NORTH AUGUSTA, SC — Per our custom, here's some quick notes before I get a couple hours of sleep here before heading over to Under Amour Thursday for Max Christie and Chet Holmgren, etc.
Given the time right now and short turnaround, I'll leave it for tonight at this, then write a story or two in the morning before UA tips off.
Some notes from Wednesday night at the Peach Jam ...
JADEN IVEY'S NIGHT
I did not see this game, because it bumped up against media interview obligations and I spent the free time I did have watching Ethan Morton, but the people I know who were at Indy Heat's game at halftime said the first half didn't go great for Ivey, and Ivey said the same later.
The second, however, did, as the Purdue commit finished with 15 points in another great win for Indy Heat, a 94-84 win over Vegas Elite. Ivey was 5-of-12 from the floor, 1-of-4 from three and 4-of-4 at the foul line, per the box score.
ETHAN MORTON'S NIGHT
Purdue's other commitment, by his own admission, had his ups and downs in the spring, and the start of the Peach Jam was more the latter, as his New York Renaissance team was blown out by Boo Williams. That Rens team is really talented but something just doesn't click with them.
Morton was 0-for-4 and missed some clean looks from three, but he did finish with five assists. Doubt he's all that excited about it, however.
My opinion since the outset with Morton, dating back to last summer, has been that AAU does very little to showcase him, and the fit right now doesn't seem great with the team he's on, in all honesty.
RYAN KALKBRENNER UPDATE
Rivals.com four-star center Ryan Kalkbrenner was offered by Purdue a couple weeks ago, the first non-Hunter Dickinson center to be offered.
"They'd been talking to me for a while, but part of it was they like to offer people when they come to campus, but I just haven't been able to yet."
He will in August, he said, as the St. Louis native said he wants to make an unofficial visit to West Lafayette to figure out where Purdue may fit into this for him.
That visit may have to go really well, because Kalkbrenner has a ton of options, and he's already officially visited Creighton and will visit Stanford in August. The Cardinal seems like a real possibility, and Illinois is supposed to be pretty strong here too.
Kalkbrenner is kind of a narrow body type, but he's legit 6-11/7-foot, moves very well, is a real active and effective presence on defense, and though he doesn't do much of it in games, he can really shoot from the perimeter.
ON HUNTER DICKINSON
Media got a hold of him for a while and asked a bunch of questions will the gigantic piece of fried chicken he brought with him probably got cold, but he did shed a little bit of light on things.
He's going to narrow his list about two weeks after Peach Jam, to give anyone else who might want to get highly involved to do so. Who that might be, I don't know. He was asked more about his new offers than his old ones, and so the time he spent with the media was largely dedicated to UNC (who I asked about) and Michigan. About UNC he did express interest, and Team Takeover alums Armando Bacot and Anthony Harris are recruiting talking it up. He'll visit there, it sounds like, and he did call UNC his 'first blueblood offer' and you don't often hear kids talk like that, and that comment would probably piss off Louisville fans, but anyway.
On Michigan, Dickinson he liked them before and says he likes them even more now after the Juwan Howard hire.
Purdue's recruits are draws, along with everything else that's put it in the position it's in, but Dickinson admitted when I asked him that the NBA is going to be a real factor here, and the school he feels can best prepare him might be the pick. Purdue will be able to make a compelling case there and has. Louisville is going to be a real player here, Michigan will check a bunch of NBA boxes, and North Carolina is a traditional NBA feeder program, even though its style-of-play rep is diametrically opposed to what Dickinson is.
More to come on this.
RANDOM STUFF
• No coaches allowed in 'til 9 a.m. tomorrow. Matt Painter and Brandon Brantley will each be in Augusta tomorrow.
• Four-star wide receiver and Purdue target Maliq Carr is here playing for The Family and I talked to him about his basketball career and got some good stuff from one of his coaches about him, so look for a story on that.
Also, got even more strong indication that Purdue is very likely to be his pick.
Again, we'll have a couple stories tomorrow, and some real-time updates from Under Armour, but I'm doing this thing where I'm driving late at night to the next stop, and will again tomorrow night, so we'll get out tomorrow night what we can when we can.
