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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
As you have probably heard by now, Purdue is hosting an official visit starting today with Rivals.com five-star forward Harrison Ingram. Here's our preview of that visit, and now here's some additional background.
Purdue's become a player for the elite Dallas native for a couple reasons. First off, as we've reported before, there is a long-standing connection between Purdue alumnus, ex-Trustee and former McDonald's executive Don Thompson and Ingram's father, Tyrous. They're friends, and the reasonable assumption here is that Thompson has spoken highly of his alma mater.
Next, Purdue assistant coach Steve Lutz has a background in Dallas, being from Texas himself and having worked at SMU earlier in his career, along with stops at Stone Cold Stephen F. Austin and Incarnate Word. He got Purdue involved with Ingram early on and the combination of Purdue's interest and the modest connection to Thompson contributed to getting Ingram to visit, an initial visit that must have gone well.
Look, Ingram's one of the best players in the country, but he's also a good student from a family that values the hell out of education. Hence, Stanford is going to be a real player here.
If you want some background on what grounds this decision will likely ultimately be made on, read this about the Ingrams. It illustrates where a window of opportunity may lie for Purdue, as maybe a best-of-both-worlds alternative to the high-end academics at Stanford and the big-time, NBA-factory climates at Kansas and North Carolina, and that trust could become a real consideration here, a category Matt Painter generally stacks up particularly well in.
Anyway, make no mistake here: Ingram is going to be a really difficult get. He's one of the best players in the country and he lives almost a thousand miles away.
But, Purdue's gotten itself in the picture and two visits in the span of nine months from a kid from Texas speaks to legitimate interest.
Also, Purdue is very involved, too, with Ingram's St. Mark's teammate, 2022 prospect Colin Smith, who's ranked by Rivals.com 57th nationally in his class.
Smith is supposed to visit Purdue for the Rutgers game.
“He’s a slasher, a shooter, very athletic, high-energy guy who plays high above the rim," said Vonzell Thomas, who coaches both St. Mark's players with Southern Assault. "He’s one of those guys who’ll bring those highlight plays you’ll see on the SportsCenter Top 10. He’s developing but the main thing for these kids is the want-to and he wants it and works on it, stays in the gym. He’s a gym rat.”
• A couple other anticipated visitors for tonight's Indiana game: Chicagoland 2022 prospects Braden Huff of Glenbard West and Trey Pettigrew of Fenwick. (BN)
PURDUE FOOTBALL RECRUITING
Purdue had running back target Trenten Howland on campus this weekend, but not really for a football visit. The Joliet West athlete came down with basketball teammates as part of a group of fringe-type hoops recruits for the basketball game vs. Michigan.
This wasn't a football visit, per se, but Howland will be back soon. He said he expects to visit again for this junior day event Purdue is doing March 7 (we believe). He previously visited for the game against Illinois.
Purdue does have an in here.
Purdue's director of player personnel, Eron Hodges, went to Joliet West himself and goes way back with its basketball coach, Jeremy Kreiger. Howland said that's how the connection to him was made, leading to Purdue's offer this winter. Nebraska and Minnesota are among those who've followed suit.
The 6-foot-2, 220-pounder has also drawn some interest for linebacker or other defensive roles, but the Boilermaker coach staff is recruiting him for running back.
He does prefer offense and says distance from home will be a consideration In his decision, for his parents specifically.
We'll write up a more in-depth story here. (BN)
MORE PURDUE BASKETBALL RECRUITING
Class of 2021 dominoes started falling in Indiana this week as the state's top-rated player, Khristian Lander, rather abruptly committed to Indiana.
That in itself doesn't affect Purdue, beyond the fact it'll play against the kid at some point. It had stopped recruiting Lander — lost cause — a year ago probably, but it may help Purdue tangentially in that it will not help Indiana's case with forward Trey Kaufman, per multiple indications.
Might be a moot point, because Purdue and Xavier seem to be ahead of the field on Kaufman anyway, but one more deterrent from Indiana for a Southern Indiana kid Is never a bad thing when you're anyone trying to pull a player out of that part of the state.
Louisville is right there, obviously, from a geographic standpoint, but something seems to be holding Kaufman back on them, also, from everything we've gathered.
Things do look promising for Purdue here but there's still likely a ways to go here, 'til the spring at least.
Kaufman, again, Is a bit of a different sort of personality has far as recruits and their personalities go these days. He's repeatedly talked about the "closeness" of the people at Purdue as a draw and he doesn't seem like the sort to automatically be drawn to the biggest name or shiniest brand or school with the most fans screaming his name on his visits, stuff like that.
And the basketball fit makes sense, because Purdue has had some players like him in the past — not that skilled 4 men are unique to the Boilermaker program these days.
Purdue does have a great chance here, but as always, time will tell. Kaufman visited again this weekend for the Michigan game. (BN)
PURDUE FOOTBALL
We'll write this up into a full story for tomorrow, but here's some video from the NFL Combine of Purdue linebacker Markus Bailey talking with the media, courtesy of one of our insidious moles.
