INDIANAPOLIS — We'll have some stories to come this week on what we saw at the adidas Gauntlet Midwest qualifier event today at Warren Central, but in the meantime, here are some quick thoughts and stuff, and I'll add that I'll see all these teams and more in a couple weeks in Dallas.
• Kerwin Walton was the only active Boilermaker target for D1 Minnesota's 17s team, as Ben Carlson is out with an ankle injury, and Dawson Garcia was at a USA Basketball event.
Walton is known as a great shooter, but he endured a rough day in the two games we saw, struggling to make shots in both of the games.
That said, even amidst shooting difficulties, you can see why Purdue likes him so much.
He's really big — all of 6-foot-5 — and well put together physically, defends and on offense, as Matt Painter would say, seems to know how to play. D1 Minnesota is well run and organized and runs actual offense, and Walton looked like he knew what he was doing moving without the ball and things like that, and with his build, something we don't talk about much with prospective guards: His potential as a screen-and-pop sort of player. Walton seems like a good fit for Purdue, assuming he is the shotmaker he's known to be. There's a reason substance-heavy programs like Virginia, Purdue and Butler are among those on him.
He did some good things off the dribble, as well, setting up runners that he looked good taking, but again, found uneven results, and getting to the line a number of times. He never got a touch, but he did look like he wanted to post up a couple times.
Purdue is planning an in-home visit either next week or the week after, Walton said.
• Ben Carlson, who also officially visited during the season, expects to be back in coming weeks after spraining the ankle toward the end of the state playoffs in Minnesota. Don't have much to tell you about him, since he didn't play, but he said he was really hoping to see Purdue live in the Final Four since he went to the games up in Minneapolis. He official'd to Purdue and Xavier in-season, but things seem very open and very early for him, and he'll be a national sort of recruit, both athletically and academically, so the end is nowhere near here.
Purdue is planning an in-home in coming weeks, and Minnesota and Xavier had visits planned by they got snowed out. Yes, Minnesota's in-home visit to a player who goes to school in Woodbury, Minn., got snowed out. Such is life in the great north, I suppose.
• Notable: D1 Minnesota's 16-and-under team has a freshman playing up by the name of Camden Heide, who looks like he has a chance to be pretty good. He said that his father went to Purdue, so there's a connection there. Something to keep in mind the next few years.
• Conflicts with other games prevented me from talking to Zach Loveday, but he didn't get many offensive touches with the stacked new team he plays for Wildcats Select, but he looks like he's getting bigger and was his usual self from what we've seen the past few years. He's really mobile, can block shots and rebound and has some offensive skill to him. He made a really nice turnaround jumper out of a post-up today, something we hadn't seen much of from him before.
Some of our Ohio colleagues tell us they believe Purdue and Michigan loom largest for Loveday right now, but my sneaking suspicion is that Purdue may not take a center in 2020 whose name isn't Hunter Dickinson. I could be wrong.
• From the 2021 class, Trey Kaufman from Silver Creek looks like an offer-candidate sort of prospect, with some Vince Edwards characteristics emerging in a body that's 6-7 now and likely headed toward 6-10. He can post, rebound, shoot a little, handle the ball and just seems to have a good feel for all of it, and he may just be scratching the surface. Greg Gary put a good amount of time into Kaufman, and I'm not sure if Matt Painter got to see him during the season. I'm sure he will this spring.
• Not sure he's a high-major sort of prospect, but Southern Indiana's Curt Hopf looks very different and looked great today before rolling his ankle. He's not huge for a frontcourt player, but he's not small either, a power forward body type who looked last year to me like he'd be best suited to play center long-term. Today, he looked quick and smooth moving around, did a lot of good things away from the basket, showed off a little eurostep one-on-one in transition — I bring that up to underscore footwork and mobility — and looked OK shooting threes, though I don't remember if he made one or not.
And, he gave really good effort.
Luke Brown plays for Indiana Elite's 16s now, and while Purdue is at least looking at him, he looks best to me as an off-the-ball shooter, and for that role, I think he'll have to advance physically, whether it's size or speed or quickness or whatever — to get high-major opportunities. If he doesn't, hey, that's fine, too.
