping us keep what is sometimes delicate information confined to this message board.
We certainly don't want it to come to this, but if there are problems, subscriptions have and will be canceled over this.
We know there are a lot of blogs out there and a lot of you are on Twitter and other message boards, and we don't want to come off like Darth Vader here, but we would be doing all our subscribers a disservice if weren't proactive about protecting the value of their subscription. Thanks in advance for your cooperation.
Additionally, we address recruiting 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 start with basketball, where A.J. Hammons should by now be on the verge of making his announcement on whether or not he'll return to Purdue for his senior season or try his hand at the NBA draft.
We know we told you there was a chance something might happen as early as late last week, but it did not. Soon, that's the best we can tell you at this point.
Hammons said at the banquet last week this would be a faster process than last year and he's now on top of the date he made his announcement last season, but it should be noted Purdue's season last year ended earlier than it did this year, because the Boilermakers didn't make the postseason in 2014, so really, it has been a faster process. And just because an announcement hasn't been made doesn't mean necessarily that a decision hasn't been made.
All the information is in for Hammons and to the best of our knowledge, he's not gotten that offer he can't refuse and so we'd be very surprised at this point if his announcement is anything other than his return to Purdue, as we've made pretty clear, we think, the past few weeks. (BN)
As we reported weeks ago, Ohio shooting guard Jarron Cumberland is officially visiting Purdue this weekend with the Boilermakers his leader.
Could he commit?
Maybe. Our stance on it as to not be accused of promising or over-hyping anything is to not expect it but to not be surprised either.
Cumberland has really liked the Boilermakers from Day 1 of his recruitment and has considered committing prior to this point. He visited during the season and tried to make repeat visits on multiple occasions but scheduling issues with his parents or coaches dashed those plans.
Purdue would love to parlay this spring official visit into an early commitment the same way it did with Dakota Mathias two recruiting classes ago.
But we will also say this about Rivals.com's No. 65 player nationally in the 2016 class: Even if he commits, Purdue's going to have to stay on him, not because of any issues with the player himself but because the programs who also want him are programs that will stay on him if they really want him.
From the outset of 2016 recruiting, Purdue has looked for a dynamic shooting guard type who can both shoot and score off the dribble, a counterbalance for the 2-guards in the program now, guys who are more spot-up type shooters.
Cumberland, a four-star Rivals prospect from Wilmington, Ohio, would fit that bill. He's not an unbelievable athlete, but he's big and strong and tough and scores - a lot - on everybody he plays against at the high school and AAU levels.
Purdue has recruited a bunch of combo guards for 2016, but Eli Wright seems to have taken a backseat to Cumberland, and Warren Central's Djimon Henson is a player Purdue will watch closely this summer if it still has a need at the position, but is not an offer guy at this point.
Cumberland is now AAU teammates with Purdue's top point guard target for 2016: Xavier Simpson.
Simpson had a great weekend by every account at the Hampton EYBL event this past weekend and has fielded a few new offers because of it. He and his father like Purdue and are planning a May unofficial visit, but there is going to be significant competition there for him and if Michigan State offers, it's over, it would appear. The Spartans are all in on Cassius Winston as their first point guard priority, though. Illinois and Xavier also look like real factors for Simpson also, and Ohio State could be a game-changer too if it offers.
Looking around 2016, it is pretty evident now that Purdue will need a big man in that class, with Joey Brunk being its two longest-standing targets, but certainly not its only targets.
With Benson, Purdue should still be in the thick of that hunt, but as we have told you forever, watch out for Stanford there. The Cardinal are recruiting him and that's a school that would really appeal to the brainy center.
As for Brunk, Purdue is very much in the mix there. Michigan State has long been a player there and will continue to be, presumably, and so will Xavier.
Purdue has also offered and heavily recruited Columbus' Nick Ward, but Michigan State might have an inside track there. Ohio State has offered also. (BN)
As you well know, Purdue wants a fifth-year transfer point guard. News flash.
