One of the biggest AAU basketball weekends of the spring recruiting season was this weekend in Fort Wayne as the Spiece Slam-N-Jam took place. Dakota Mathias, Purdue's newest commitment, had a banner weekend while the Boilermaker coaching staff was on hand to see several other top targets in the 2014, 2015, and 2016 classes. Here is how each player looked.
Dakota Mathias - Mathias had a very big weekend with his Northwest Ohio Basketball Club, culminating in his commitment yesterday afternoon to Purdue. He showed off his shooting skills by hitting eight threes and scoring 36 points in a Saturday win over Meanstreets. In his second game on Saturday he had 31 as he continued his torrid shooting. Mathias will be a definite asset as a shooter going forward, and his size at 6'5" will allow him to get a lot of good looks on the perimeter.
Trevon Bluiett - Purdue is still technically in the running for Bluiett, but I think he is Indiana's to lose, mostly because two of his HS teammates in Paul Bayt and Kevin Ferrell currently play for the Hoosiers. The 2014 target had 26 points against Team Thad and UM Hoops was glad to provide some video.
Vince Edwards - Edwards still seems to have Purdue and Michigan in a dead heat for his services, and he was impressive in beating former target Kieta Bates-Diop 71-54 and the Illinois Wolves on Saturday. While he's also been an effective scorer, the 6'7" has been active on the boards and was an almost automatic double-double over the weekend. His all-Ohio Red won the event in the Gold Division of seniors to be.
Eron Gordon - Jumping ahead to the class of 2016, Gordon had 27 points and showed a nice shooting touch for the Eric Gordon All-Stars. Gordon continues to show that he is one of the top players nationally in the 2016 class and why coach Painter has been on him from the beginning. Gordon has some serious one-and-done potential, but it would be a very big year if Purdue was able to get him.
Steve McElvene - Purdue officially connected with the developing big man this weekend for the first time, and he has the potential to explode as a prospect this summer. He is playing for the Spiece Indy Heat, one of the top AAU teams in the country with four other extremely talented players around him in Trey Lyles, Jaquan Lyle, Bluiett, and James Blackmon. This is his first year on the team after moving to New Haven from Alabama.