What we learned at the 3SSB Palmetto Road

ROCK HILL, S.C. — the games have concluded at adidas’ 3SSB Palmetto Road championships, with Utah Prospects beating Purdue-target-heavy Indiana Elite for the event’s 17U title.

Some takeaways on Purdue recruiting from South Carolina ….

PURDUE HAS A DECISION TO MAKE ON TRE SINGLETON

The Jeffersonville forward’s “emergence” this week in Rock Hill was a major development and now lines up for the sort of whirlwind of offers that July evaluation periods can sometimes bring.

Purdue saw Singleton’s eruption first-hand and couldn’t not have been impressed enough to view the 6-foot-8, 220-pounder with guard skills as an offer-caliber prospect. Boilermaker coaches have been expanding their 2025 recruiting scope in recent weeks and months, so there wouldn’t seem to be any aversion to adding new priorities to the mix.

Though the Roster Limit Era is about to supplant the Scholarship Limit Era, for all intents and purposes, Purdue does have two open scholarships for 2025, this being a rare summer in which Painter and Co. didn’t carry any commitments into summer.

The apparent strategy is to find a skilled forward and a guard of some sort.

Purdue has forever prioritized forward Trent Sisley for the forward spot, but has offered other forwards, too, from outside the area: Sebastian Williams-Adams and Nik Khamania to name two. Those players have never even visited, so Purdue’s place in their universes would seem to remain TBD.

But an offer to an in-state player like Singleton — even though Jeffersonville is one of the furthest outposts in Indiana and as much Louisville extended as anything — might be different, though Singleton will have a lot to sort through. Purdue would have to fight to get Singleton should it offer.

After this week, though, it seems like it might be a fight it takes on.

INDIANA ELITE MADE A NICE RUN

After an undefeated spring, Indiana Elite — with Sisley and Braylon Mullins — was pushed repeatedly in Rock Hill in tournament play, after losing both its showcase games, but found ways to persevere and reach the title game, where the Utah Prospects were just too much in a 61-51 win.

It was a solid week as a whole for Sisley and Mullins, including some really big-time perfomances but also some relatively quiet ones by their normal standards. Both remain Purdue priorities and each have committed to make official visits.

TAYLEN KINNEY IS A STAR

Purdue’s first real guard target for 2026, Taylen Kinney, is about to be a target for anyone and everyone, as this week in Rock Hill was filled with explosive dunks, pull-up jumpers and threes and seemingly a few dozen assists on lob dunks.

Kinney is exceptional at getting downhill, with a body and length that make him hard to get back around after his first step. He’s elite at changing speeds, stopping and starting and playing east-west dribbling through the lane. His pull-up jumper is money and he’s a good three-point shooter.

Purdue will hope to hang in there and get a junior official visit, but this promises to be a very competitive, and probably expensive, recruitment. But if they somehow get him, they will have never signed a point guard of this caliber out of high school.

ON STEVEN REYNOLDS

South Bend’s Steven Reynolds III closed the week with a great game, scoring 21 on 6-of-12 shooting, with five rebounds and four assists in a win over Team Loaded from Viginia.

Reynolds has been a priority in 2026 for Purdue and that shouldn’t change. He tough shots here and there and can be streaky, but he is a really high-level shot creator with great size and savvy as a scorer. You’ve got to have people who can put the ball in the basket and get shots up when all else fails.

And the nice thing about Reynolds: For such an iso-equipped player, he’s highly unselfish and a very good passer who seems like he could legitimately play a quasi-point guard sort of role offensively at the next level if needed.

UNDERCLASSMAN WATCH

Jamyn Sondrup, the big man from Utah, has Purdue Big Man written all over him. He is absolutely an offer-level player, a big, physical center with exceptional skill. He’s not as tall as a typical Boilermaker center, but more skilled than anyone they’ve had. Trevion Williams is a worthy comp, but Williams didn’t shoot jumpers and threes like Sondrup does. That said, Sondrup doesn’t rebound like Williams did.

Sondrup is likely to be a target. So might be Utah Prospects teammate Junior County, a point guard.

Point guard has to be Priority Level 1 for Purdue in this 2026 class, as Braden Smith departs.

Jayden Moore of Minnesota is a nice player on the radar too. And Luke Ertel from Indiana is definitely a gamer. You could make a case his toughness and clutch play drove Indiana Elite’s come-from-behind OT win over Compton Magic in the semifinals.

Stay tuned to GoldandBlack.com all week for much more from the July evaluation periods.