BOILING OVER: Purdue Basketball Recruiting, the Portal and much more

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PURDUE BASKETBALL RECRUITING

The holiday break is normally a really active time for Purdue’s coaches to get out and see a bunch of targets and insofar as this stuff is even newsworthy, we can tell you that Boilermaker coaches have been very present in Kentucky at various events to keep tabs on 2024 target Travis Perry and 2025 priority Malachi Moreno, Matt Painter being down there at least twice and Terry Johnson following suit recently as well, we think.

It does bring to mind the changing complexion of Purdue’s guard search for ’24. Perry has long been a priority and there are some indicators there that the Boilermakers may be doing very well with him, but Gicarri Harris will remain a priority as well. We’re not aware of any preference between the two, but will add they are distinctly different, though both are good enough where you don’t prioritize. You take whichever you can get if you’re fortunate enough to get one.

The obviousness that Braden Smith is a multi-year starter at Purdue may change the urgency level at this position, though depth is of course important. Harris’ physicality in particular might make a good counter-balance to Smith, but Perry’s true-point-guardiness would give the Boilermakers more of the same along with Smith. Harris may have more multi-positional versatility and that could matter too. Look how often — and how well — Purdue has played at times with Smith and David Jenkins together.

The guess here is that Purdue will look to the portal this spring for a one-year guard to replace Jenkins, but it can’t be more than a one-year deal, and that player would have to be recruited with the clear understanding that Smith is well established and a backup role would be most likely for any newcomer. That might limit the pool of what sort of player Purdue can get, but we’ll promise you also that Matt Painter will not want to mess with the chemistry this current group has a chance to build.

Painter’s been to see Flory Bidunga, as well, and Jalen Haralson is pretty much now just a Painter-led recruitment. Don’t like Purdue’s chances with either of those guys, but no harm in trying.

Painter was supposed to see Trent Sisley the other day with Paul Lusk, but Painter had been ill. Not sure he made it, but Lusk did.

Painter and Johnson saw fellow 2025 target EJ Walker, as well. The dude has really reciprocated interest with Purdue over the course of months. Not sure if that was at the same event as Perry and Moreno or not.

There are a bunch of moving parts here, as well, as there will be for everyone.

Purdue has to get answers after the season on Ethan Morton, Mason Gillis and Brandon Newman, who have COVID years at their disposal. Again, Morton would be most likely to stick around an extra year.

As it pertains to next year and portal possibilities, there’s also the big question of whether or not Zach Edey might consider returning, with the financial landscape being very different now than it used to be. Edey’s time to shoot his shot at the pros might be this spring, but he can still make a nice living for himself on NIL money if he comes back for one more year at Purdue. He has been pretty active on that front and done well, per our understanding. That said, there’s also something to be said for sometimes guys just being ready to be done with school, them having little else to accomplish at the college level and so on.

From Purdue’s perspective, it does have really good young players who’ll be ready for more this time a year from now. (BN)

PURDUE FOOTBALL

January will be quite a newsy month for Purdue football, as Ryan Walters will have to finalize his staff and get those coaches’ cracking in the portal. Only so much you can do without many of your position coaches in place.

Purdue’s got OC/QBs (Graham Harrell), DC/presumably linebackers (Kevin Kane), LB (Joe Dineen) and WR (Cory Patterson) accounted for, so will need to fill the offensive and defensive line positions, running back, secondary, tight end and special teams, depending on how Walters wants to configure his staff.

It’s probably safe to assume that those who will be coming over from Illinois are all now in place, which will put the onus now on the coaches convention In January for Walters and his delegation to maybe do some interviews and stuff.

A name we’ll keep making mention of here is Eastern Michigan running backs coach Sam Sewell, who goes way back to high school with Walters. That said, Graham Harrell will almost certainly be heavily involved in any offensive hires that get made. That just makes sense.

Worth noting here is that former Purdue offensive lineman Kirk Barron was on staff as a grad assistant at West Virginia for a year with Harrell. It would be way too early in Barron’s career for him to be considered for the offensive line coaching position, but maybe a GA/analyst/QC job could come into play if he’d be interested in coming back to his alma mater.

PURDUE FOOTBALL RECRUITING

As important as January is going to be in terms of getting portal targets on campus and firming up a couple other high school guys, there’s another relatively urgent recruitment to be tended to.

Assuming this staff will also prioritize Cathedral’s Danny O’Neil, his stated plan is to make unofficials in January and maybe even make his decision off those visits. Indications have been that Purdue will prefer a more dual-threat-oriented QB under this new staff, and that’s certainly O’Neil.

Now, obviously Purdue just took a transfer who has as many as three years to play at Purdue, so that could be a bit of an obstacle with O’Neil or any other particularly ambitious prep quarterback, but it will be important nonetheless for Purdue to get him on campus and get its coaches around him.

On the high school front, there’s no telling what Kendrick Gilbert will do until Purdue has a D-line coach in place. He’s waiting to see about that. He does have some natural ins with Purdue that might help the Boilermakers keep him, with some Cathedral guys on the team now and with his father working in Lafayette. We’ll see what happens there. If Kentucky still is targeting him, they’ll come with a hefty NIL package.

George Burhenn will wait ’til February, too, it seems. If Purdue’s new staff is dead set on keeping him, they’re probably gonna have to specifically outline the role of the tight end in their offense, because if Purdue’s going full-blown Air Raid, the tight end traditionally isn’t a centerpiece of that style of offense. Maybe Purdue’s version would be different. (BN)