Given the time right now and short turnaround, I'll leave it for tonight at this, then write a story or two in the morning before UA tips off.
Some notes from Wednesday night at the Peach Jam ...
JADEN IVEY'S NIGHT
I did not see this game, because it bumped up against media interview obligations and I spent the free time I did have watching Ethan Morton, but the people I know who were at Indy Heat's game at halftime said the first half didn't go great for Ivey, and Ivey said the same later.
The second, however, did, as the Purdue commit finished with 15 points in another great win for Indy Heat, a 94-84 win over Vegas Elite. Ivey was 5-of-12 from the floor, 1-of-4 from three and 4-of-4 at the foul line, per the box score.
ETHAN MORTON'S NIGHT
Purdue's other commitment, by his own admission, had his ups and downs in the spring, and the start of the Peach Jam was more the latter, as his New York Renaissance team was blown out by Boo Williams. That Rens team is really talented but something just doesn't click with them.
Morton was 0-for-4 and missed some clean looks from three, but he did finish with five assists. Doubt he's all that excited about it, however.
My opinion since the outset with Morton, dating back to last summer, has been that AAU does very little to showcase him, and the fit right now doesn't seem great with the team he's on, in all honesty.
RYAN KALKBRENNER UPDATE
Rivals.com four-star center Ryan Kalkbrenner was offered by Purdue a couple weeks ago, the first non-Hunter Dickinson center to be offered.
"They'd been talking to me for a while, but part of it was they like to offer people when they come to campus, but I just haven't been able to yet."
He will in August, he said, as the St. Louis native said he wants to make an unofficial visit to West Lafayette to figure out where Purdue may fit into this for him.
That visit may have to go really well, because Kalkbrenner has a ton of options, and he's already officially visited Creighton and will visit Stanford in August. The Cardinal seems like a real possibility, and Illinois is supposed to be pretty strong here too.
Kalkbrenner is kind of a narrow body type, but he's legit 6-11/7-foot, moves very well, is a real active and effective presence on defense, and though he doesn't do much of it in games, he can really shoot from the perimeter.
ON HUNTER DICKINSON
Media got a hold of him for a while and asked a bunch of questions will the gigantic piece of fried chicken he brought with him probably got cold, but he did shed a little bit of light on things.
He's going to narrow his list about two weeks after Peach Jam, to give anyone else who might want to get highly involved to do so. Who that might be, I don't know. He was asked more about his new offers than his old ones, and so the time he spent with the media was largely dedicated to UNC (who I asked about) and Michigan. About UNC he did express interest, and Team Takeover alums Armando Bacot and Anthony Harris are recruiting talking it up. He'll visit there, it sounds like, and he did call UNC his 'first blueblood offer' and you don't often hear kids talk like that, and that comment would probably piss off Louisville fans, but anyway.
On Michigan, Dickinson he liked them before and says he likes them even more now after the Juwan Howard hire.
Purdue's recruits are draws, along with everything else that's put it in the position it's in, but Dickinson admitted when I asked him that the NBA is going to be a real factor here, and the school he feels can best prepare him might be the pick. Purdue will be able to make a compelling case there and has. Louisville is going to be a real player here, Michigan will check a bunch of NBA boxes, and North Carolina is a traditional NBA feeder program, even though its style-of-play rep is diametrically opposed to what Dickinson is.
More to come on this.
RANDOM STUFF
• No coaches allowed in 'til 9 a.m. tomorrow. Matt Painter and Brandon Brantley will each be in Augusta tomorrow.
• Four-star wide receiver and Purdue target Maliq Carr is here playing for The Family and I talked to him about his basketball career and got some good stuff from one of his coaches about him, so look for a story on that.
Also, got even more strong indication that Purdue is very likely to be his pick.
Again, we'll have a couple stories tomorrow, and some real-time updates from Under Armour, but I'm doing this thing where I'm driving late at night to the next stop, and will again tomorrow night, so we'll get out tomorrow night what we can when we can.