The ideal target right now seems to be Villanova's Dylan Ennis, who has the world recruiting him right now, it would seem, being the seemingly premier point guard on the over-saturated fifth-year market.
We know Purdue has spoken with Ennis; we believe - but are not certain - that Matt Painter may have traveled to Philadelphia this week to meet with him; and we think - but are not certain - that a visit could be in the offing, maybe soon, as in the next few weekends.
The people we've talked to, all we can come up with concrete is that recruiting for him is going to be a zoo. We've called his father a few times now and not surprisingly his mailbox is full.
If Purdue doesn't get Ennis it'll recruit any other immediately eligible guard it can find who it deems good enough, with a bunch of prospective transfers already being corresponded with. We know Painter has met with USF's Anthony Collins, but we don't expect things to work out with him.
People have been talking speculatively about Nic Moore from SMU forever, and sources from his high school days do indicate that the Warsaw native is taking a wait-and-see approach on the Mustangs' NCAA difficulties, but one would have to think it would take a tournament ban or something equally severe to compel him to transfer again. Whether Purdue could get Moore if he were to open up, we have no idea. He had a chance to come to Purdue once already and didn't and here's guessing that a scoring-minded guard like he is might look for the best situation he can find to average 20. Again, Purdue has no issues with its point guard scoring as long as it comes from sound decision-making and the post gets right of first refusal more often than not.
We'll say this: Purdue is very confident in the situation it has to offer prospective point guard transfers, with an NCAA Tournament team returning all its key pieces aside from the point guard position and a recent history of fifth-year guards having success in the program. We'll see what they come up with. They need someone.
Update: Sticking with transfers' way of only giving information to national media - covering transfers sucks, by the way - every national media simultaneously tweeted earlier the following list for Dylan Ennis: Purdue, Illinois, Tennessee, LSU, Georgia Tech, Baylor, Oregon, Duke (BN)
Some football recruiting notes
- Offensive lineman Trent Maynard was maybe the headliner of Saturday's junior day at Purdue. He's been unavailable for comment and didn't show up, as he was expected to, for Sunday's Rivals Combine at his high school, which is where we planned on talking to him. He then hit the road for Tennessee and will go to Notre Dame this weekend.
His high school coach did tell us he thinks - but isn't entirely certain - that Purdue offered in the fall but we'd like to confirm that with him if we can ever reach him. Cincinnati, Illinois and Indiana are among his other offers.
- Keep an eye on Ohio defensive lineman Jeffery Pooler, who visited Purdue last week and could be on the verge of Big Ten offers.
"They didn't say anything about coming to camp or anything like that," Pooler said, "so I think I'm going to know sooner rather than later."
Pooler was briefly committed to Toledo and has MAC offers and one from Connecticut, but Purdue, IU and Pitt are all recruiting him also. Purdue told him it thinks he can play defensive end or defensive tackle.
The defensive line is going to be an emphasis in 2016 for the Boilermaker coaching staff, it would seem.
- We don't think Purdue is going to take a quarterback in this class, but if it does, Maine's Austin McCrum is building a relationship there. He has kept in contact with Purdue the past few months and made the trip this past weekend for junior day.
"They seemed genuinely interested," McCrum said. "I spent a lot of quality time with Coach (John) Shoop, who said I was a great candidate to play the quarterback position."
The 6-foot-4, 225-pounder - that's one large quarterback - is being recruited by Rutgers, Connecticut, Bowling Green and a bunch of Ivy League and smaller schools.
- Elijah Sindelar's old high school teammate, three-star safety Dee Cain visited for junior day. He has Cincinnati and Georgia State offers, per Rivals.
-
- On top of Louisville's Keion Wakefield, Purdue had another wide receiver on campus Saturday: Houston's Chance Steverson.
-
- Hard to tell this time of year who's a legit prospect and who's not, but Steverson said Purdue's No. 1 on his list right now and that Purdue seems very interested. He listed Missouri, Kansas State, Houston and North Texas among those also interested.
