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May Basketball Recruiting Period Day 3: Purdue recruiting the Southeast; Trey Thompson's weekend, Luke Ertel and more

On3 imageby:Brian Neubert•05/19/25•

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Purdue recruiting target Kevin Savage Jr.
Purdue recruiting target Kevin Savage Jr.

COUNCIL BLUFFS, Iowa — It was getaway day Sunday at the adidas 3SSB event in the Omaha area, as the May evaluation weekend closed and coaches and grassroots teams scurried to get back to wherever they came from.

A few Purdue recruiting notes from Council Bluffs Sunday …

PURDUE WORKING THE SOUTHEAST

Point guard is an absolute priority for Purdue in the 2027 class, with a new priority emerging last week when it offered Kevin Savage of Marietta Wheeler near Atlanta, one of America’s foremost basketball talent hotbeds.

Savage listed Auburn, Alabama, OIe Miss, Cincinnati, Florida State, Arizona State and others as those among his early offers.

“Purdue just told me how much they like me and how well I fit in their system,” Savage said, “and just how I (remind them of Braden Smith). We kind of have the same game, things like that.”

In the 2026 class, Purdue has also had an offer out to Florida shooting guard and NBA legacy Brandon Bass Jr. for months and hosted him for an in-season official visit.

“I loved it,” Bass said. “The environment was unreal. The arena was great. They showed a lot of love.

“They like me because I’m a shooter, I’m a leader and I try to do just anything I can to win.”

USC and UCF are some of Bass’ other offers, and he said he wants to visit LSU, where his father of the same name starred.

Purdue has also had an offer out to Savage’s senior-to-be teammate Colben Landrew, a former SEC-level football prospect who’s going to focus on basketball now.

LANDREW PLANNING VISIT

Landrew said he’s planning to make an official visit to Purdue later in June.

“Purdue is one of the top schools I’m looking at right now,” Landrew said. “They’re showing a lot of love.”

The athletic 6-foot-6 wing said he also plans to make a visit to Georgia. He’s already visited Mississippi.

LUKE ERTEL’S WEEKEND

His Indiana Elite team was short-handed due to the ankle-related absences of Anthony Thompson and Dikembe Shaw most of the weekend, going 2-2, but Purdue commitment Luke Ertel starred even in defeats, generating considerable buzz among onlookers. Ertel was particularly aggressive offensively, stacking 20-plus-point games against high-end competition, creating plays for others and just showing he could do what he wanted when he wanted, whether it was to create a shot for himself or drive to create, whether he was playing with the ball or off the ball.

The offensive piece stood out, but just completed his usual gravitational pull to loose balls — he’s the consummate example that the ball finds effort and will — and chaos-agent on-ball defense.

TREY THOMPSON WATCH

A1 Purdue priority Trey Thompson was very good in Omaha, good enough to draw the flurry of offers that have been overdue. But after he played in front of a robust crowd of coaches watching Iowa United big man Arafan Diane and others on Saturday, no one came back Sunday.

It was just assistant coaches from Purdue and Butler there on Sunday for his final game of the weekend.

Thompson has been a Boilermaker priority for months and its coaches frequent visitors to Greeneville, Tenn., to see him.

He’s also held offers from Tennessee and Virginia Tech for some time, and has also recently been offered by Stanford and Virginia.

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