Express Recruiting News and Notes

Here is our updates basketball and football recruiting news and otes.

PURDUE BASKETBALL RECRUITING

Here’s a bunch of stuff from the spring evaluation period and moving into June …

• Purdue will Keriawn Berry and his Avon team at team camp in June, another opportunity to watch him a bunch and be around him. He played OK in Memphis but his team really struggled. No hurry here in terms of Purdue having to make a decision.

• Plainfield’s Noah Smith remains on the line, but Purdue didn’t/couldn’t see him this past weekend, with too many bases to cover in Omaha and Memphis. But he will be at team camp, too, plus all the major Indiana high school evaluation period events in June, and Purdue may put more stock in that environment anyway. Hard to envision Purdue taking Smith if it gets Trey Thompson but you never know.

• Mentioning this as informed speculation, but Purdue has kept that 15th roster spot flexible, and while it is done recruiting for next season’s team, it could remain active recruiting to next season’s roster. If a Euro or NBA Draft defector — perhaps the same thing — would be willing to redshirt, there’d be space to take that player now, though I can’t even speculate about how much money Purdue has left in its rev-share pot.

• I want to mention this about Thompson. He is getting the offers he was overdue for now — UConn, Indiana, Iowa, Providence, Stanford lately — and the tell here now is how aggressive he is in actually taking visits. If he’s been eagerly looking for more than just Purdue, he’d have been more proactive taking visits. To our knowledge, he took only the obligatory visit to Tennessee, then an unofficial when it was on his way to that tournament in the Cincinnati area.

In the grand scheme of things, it is still pretty early, and while Purdue would have undoubtedly loved this wrapped up by now, it’s done all it can do here and there’s not much compelling reason to think things have changed at all. He should take some visits, and Purdue probably should want him to, because what people sometimes don’t realize is that you want these guys to be absolutely certain abiout things when they commit. Like, sure as can be.

• Isaiah Hill might be committed to Purdue by now if Purdue was a high-pressure sort of recruiting staff, but see the post above. You want a commitment, but you need a rock-solid commitment. Process matters to the solidity of a commitment.

Nothing’s going to change with Purdue and Hill, but they are gonna have to weather some things here. IU is going to come hard. Syracuse has been on him a while and just offered. Ohio State will probably come after him. If this goes national — and it might — and Duke comes into play, then that will be a real concern, but right now, Purdue is way ahead of everyone else with as strong a reputation for big men and development as can be.

• Might be premature to say this, but it might be worth putting Jamyn Sondrup on commitment watch. He’s hurt right now and not being seen. Distance from home is not ideal, but fit is, and they get that. The other schools on him now — BYU and Washington, notably — are spending-spree types who probably aren’t gonna eschew their chances at big-time transfers or one-and-done players now to really turn the screws on a below-the-rim sort of undersized 5 man. No disrespect there to Sondrup. He’s awesome. But he’s way more Purdue than he is BYU.

• Fellow Ute (?) Junior County is a huge Purdue priority, right up there with Thompson, Sondrup, whoever else. Houston might be an obstacle there, but Purdue is going to be a real player for him. Tons of “winning qualities” there.

• Purdue’s going to offer Jaxson Davis, we think, as he and Kevin Savage join Jason Gardner in the 2027 point guard fray. Purdue has to see Chase Branham in July. That’s going to really be one to watch. There are too many circuits right now to cover in one weekend, so UAA and PUMA were not doable.

PURDUE BASKETBALL

• Word should come soon on IU-Indy, which we believe to be down to Purdue’s Terry Johnson and FAU’s Jordan Fee, the former head coach at D2 Gannon University, for its head coaching position. Linc Darner has also been involved but sounds like it’s down to those first two, with a decision probably coming very soon. Johnson interviewed Monday.

Should Johnson get the job and depart Purdue’s staff, we think the name to watch there for Purdue will be Kenny Lowe, a staffer now at St. Thomas in Minnesota after a run at Miami (Ohio) and prior to that at Purdue, his alma mater. (BN)

• It is not quite set in stone that Texas Tech is part of the Baha Mar field, but things have been moving that way for quite some time. There have been some Big 12 TV contract entanglements for them to work through. The rest of the field is set. Purdue vs. Memphis, then Wake Forest vs. whoever. (BN)

PURDUE FOOTBALL

• Purdue is up to a stupefying 55 portal commitments with a pledge on Wednesday from Marshall RB Carter Holsworth. The Jasper, Ind., native’s mother is a Purdue grad, and his father has ties to the area, as well. Holsworth is a walk-on. How much can he help? At the very least, he’ll be an asset in practice.

• You may have noticed–or maybe not–but new turf is being installed in the Mollenkopf Athletic Center. The surface was nine years old. So, it was time. (TD)

PURDUE FOOTBALL RECRUITING

• Looks like a battle between Purdue and Texas for 2026 DL Dylan Berymon. Per On3 reporting, Purdue has grabbed the momentum in this race. Someone else close to the situation tells me Purdue is in a good spot to land Berymon.

“I am going to take my official visit to Texas on June 6 and see how I feel,” Berymon told On3. “Texas has been on me hard. I like the coaches a lot and every time I am there, I have a great time.”

From what I hear, he should be announcing a school sometime in June.

• As we reported, EDGE JJ Finch of Indianapolis Warren Central will take an OV this weekend along with 2026 EDGE McHale Blade of Chicago Simeon, committed 2026 LB Brayden Sweeney of Grand Rapids (Mich.) Catholic Central and 2026 OL Cameron Miller of Hammond (Ind.) Morton. Finch and Blade are big-timers who rank among the best in their respective states.

• Lincoln City (Ind.) Heritage Hills On3 four-star athlete Jett Goldsberry will take an OV to Purdue the weekend of May 30. Goldsberry has winnowed his choices to six schools: North Carolina, Ole Miss, Purdue, Rutgers, Wake Forest and West Virginia.

The programs he’s highest on include North Carolina, Ole Miss, Purdue, Rutgers, Wake Forest and West Virginia. Goldsberry will OV at each school. He is the No. 3 overall prospect in Indiana and No. 16 athlete overall.

Others slated to visit the weekend of May 30:

2026 EDGE Katrell Webb of Suwanee (Ga.) Collins
2026 ATH Tim Sims of Hampton (Ga.) Lovejoy
2026 WR Kymistrii Young of Parrish (Fla.) Cardinal Mooney
2026 DL Earnest Rankins of Decatur (Ga.) Southwest DeKalb

More OVs for that weekend are in the works.

• 2026 OL Brody Smith of Maryville (Tenn.) will take an OV June 6-8, while 2026 P Jimmy Gregg of Morgantown (W.Va.) University High will be on campus for an OV June 9-11. Some laud Gregg as the nation’s No. 1 punter.

• Purdue will conduct three camps next month: June 3rd, 8th and 11th. Expect more offers to go out, as well as official visits to take place. No doubt, a few commitments figure be landed.

• Yes, Hudson Card is finished playing football. He had hoped to get drafted. Didn’t happen. Then, it looked like Minnesota was gonna sign him as an undrafted free agent, but the Vikings went with another QB and Card got invited to Minnesota’s rookie mini-camp, where the odds to make a roster thin out considerably. So, Card decided to move on and get something new going on. It’s too bad, because Card is better than some QBs who got FA deals. Good luck to Card, who is one of the good guys who comes from a terrific family. I have a feeling he’ll be a big success wherever life takes him. (TD)