-
- Wakefield would seem legit based on his Indiana, Illinois and Kentucky offers. Here's our update from the other day.
- Again, it's hard to know who's a real player and who's not, but South Carolina offensive lineman John Guthrie was at Purdue on Saturday, too, stopping in West Lafayette after having a family event in Louisville.
Guthrie's a guard who's drawing interest from Purdue and Wake Forest and smaller schools.
Just want to repeat here: We do not know in most of these cases which players are legitimate prospects and which aren't. There are some confirmed junior day visitors we're not even mentioning for that reason.
- Based on Chase Behrndt's offer list, the Missouri offensive tackle is legitimate. He was at Purdue this weekend.
Someone on the Purdue staff is working Missouri because you're seeing more and more guys there listing and visiting Purdue.
Hayden Johnson from Columbia is a Purdue target and a guy we think they'll have a great shot at, depending on who else offers from this point forward.
- The ship has left the dock for Purdue on Ben Davis' Chris Evans who told us this weekend that Michigan State is his leader and Indiana No. 2, with a Notre Dame offer also in hand.
(We don't think the Spartans are prepared to take him right now.)
But he does say he is at least considering Purdue still and could take a visit at some point.
"That's an engineering school and I like that and I think if I get down there and be around them I'd open up to them and be more interested in them," Evans said at the Rivals Combine at Decatur Central.
Not exactly a ringing endorsement, but he didn't have to say that he still might visit. Purdue has to get him on campus to have any chance obviously.
- Ohio wide receiver Terrance Landers said he is unofficially visiting Purdue this weekend. He's an offer-caliber talent based on what we have seen from him at camps.
-
- Kentucky DB commitment Tobias Gilliam made a visit to Purdue last week. He is committed to UK but has been making visits. Hope to have an update on him to come if he'll talk. (BN)
Copyright, Boilers, Inc. 2015. All Rights Reserved. Reproducing or using editorial or graphical content, in whole or in part, without permission, is strictly prohibited. E-mail GoldandBlack.com/Boilers, Inc.
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https://purdue.rivals.com/content.asp?SID=892&CID=818514
We appreciate everyone's cooperation in helping us keep what is sometimes delicate information confined to this message board.
We certainly don't want it to come to this, but if there are problems, subscriptions have and will be canceled over this.
We know there are a lot of blogs out there and a lot of you are on Twitter and other message boards, and we don't want to come off like Darth Vader here, but we would be doing all our subscribers a disservice if weren't proactive about protecting the value of their subscription. Thanks in advance for your cooperation.
Additionally, we address recruiting 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 we told you there was a chance something might happen as early as late last week, but it did not. Soon, that's the best we can tell you at this point.
Hammons said at the banquet last week this would be a faster process than last year and he's now on top of the date he made his announcement last season, but it should be noted Purdue's season last year ended earlier than it did this year, because the Boilermakers didn't make the postseason in 2014, so really, it has been a faster process. And just because an announcement hasn't been made doesn't mean necessarily that a decision hasn't been made.
All the information is in for Hammons and to the best of our knowledge, he's not gotten that offer he can't refuse and so we'd be very surprised at this point if his announcement is anything other than his return to Purdue, as we've made pretty clear, we think, the past few weeks. (BN)
Could he commit?
Maybe. Our stance on it as to not be accused of promising or over-hyping anything is to not expect it but to not be surprised either.
Cumberland has really liked the Boilermakers from Day 1 of his recruitment and has considered committing prior to this point. He visited during the season and tried to make repeat visits on multiple occasions but scheduling issues with his parents or coaches dashed those plans.
Purdue would love to parlay this spring official visit into an early commitment the same way it did with Dakota Mathias two recruiting classes ago.
But we will also say this about Rivals.com's No. 65 player nationally in the 2016 class: Even if he commits, Purdue's going to have to stay on him, not because of any issues with the player himself but because the programs who also want him are programs that will stay on him if they really want him.
