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.
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Unofficially, we expect - expect - Purdue to land the Michigan grad transfer. (BN)
Darrell Hazell mentioned post-ban that plans were in the works for camps in the Chicago and Detroit areas, Wisconsin and Northern Ohio, around Cleveland, we think.
Again, we assume Purdue will follow through, but we haven't heard for certain yet.
Last summer, Purdue had just a Nashville camp, though it wanted to do one in Chicago, also.
Purdue's four designated locales are interesting because they all represent moves north instead of south, which would seem to go against the grain some. All major population centers, yes, but last year's Nashville camp was meant as a strike not only at that city, but as importantly, Atlanta. Everyone in the north has to recruit places like Florida, Georgia and/or Texas if not all of them, but Purdue's four camp locations this year are all Midwest-based.
That suggests either particular emphasis on the Midwest this year or Purdue intentionally trying to zing when everyone else is sagging. (BN)
TV dictates the matchup above all else, but we do know that UL is owed a home game and Purdue is due a road game in the ACC series because it will be home for the Gavitt Games against Villanova. There is an agreement in place among all parties that a team cannot go on the road in the ACC and Big East series in the same year and we'd assume the same to be true of home games.
Louisville sources say that their expectation is for Purdue or Minnesota, with there being some doubt over whether TV would do the Pitino-on-Pitino thing when Minnesota is so bad. But that being said, if it wants to, it may be running out of chances, with Rick on No. 8.5 of his nine lives and Richard seat so warm that the university is fighting to take back contract-oversight leverage using Richard's as an example of disaster.
Purdue has tried to schedule Louisville in the past, including an offer to open the Yum! Center in exchange for the Cardinals being the opponent for the Mackey Rededication a few years ago. No dice.
Pitino didn't enjoy coaching against Purdue - because of its then-particularly aggressive defense - last time the two teams met in 2007 in Indianapolis, a 67-59 Purdue win against a then-shorthanded Louisville team and thus wasn't eager, shall we say, to get them on the schedule again any time soon. Billy Donovan didn't help with the Pitino Tree, either, after Purdue was such a pain in eventual-national champ Florida's side in the '07 NCAA Tournament.
But Purdue is a very different defensive team now and teams have little to no say anyway in who they play in this thing, so if it is going to be Purdue-Louisville, there's nothing standing in the way at least. (BN)
• Purdue was not going to offer any of the players from last Thursday's group workout.
Some of them have committed elsewhere since - Brachen Hazen (Arkansas), Matt Chastain (Loyola) and Rodney Culver (Ohio).
(No, we're not suggesting any of them would jumped on a Purdue offer, though some may have.)
As for Desmond Bane, we think he really needed to be at that workout to have a chance with the Boilermakers.
• Again, like we told you earlier in the week, Purdue is expected to get an official visit from Kostas Antetokounmpo, but we have some pretty good information, we think, that says he's probably going to end up at St. John's due to some connections some of the NBA-related folks involved with Giannis have to Chris Mullin.
He's an offered player and seemingly a top target at his position early in the process.
One of Purdue's other top early running back targets fell off the board yesterday when Ohio's Weston Bridges committed to Michigan State. (BN)
It may be really difficult for the Boilermakers to get traction there now that Oregon and some other Pac-12s have offered, but Lenzy's parents are both Purdue grads and fond of their alma mater.
Father Melvin is a higher-up with Nike Basketball who handled marketing and such for Kobe Bryant's brand and now will be taking on Anthony Davis. Melvin is good friends with Brandon Brantley, Cuonzo Martin and a number of other Purdue basketball folks from back in the day and was just brought back in the fall to speak at Krannert.
Braden Lenzy attended a football camp at Purdue last summer.
Again, the kid is going to be a big-time recruit, and the Oregon offer might just be the start of things for him. Ohio State has invited him for a visit and that could be a game-changer, too.
But there are deep connections to Purdue.
Consider this an FYI more than anything.
We keep hearing this process will be complete sooner than later, but not sure precisely what that means in terms of actual timetable.
We can speculate all we want about Greg Christopher and Jim Schaus being candidates, and we’d be comfortable doing that.
But another name to maybe keep track of: Northern Illinois' Sean Frazier.
Why? Well, Frazier came from Wisconsin where he worked from 2007-13 a few years after athletic director Pat Richter departed Madison. Guess what search firm Pat Richter now works for? Yep, DHR, the Chicago-based firm assisting Purdue with its search. There still may be some connection to Richter.
Often, search firms bring into involvement candidates their principles know — "their guys," so to speak — but that's not the only reason Frazier might be worth mentioning. Obviously NIU has been some good things in football in recent years, for example. (staff)
Purdue 2016 targets Xavier Tillman, Jaren Jackson and Malik Williams will all be there, but we think Kyle Young is sitting out due to his back. New 2018 offeree Tyler Herro will be there, too.
Lots more coverage to come, and lots more from this past weekend too now that we have time to actually write it or edit the video. (BN)
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