• Kerwin Walton was the only active Boilermaker target for D1 Minnesota's 17s team, as Ben Carlson is out with an ankle injury, and Dawson Garcia was at a USA Basketball event.
Walton is known as a great shooter, but he endured a rough day in the two games we saw, struggling to make shots in both of the games.
That said, even amidst shooting difficulties, you can see why Purdue likes him so much.
He's really big — all of 6-foot-5 — and well put together physically, defends and on offense, as Matt Painter would say, seems to know how to play. D1 Minnesota is well run and organized and runs actual offense, and Walton looked like he knew what he was doing moving without the ball and things like that, and with his build, something we don't talk about much with prospective guards: His potential as a screen-and-pop sort of player. Walton seems like a good fit for Purdue, assuming he is the shotmaker he's known to be. There's a reason substance-heavy programs like Virginia, Purdue and Butler are among those on him.
He did some good things off the dribble, as well, setting up runners that he looked good taking, but again, found uneven results, and getting to the line a number of times. He never got a touch, but he did look like he wanted to post up a couple times.
Purdue is planning an in-home visit either next week or the week after, Walton said.
• Ben Carlson, who also officially visited during the season, expects to be back in coming weeks after spraining the ankle toward the end of the state playoffs in Minnesota. Don't have much to tell you about him, since he didn't play, but he said he was really hoping to see Purdue live in the Final Four since he went to the games up in Minneapolis. He official'd to Purdue and Xavier in-season, but things seem very open and very early for him, and he'll be a national sort of recruit, both athletically and academically, so the end is nowhere near here.
Purdue is planning an in-home in coming weeks, and Minnesota and Xavier had visits planned by they got snowed out. Yes, Minnesota's in-home visit to a player who goes to school in Woodbury, Minn., got snowed out. Such is life in the great north, I suppose.
• Notable: D1 Minnesota's 16-and-under team has a freshman playing up by the name of Camden Heide, who looks like he has a chance to be pretty good. He said that his father went to Purdue, so there's a connection there. Something to keep in mind the next few years.
• Conflicts with other games prevented me from talking to Zach Loveday, but he didn't get many offensive touches with the stacked new team he plays for Wildcats Select, but he looks like he's getting bigger and was his usual self from what we've seen the past few years. He's really mobile, can block shots and rebound and has some offensive skill to him. He made a really nice turnaround jumper out of a post-up today, something we hadn't seen much of from him before.
Some of our Ohio colleagues tell us they believe Purdue and Michigan loom largest for Loveday right now, but my sneaking suspicion is that Purdue may not take a center in 2020 whose name isn't Hunter Dickinson. I could be wrong.
• From the 2021 class, Trey Kaufman from Silver Creek looks like an offer-candidate sort of prospect, with some Vince Edwards characteristics emerging in a body that's 6-7 now and likely headed toward 6-10. He can post, rebound, shoot a little, handle the ball and just seems to have a good feel for all of it, and he may just be scratching the surface. Greg Gary put a good amount of time into Kaufman, and I'm not sure if Matt Painter got to see him during the season. I'm sure he will this spring.
• Not sure he's a high-major sort of prospect, but Southern Indiana's Curt Hopf looks very different and looked great today before rolling his ankle. He's not huge for a frontcourt player, but he's not small either, a power forward body type who looked last year to me like he'd be best suited to play center long-term. Today, he looked quick and smooth moving around, did a lot of good things away from the basket, showed off a little eurostep one-on-one in transition — I bring that up to underscore footwork and mobility — and looked OK shooting threes, though I don't remember if he made one or not.
And, he gave really good effort.
Luke Brown plays for Indiana Elite's 16s now, and while Purdue is at least looking at him, he looks best to me as an off-the-ball shooter, and for that role, I think he'll have to advance physically, whether it's size or speed or quickness or whatever — to get high-major opportunities. If he doesn't, hey, that's fine, too.
