BOILING OVER: Latest football, basketball recruiting scoop

Welcome to “BOILING OVER,” GoldandBlack.com’s weekly information clearinghouse, a spot for assorted bits of Purdue news, analysis and so on and so forth, intended for GoldandBlack.com members and GoldandBlack.com members only.

Please welcome BOILING OVER sponsor T&W Design and Build, an Indianapolis construction management company since 1968 with proud Purdue graduates that specialize in changing the way customers think about construction.

PURDUE FOOTBALL RECRUITING

• Purdue had over 40 visitors last week. And, two players left with offers: Kentrell Rinehart and Jonathan Stevens, both running backs from Ohio.

• 2024 Cincinnati TE Levi Smiley was not offered. TE coach Seth Doege will go see him practice/play during Purdue’s bye week, which begins after the Oct. 14 Ohio State game. 2024 TE Benjamin Blackburn from Columbus High in Miami was a priority for Purdue but committed to Stanford on Thursday after de-committing from Boston College.

Purdue is not going to chase 2024 Ohio TE Tayvion Galloway, who is not having a bang-up senior season. The ball is in his court. He still could visit for the OSU game. TE remains a priority position in the 2024 class for Purdue.

• Purdue is still waiting a public commitment from 2025 four-star CB Tarrion Grant. Will it come? He supposedly gave a silent verbal a few weeks ago.

• Purdue is making plans on how to fan out during the off week. Staffers will be out Monday. There will be practice Tuesday and Wednesday. Then, staffers will hit the road Thursday and Friday.

• Things just recently heated up in Purdue’s pursuit of 2024 South Carolina LB Seneca Moore. He will be a priority to see on the bye week. Moore has a modest list of offers with Tulane and Boston College being the best. He’s one to keep an eye on.

• Another LB to watch: Desman Stephens. He recently de-committed from Boston College, a school he pledged to as a safety over Purdue back in June. The Boilermaker staff wanted Stephens as a LB. The Clarkson, Mich., native may be at the Ohio State game on Oct. 14.

Like TE, LB remains a position of priority in the 2024 class.

• Purdue missed out on Tennessee LB Elijah Groves, who committed to Kentucky in July. He stays in touch with the Boilermaker staff but isn’t being pursued hard. Groves will be at the Ohio State game with a younger brother, 2025 RB Isaiah Groves, who Purdue is pursuing.

• 2024 JC recruiting? The staff is sorting through it. Some names have been identified, but more intel is needed. JC recruiting takes a little more time because you have to dig through more issues. Purdue is believed to want to sign one JC linebacker and one prep linebacker in the 2024 class.

PURDUE FOOTBALL

• CB Salim Turner-Muhammad has been trying to do more this week, testing his tweaked hamstring. If he responds well, Turner-Muhammad may be able to get some snaps at Iowa. But it is a day-to-day thing right now. The Stanford transfer has yet to play a snap for Purdue.

• K Ben Freehill could be back this week. But, like Turner-Muhammad, he’s probably day-to-day. If he is cleared, it’s not certain how kicking assignments/responsibilities would be handled at Iowa. It likely will depend on how things play out in practice between Caleb Krockover and Julio Macias. With Freehill out the last two games, Krockover has been handling kickoffs and Macias placements.

PURDUE ATHLETICS

• The Purdue Board of Trustees will meet on Friday. One of the items on the agenda: A contract extension for athletic director Mike Bobinski. His current deal expires in June 2024. Bobinski is expected to received a four-year extension to 2028. Will he fulfill the length of that term? Bobinski turns 66 on Oct. 28. He became AD at Purdue in 2016.

It’s not known what direction Purdue will go when it comes time to replace Bobinski. Purdue deputy athletics director and chief operating officer Ken Halpin and Deputy Athletics Director and Senior Woman Administrator Tiffini Grimes could be candidates. Halpin was the A.D. at Winthrop before coming to Purdue.

• The Big Ten released opponents (home and away) for each league school for the next five seasons (2024-28) as the conference moves from a 14- to an 18-team league with USC, UCLA, Oregon and Washington joining the Big Ten. The 2024 schedule with dates assigned to games is still probably a few weeks away from being finalized.

PURDUE BASKETBALL RECRUITING

So it’s pretty simple now for 2024.

Purdue has excused itself from Travis Perry‘s recruitment following the commitment of CJ Cox. That is fact, not conjecture.

Now it just waits on Gicarri Harris, who has set a “mid-October” timeline for a decision. Next week, it becomes mid-October. We still believe strongly it will be Purdue, but he’s yet to say it out loud, obviously.

If Harris goes elsewhere, Purdue goes to the portal in the spring. Purdue doesn’t really want to be filling needs via transfers every year — things worked out best-case-scenario with the low-maintenance recruitment of Lance Jones this year, but expecting things to be that smooth ever again would be ambitious — but would be forced to go get a one-year guard next season for the third straight year if it doesn’t get Harris.

So that’s it. It’s Harris or a player to be named later. (BN)

PURDUE BASKETBALL

Scuttlebutt!
• Brian Waddell continues his excellent play. The summer was no mirage in that sense. He’s going to compete for a starting spot, it would appear.
• Braden Smith, by every account, has really taken a big step this season. Painter works him over pretty good to make sure he’s playing to score first and let things happen off that. By the sounds of it, Smith was super-pissed about that dumb-clickbait Twitter edit some time back, a list of top point guards that didn’t mention him. Congratulations “College Basketball Report,” you’ve made it!
• Myles Colvin has a lot to learn defensively, but has seemed eager and willing, which isn’t always the case for really talented guys who have always been big-time scorers.
• Very possible you see some different defensive looks from Purdue when Caleb Furst is in at center. He is much better equipped to pressure (hedge) ball screens, whereas Zach Edey drops 100 percent of the time.
• Furst definitely still playing the 4, too, it seems, along with Mason Gillis and the minutes Trey Kaufman-Renn gets next to Edey. That’s looking more like a wrinkle than anything to me. Painter said they practice with TKR at the 4 about a third of the time. Not sure whether I’d consider that to be a lot or a little. Paul Lusk did mention, too, that Camden Heide can also guard the 4, but that may be more relevant down the line than it is now.
• “When you look at where Zach was most efficient, it was as the dive man in pick-and-roll, so just because he’s dominant on the block, so we don’t want to (just) come down and force feed him the ball. He’s developed his skills to where he can be on the perimeter in dribble-handoffs and he can reverse it to guys and get into actions, whether it’s ball screens, (other) types of actions.”
• Seniors Ethan Morton and Mason Gillis seem very talk-y on the practice floor, very much what you want from older players.
• Lance Jones is really good defending on the ball, but still improving guarding away from it, which he’ll do at times. He and Smith will be playing together a fair amount this season, Painter has said.

We’ll write a story eventually, but here’s Lance Jones on his adjustment to Purdue, Zach Edey, defensive impact and more.

The post BOILING OVER: Latest football, basketball recruiting scoop appeared first on On3.