From the outset of 2016 recruiting, Purdue has looked for a dynamic shooting guard type who can both shoot and score off the dribble, a counterbalance for the 2-guards in the program now, guys who are more spot-up type shooters.
Cumberland, a four-star Rivals prospect from Wilmington, Ohio, would fit that bill. He's not an unbelievable athlete, but he's big and strong and tough and scores - a lot - on everybody he plays against at the high school and AAU levels.
Purdue has recruited a bunch of combo guards for 2016, but Eli Wright seems to have taken a backseat to Cumberland, and Warren Central's Djimon Henson is a player Purdue will watch closely this summer if it still has a need at the position, but is not an offer guy at this point.
Cumberland is now AAU teammates with Purdue's top point guard target for 2016: Xavier Simpson.
Simpson had a great weekend by every account at the Hampton EYBL event this past weekend and has fielded a few new offers because of it. He and his father like Purdue and are planning a May unofficial visit, but there is going to be significant competition there for him and if Michigan State offers, it's over, it would appear. The Spartans are all in on Cassius Winston as their first point guard priority, though. Illinois and Xavier also look like real factors for Simpson also, and Ohio State could be a game-changer too if it offers.
Looking around 2016, it is pretty evident now that Purdue will need a big man in that class, with Joey Brunk being its two longest-standing targets, but certainly not its only targets.
With Benson, Purdue should still be in the thick of that hunt, but as we have told you forever, watch out for Stanford there. The Cardinal are recruiting him and that's a school that would really appeal to the brainy center.
As for Brunk, Purdue is very much in the mix there. Michigan State has long been a player there and will continue to be, presumably, and so will Xavier.
Purdue has also offered and heavily recruited Columbus' Nick Ward, but Michigan State might have an inside track there. Ohio State has offered also. (BN)
The ideal target right now seems to be Villanova's Dylan Ennis, who has the world recruiting him right now, it would seem, being the seemingly premier point guard on the over-saturated fifth-year market.
We know Purdue has spoken with Ennis; we believe - but are not certain - that Matt Painter may have traveled to Philadelphia this week to meet with him; and we think - but are not certain - that a visit could be in the offing, maybe soon, as in the next few weekends.
The people we've talked to, all we can come up with concrete is that recruiting for him is going to be a zoo. We've called his father a few times now and not surprisingly his mailbox is full.
If Purdue doesn't get Ennis it'll recruit any other immediately eligible guard it can find who it deems good enough, with a bunch of prospective transfers already being corresponded with. We know Painter has met with USF's Anthony Collins, but we don't expect things to work out with him.
People have been talking speculatively about Nic Moore from SMU forever, and sources from his high school days do indicate that the Warsaw native is taking a wait-and-see approach on the Mustangs' NCAA difficulties, but one would have to think it would take a tournament ban or something equally severe to compel him to transfer again. Whether Purdue could get Moore if he were to open up, we have no idea. He had a chance to come to Purdue once already and didn't and here's guessing that a scoring-minded guard like he is might look for the best situation he can find to average 20. Again, Purdue has no issues with its point guard scoring as long as it comes from sound decision-making and the post gets right of first refusal more often than not.
We'll say this: Purdue is very confident in the situation it has to offer prospective point guard transfers, with an NCAA Tournament team returning all its key pieces aside from the point guard position and a recent history of fifth-year guards having success in the program. We'll see what they come up with. They need someone.
Update: Sticking with transfers' way of only giving information to national media - covering transfers sucks, by the way - every national media simultaneously tweeted earlier the following list for Dylan Ennis: Purdue, Illinois, Tennessee, LSU, Georgia Tech, Baylor, Oregon, Duke (BN)
- Offensive lineman Trent Maynard was maybe the headliner of Saturday's junior day at Purdue. He's been unavailable for comment and didn't show up, as he was expected to, for Sunday's Rivals Combine at his high school, which is where we planned on talking to him. He then hit the road for Tennessee and will go to Notre Dame this weekend.
