2017 Purdue Basketball Recruiting: How Are They Doing?

We don’t get to cover recruiting around here as much as I would like, but for basketball it is a lot easier. In that, we only have to track 3-5 guys instead of 15-20. It can be easier to find some basketball stats too.

With that in mind, let’s see how well the 2017 basketball recruits are doing in their early seasons:

Eden Ewing – Tyler Junior College (TX) – The way that I like to view Ewing is that his two years will be the two years lost when Caleb Swanigan goes pro after this season. We barely got Caleb back for this year and he is definitely playing well enough to bolt after two seasons, so Ewing, a power forward, seems like his logical replacement.

So far, Ewing is doing really well. Tyler Junior College started its season on November 4^th and they are 10-0 with a 3-0 record in their conference. He is also playing with a couple of Indiana kids. Des Balentine from Kokomo is the younger brother of Evansville’s all-time leading scorer DJ Balentine, and point guard Brian Warren is from Indianapolis.

I had to go digging for stats, but according to the NJCAA website Ewing is averaging 12.9 points and 6 rebounds per game. He is a decent passer at 2.7 assists per game too. He takes a lot of high percentage shots as he is at 59.5% from the floor and 57.1% from three (that’s only 4 of 7 on the year). His best game was on November 5^th against Southwestern Christian when he had 23 points, 5 rebounds, and 5 assists.

Matt Haarms - Sunrise Christian Academy (KS) – Sunrise Christian is 10-3 on the year, having started their season on November 1^st. As you can see, their MaxPreps site is not well maintained. Of their 13 games, seven have been against “Varsity Opponent”. Their official site is not much better. They at least have some names, however. It looks like Sunrise Christian plays more of a national schedule like LaPorte LaLumiere. They have teams from Massachusetts, South Carolina, Kentucky, and even Canada on there. Unfortunately, neither site even has Haarms listed on their roster. As a result, I have no idea on stats. They are ranked 20^th nationally according to USA Today.

Aaron Wheeler – Brewster Academy (NH) – Wheeler plays at the private Brewster Academy in New Hampshire even though he is from Stamford, Connecticut. You could say this place is loaded. They have an alpine skiing team, boys and girls hockey, and even a snowboarding team. Last season they were National Prep Champions.

Brewster started the season on November 9^th and they are currently 9-0. They have had some impressive offensive numbers too. Last Friday they scored 130 points in a 130-56 win over City Reach United and Wheeler had 15. Wheeler also had 20 in an 88-65 win on November 20^th and 23 in a 107-70 win over TLAP on November 12^th. Their full schedule can be found here.

Nojel Eastern – Evanston Township (IL) – Eastern is the only commit playing the more traditional public high school basketball and he has his team off to an 8-1 start over in Illinois. The only loss came on December 3^rd in an 82-51 blowout loss against Montverde Academy down in Florida. They have not uploaded any stats to their MaxPreps page, but they do have some highlights from each game on their Facebook. He wears No. 20 if you’re looking for him.