BOILING OVER: Purdue football happenings, basketball recruiting and more

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 new 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.

Find out more at TWDesignBuild.com

PURDUE FOOTBALL RECRUITING

Note: There’s a press conference today at 4:30 regarding Purdue football’s situation, so there will be more insight to come after that.

Obviously everything’s in tumult right now for Purdue in recruiting, as is the nature of coaching changes, so not a whole lot of anything matters, but Purdue was about to host visitors this weekend, including Western Michigan linebacker Ryan Selig, but obviously that’s not happening now.

The only Purdue 2023 commitment to publicly decommit thus far has been Terrell Washington, but more will likely follow. It comes down to who has good options. Some of these guys have natural connections to Purdue and really want to come to Purdue, and staying committed then puts the onus on the new staff to take them.

Kendrick Gilbert will be tough to hang onto assuming Kentucky stays on him and especially if Mark Hagen leaves, and the highest-regarded player in the class already bolted months ago in Rickie Collins, who Jeff Brohm didn’t seem to fully engage with to try to keep him, for whatever reason. Would Purdue have lost him anyway? Yeah, probably …

Truth be told here, this is a solid class Purdue put together, but not one with irreplaceable guys, and recruits are more replaceable nowadays. The group of wide receivers wasn’t nearly the level of prospect Purdue had routinely recruited in years prior.

Most of the in-state guys are solid, program-guy types and Purdue will have the best chance to retain those guys. Dillon Thieneman comes from a Purdue family; Winston Berglund always wanted to come to Purdue, though David Elson was a big deal there, too, and Mark Hagen carries sway at Carmel. Will Heldt might be naturally inclined to stay with Purdue and is planning to enroll mid-year. George Burhenn might be naturally inclined to stay with Purdue provided it hires a coach he likes who’ll run a modern offense. Systematic fit will — or should — be important for him, not that football is all that matters in these situations.

Fair to assume Jeff Brohm will take Micah Carter with him and maybe Saadiq Clements. Not sure if they’ll go after Gilbert. Not sure the head coach was his strongest advocate during Purdue’s recruiting process.

The bigger question is what happens to the current roster, where objectively speaking, there aren’t a whole lot of must-keep sorts of guys from a personnel-asset perspective and we’ll see what things look like when first-semester grades come in. There have been some indicators of looming problems.

There has also been reason to believe that Purdue was about to get hammered in the portal. Some of those who were bound to jump but may be more open-minded to staying now might be wise to wait, because once you go in the portal, the new staff won’t be obligated to keep you on scholarship. Staying out of the portal actually means leverage with the new staff. Another weird contradiction to this set-up.

PURDUE BASKETBALL RECRUITING

So we have a ton of Purdue basketball recruiting content to still sort through, including comments from JT Rock, Trent Sisley and Malachi Moreno on their recent Purdue visits and more video and analysis from the Sneakers For Santa event at Brownsburg this past weekend, but with all that’s going on we haven’t really made the time or carved out a prominent enough time slot on the site to feature it all yet, so we’ll do a big notebook next week.

In the meantime, a couple notes.

• Rock did speak very highly of his Purdue visit and at this time he’s really the only 7-plus-footer on Purdue’s board that we’re aware of. Iowa State’s going to be tough to beat there, in large part due to proximity to home. Flory Bidunga is along big man target but we’d still be astonished if that happens. If he doesn’t opt to go to the G-League, then Auburn and/or Cincinnati might be tough outs there, and it’s still pretty early for him, with plenty of time still for a Kentucky or Kansas to come in and really shake things up for a likely one-and-done sort of player.

Raleigh Burgess, who’s more of a Caleb Furst sort of 4/5, holds a Purdue, remains a real target and will be back in West Lafayette for the Michigan State game Jan. 16.

• Mixed messages we’re getting on Trent Sisley, at this very early stage here, one line saying that the basketball fit and the relationship with coaches being the singularly more important factor and an advantage for Purdue, but the other line being that it’s an Indiana sort of family and the rock star treatment down there will be tough to turn down. Our feeling remains Indiana, but Purdue would be really difficult to say no to. There’s still a long way to go here, too, so it’s not like they’re deciding next week or anything like that.

• Same for Malachi Moreno, a long way to go, but this was the potential five-star prospect’s third visit to Purdue since elite camp in August. That obviously says something, but he’ll be nationally recruited before long and Purdue will have to weather that storm. Can’t see any way around Kentucky, 30 minutes away, being involved here.

• Watch out for 2025 point guard Phoenix Gill, who visited for the Minnesota game as well. He already has an Illinois offer and is sort of off the mainstream, because he’s not really on the grassroots circuit. Kendall, his father and the long-time NBA guard, basically has him mostly committed to training. Purdue stays away from Chicago as much as it can in recruiting, but this might be one of those exceptions.

• Matt Painter went to see Travis Perry in Kentucky last week. We think Purdue’s going to be a real factor there when push comes to shove. Not sure UK is really turning the screws on him.

• Here’s guessing Kanon Catchings‘ inevitable rise in the rankings starts soon after he was excellent in his game against Heritage Hills at Sneakers For Santa.