His high school coach did tell us he thinks - but isn't entirely certain - that Purdue offered in the fall but we'd like to confirm that with him if we can ever reach him. Cincinnati, Illinois and Indiana are among his other offers.
- Keep an eye on Ohio defensive lineman Jeffery Pooler, who visited Purdue last week and could be on the verge of Big Ten offers.
"They didn't say anything about coming to camp or anything like that," Pooler said, "so I think I'm going to know sooner rather than later."
Pooler was briefly committed to Toledo and has MAC offers and one from Connecticut, but Purdue, IU and Pitt are all recruiting him also. Purdue told him it thinks he can play defensive end or defensive tackle.
The defensive line is going to be an emphasis in 2016 for the Boilermaker coaching staff, it would seem.
- We don't think Purdue is going to take a quarterback in this class, but if it does, Maine's Austin McCrum is building a relationship there. He has kept in contact with Purdue the past few months and made the trip this past weekend for junior day.
"They seemed genuinely interested," McCrum said. "I spent a lot of quality time with Coach (John) Shoop, who said I was a great candidate to play the quarterback position."
The 6-foot-4, 225-pounder - that's one large quarterback - is being recruited by Rutgers, Connecticut, Bowling Green and a bunch of Ivy League and smaller schools.
- Elijah Sindelar's old high school teammate, three-star safety Dee Cain visited for junior day. He has Cincinnati and Georgia State offers, per Rivals.
-
- On top of Louisville's Keion Wakefield, Purdue had another wide receiver on campus Saturday: Houston's Chance Steverson.
-
- Hard to tell this time of year who's a legit prospect and who's not, but Steverson said Purdue's No. 1 on his list right now and that Purdue seems very interested. He listed Missouri, Kansas State, Houston and North Texas among those also interested.
-
- Wakefield would seem legit based on his Indiana, Illinois and Kentucky offers. Here's our update from the other day.
- Again, it's hard to know who's a real player and who's not, but South Carolina offensive lineman John Guthrie was at Purdue on Saturday, too, stopping in West Lafayette after having a family event in Louisville.
Guthrie's a guard who's drawing interest from Purdue and Wake Forest and smaller schools.
Just want to repeat here: We do not know in most of these cases which players are legitimate prospects and which aren't. There are some confirmed junior day visitors we're not even mentioning for that reason.
- Based on Chase Behrndt's offer list, the Missouri offensive tackle is legitimate. He was at Purdue this weekend.
Someone on the Purdue staff is working Missouri because you're seeing more and more guys there listing and visiting Purdue.
Hayden Johnson from Columbia is a Purdue target and a guy we think they'll have a great shot at, depending on who else offers from this point forward.
- The ship has left the dock for Purdue on Ben Davis' Chris Evans who told us this weekend that Michigan State is his leader and Indiana No. 2, with a Notre Dame offer also in hand.
(We don't think the Spartans are prepared to take him right now.)
But he does say he is at least considering Purdue still and could take a visit at some point.
"That's an engineering school and I like that and I think if I get down there and be around them I'd open up to them and be more interested in them," Evans said at the Rivals Combine at Decatur Central.
Not exactly a ringing endorsement, but he didn't have to say that he still might visit. Purdue has to get him on campus to have any chance obviously.
- Ohio wide receiver Terrance Landers said he is unofficially visiting Purdue this weekend. He's an offer-caliber talent based on what we have seen from him at camps.
-
- Kentucky DB commitment Tobias Gilliam made a visit to Purdue last week. He is committed to UK but has been making visits. Hope to have an update on him to come if he'll talk. (BN)
Copyright, Boilers, Inc. 2015. All Rights Reserved. Reproducing or using editorial or graphical content, in whole or in part, without permission, is strictly prohibited. E-mail GoldandBlack.com/Boilers, Inc.
https://purdue.rivals.com/content.asp?SID=892&CID=818514