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
As you have probably heard by now, Purdue is hosting an official visit starting today with Rivals.com five-star forward Harrison Ingram. Here's our preview of that visit, and now here's some additional background.
Purdue's become a player for the elite Dallas native for a couple reasons. First off, as we've reported before, there is a long-standing connection between Purdue alumnus, ex-Trustee and former McDonald's executive Don Thompson and Ingram's father, Tyrous. They're friends, and the reasonable assumption here is that Thompson has spoken highly of his alma mater.
Next, Purdue assistant coach Steve Lutz has a background in Dallas, being from Texas himself and having worked at SMU earlier in his career, along with stops at Stone Cold Stephen F. Austin and Incarnate Word. He got Purdue involved with Ingram early on and the combination of Purdue's interest and the modest connection to Thompson contributed to getting Ingram to visit, an initial visit that must have gone well.
Look, Ingram's one of the best players in the country, but he's also a good student from a family that values the hell out of education. Hence, Stanford is going to be a real player here.
If you want some background on what grounds this decision will likely ultimately be made on, read this about the Ingrams. It illustrates where a window of opportunity may lie for Purdue, as maybe a best-of-both-worlds alternative to the high-end academics at Stanford and the big-time, NBA-factory climates at Kansas and North Carolina, and that trust could become a real consideration here, a category Matt Painter generally stacks up particularly well in.
Anyway, make no mistake here: Ingram is going to be a really difficult get. He's one of the best players in the country and he lives almost a thousand miles away.
But, Purdue's gotten itself in the picture and two visits in the span of nine months from a kid from Texas speaks to legitimate interest.
Also, Purdue is very involved, too, with Ingram's St. Mark's teammate, 2022 prospect Colin Smith, who's ranked by Rivals.com 57th nationally in his class.
Smith is supposed to visit Purdue for the Rutgers game.
“He’s a slasher, a shooter, very athletic, high-energy guy who plays high above the rim," said Vonzell Thomas, who coaches both St. Mark's players with Southern Assault. "He’s one of those guys who’ll bring those highlight plays you’ll see on the SportsCenter Top 10. He’s developing but the main thing for these kids is the want-to and he wants it and works on it, stays in the gym. He’s a gym rat.”
• A couple other anticipated visitors for tonight's Indiana game: Chicagoland 2022 prospects Braden Huff of Glenbard West and Trey Pettigrew of Fenwick. (BN)
PURDUE FOOTBALL RECRUITING
Purdue had running back target Trenten Howland on campus this weekend, but not really for a football visit. The Joliet West athlete came down with basketball teammates as part of a group of fringe-type hoops recruits for the basketball game vs. Michigan.
This wasn't a football visit, per se, but Howland will be back soon. He said he expects to visit again for this junior day event Purdue is doing March 7 (we believe). He previously visited for the game against Illinois.
Purdue does have an in here.
Purdue's director of player personnel, Eron Hodges, went to Joliet West himself and goes way back with its basketball coach, Jeremy Kreiger. Howland said that's how the connection to him was made, leading to Purdue's offer this winter. Nebraska and Minnesota are among those who've followed suit.
The 6-foot-2, 220-pounder has also drawn some interest for linebacker or other defensive roles, but the Boilermaker coach staff is recruiting him for running back.
He does prefer offense and says distance from home will be a consideration In his decision, for his parents specifically.
We'll write up a more in-depth story here. (BN)
MORE PURDUE BASKETBALL RECRUITING
Class of 2021 dominoes started falling in Indiana this week as the state's top-rated player, Khristian Lander, rather abruptly committed to Indiana.
That in itself doesn't affect Purdue, beyond the fact it'll play against the kid at some point. It had stopped recruiting Lander — lost cause — a year ago probably, but it may help Purdue tangentially in that it will not help Indiana's case with forward Trey Kaufman, per multiple indications.
Might be a moot point, because Purdue and Xavier seem to be ahead of the field on Kaufman anyway, but one more deterrent from Indiana for a Southern Indiana kid Is never a bad thing when you're anyone trying to pull a player out of that part of the state.
Louisville is right there, obviously, from a geographic standpoint, but something seems to be holding Kaufman back on them, also, from everything we've gathered.
Things do look promising for Purdue here but there's still likely a ways to go here, 'til the spring at least.
Kaufman, again, Is a bit of a different sort of personality has far as recruits and their personalities go these days. He's repeatedly talked about the "closeness" of the people at Purdue as a draw and he doesn't seem like the sort to automatically be drawn to the biggest name or shiniest brand or school with the most fans screaming his name on his visits, stuff like that.
And the basketball fit makes sense, because Purdue has had some players like him in the past — not that skilled 4 men are unique to the Boilermaker program these days.
Purdue does have a great chance here, but as always, time will tell. Kaufman visited again this weekend for the Michigan game. (BN)
PURDUE FOOTBALL
We'll write this up into a full story for tomorrow, but here's some video from the NFL Combine of Purdue linebacker Markus Bailey talking with the media, courtesy of one of our insidious moles.
