Purdue Mens' Basketball Recruiting and Team Update

PURDUE BASKETBALL RECRUITING​/Notes (as of Aug. 28)

Another official visitor this weekend, as shooter Jacob Webber makes his official visit to West Lafayette after being offered in July. Purdue is essentially recruiting to surplus here in the backcourt/wing, but the game-wrecking shooter is too good at what he does to not recruit. He has already been to Purdue as he drove out from Nebraska during the season for an unofficial visit. He’s already enrolled at LaLumiere up in Northern Indiana.

Wouldn’t expect anything to happen here this weekend as Webber still has a Tennessee visit upcoming and will be very receptive to Kentucky, Kansas, etc., continuing to recruit him.

Webber may be pre-empted by Brandon Bass Jr. should he decide soon. He may not know that and it’s not Purdue’s style to leverage that kind of thing, but it likely wouldn’t make a difference for him anyway. Those dynamics really only matter when a player knows he wants to go to a certain school and that opportunity is jeopardized. That’s not the deal with Webber and Purdue.

Quinn Costello visited this past weekend and by every account that went well. We’ll see where things go from here. He’s visiting Minnesota this weekend and intends to make a ton more visits. We’d be surprised if that one fell Purdue’s way, but at this point, we’re not sure there’s any desperate need out there, either for a specific player or position. The frontcourt will need to be addressed, but that will probably be up to the portal in the spring; adding Omer Mayer and Luke Ertel in the past year has negated any real needs you might have had in the backcourt. Jack Benter and Antione West showing very quickly to be long-term assets, too.

Pretty wild recruiting cycle, it’s been, with moving parts both with players reclassifying and the complexion of Purdue’s long-term roster shifting.

Center Sinan Huan comes next weekend. No idea what to make of that one as Purdue really only jumped in with him a few weeks ago.

In the short term, situations to watch are Bass Jr. maybe committing as early as next week and the possibility that Jamyn Sondrup pops before likely going on that two-year mission, assuming he does that. Purdue will take him whenever, whether it’s 2026 or 2028. After that, Caden Pierce becomes a priority as soon as he’s in the portal in October.

Then we’ll see about Bo Ogden. He loves Purdue, we think, and the feeling is mutual. But would he/can he say no to Texas? Dunno. Texas has pushed to get him committed, we think, and he has held off. And the Longhorns are going to coast to coast right now with money to spend. We’ll see. Our guess would still be Texas, but not ruling anything out on that one. (BN)

PURDUE BASKETBALL​

• Practice resumed this week. They’ll go twice a week ’til Sept. 24, when preseason practice begins. It’s not “formal” because off-season practices are formal, and it’s not “official” because off-season practices aren’t unofficial. It’s not even “daily” because the NCAA requires days off. It’s not “fall” practice, because September is fall, but different. We’ll just call it preseason practice, even though all off-season would also constitute “preseason,” right?

Anyway …

• Raleigh Burgess and Liam Murphy are slated to return to practice before long here, but will likely be eased back in after Burgess was in street clothes all summer after undergoing leg surgery and Murphy was kept out of full-contact stuff following shoulder surgery prior to Purdue.

Burgess is going to be interesting. He almost has to redshirt this season, but what he does this season may guide his future and Purdue’s recruiting decisions. He is probably best suited for center, but he played the 4 as a freshman. If he gets bigger and stronger this season, maybe he slots into Purdue’s need at center next season; if he really develops his skills this season, maybe he slots into their need at the 4. An interesting background story to this season whether Burgess plays or not.

• After these Marquette and Iowa State series run their course, Purdue’s going to be in the market for marquee home-and-away pairings and neutral-site game. Nothing is set yet, but as we’ve reported before Duke and Louisville have been engaged in discussions. Gonzaga has been interested in a non-conference game during league play when Purdue might be out there anyway for Big Ten games. Not sure Purdue would want to do that, but you never know. (BN)