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WESTFIELD — Rarely have there been instances over the years where so many of Purdue's primary recruiting targets have been concentrated in one shoe-company grassroots circuit.
But the bulk of the Boilermakers' 2019 recruiting board could be found in person this weekend in Westfield, during Nike's EYBL's second spring session.
Some themes from the weekend:
Chasing Okoro: With the possibility — he doesn't want to say much about it — being that 2019 big man Francis Okoro could reclassify into the Class of 2018, Purdue, Oregon and Illinois each staked out his games this weekend.
Purdue's Matt Painter and the Ducks' Dana Altman, the two of them briefly rivals in the Missouri Valley Conference years ago, were courtside for each of Okoro's four games in Westfield.
Illinois' Brad Underwood watched three of the four, unofficially.
The 6-foot-9, 220-pound four-star center played in Westfield hours after leaving an official visit at Purdue, which followed an official to Oregon weekends early.
Okoro, who lives in Normal, said he's "thinking about" making a visit to Illinois this coming weekend, then might make a decision.
The Nigerian boasts a 3.7 GPA and scored an astronomical 32 on the ACT, but would need to finish out his high school credits in coming weeks in order to be a college freshman in the fall.
Good news and bad news: The good news is that Purdue out-of-state targets Drew Timme and Malik Hall have been very good this spring, validating the Boilermaker coaching staff's early decisions to offer and target both players long ago.
The good news is that Purdue out-of-state targets Drew Timme and Malik Hall have been very good this spring, raising their profiles considerably and already bringing them more and more high-end offers.
Timme, who went for 20 and 10 against the nation's No. 2 player, Vernon Carey, Saturday, was offered last week by Virginia and others, on top of the slew of offers he already held; Hall was offered last week by Villanova, Notre Dame and a bunch more and is similarly enhancing his name and diversifying his portfolio of options.
Purdue's in strong with both, but neither was going to be an easy get.
Now, they might be even more difficult.
Now what? Spring is offer season, time for coaching staffs to expand their recruiting board by making decisions on long-time prospects of interest of throwing dart-board offers at players only now being seen.
Purdue got one of its spring offerees last year in Trevion Williams.
Purdue will almost certainly extend new offers at some point, with the backcourt being the most likely focus, since it's so locked in on so many frontcourt targets.
Candidates aren't readily apparent, though.
Purdue's been recruiting Valparaiso's Brandon Newman for a long time and has watched him this spring along with offered teammate Armaan Franklin, but it remains to be seen if the Boilermaker coaches are sold on him to this point.
Otherwise, Purdue is pretty engaged with a list of high-end players to this point and while the offer list is likely to expand at some point, when and how look like unknowns to the outside observer.
The Keion Brooks Show: Long-time Purdue target Keion Brooks already holds just about every offer there is.
He's shown why this spring, especially in Westfield, where he was brilliant.
The versatile forward and elite athlete rained jumpers, scored on post-ups, rebounded, attacked off the dribble and consistently used his upper-echelon athleticism to make it look like he was playing with an eight-foot rim.
Brooks and fellow Purdue target Trayce Jackson-Davis have given the state's Nike program, Indy Heat, quite a formidable pair, pictured below.
But .... Indy Heat is missing a critical piece in guard Isaiah Thompson, who committed to Purdue months ago.
While he's still awaiting MRI results that'll reveal the full extent of his injury, Thompson at the very least has a broken bone in his ankle that will idle him into the summer.
It's too bad for him, because last year at the Peach Jam 16-and-under tournament in Augusta in July, he put 40-something on CP3 in Augusta, then played well at the end of the month playing up with the 17-year-olds and it all seemed to serve notice of a big grassroots season to come.
It doesn't matter from a recruiting perspective. He has his scholarship.
But his national profile will sit still as long as he does, and his team could certainly use him.
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