Purdue Catches 5-Star Recruit Harrison Ingram's Eye in More Ways Than One

Harrison Ingram, the high-flying small forward from Dallas, likes what he sees from Purdue these days as he works on narrowing down his list of schools

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — Highly touted Class of 2021 recruit Harrison Ingram likes Purdue enough to include them on his recently released top-10 list, but he loves what the graphics folks have been kicking out even more.

Ingram, a 6-foot-6 small forward from Dallas who's a five-star recruit and the No. 16-ranked player in the '21 class, went to Twitter and said "not committed, but these Purdue graphics are (two fire emojis).  

Ingram was impressed with the look, and he's also shown a lot of love to Purdue so far in this process, too. He said during a podcast last week that the education component was what helped shape his list the most so far, and basketball will come next as he begins to narrow it down.

Purdue is on his top-10 list along with Arkansas, Baylor, Louisville, Michigan, Memphis, North Carolina, Stanford, Texas A&M and Tennessee, and he would be a huge get for the Boilermakers, who haven't had a five-star recruit since Caleb Swanigan in 2015.   

Purdue already has one commitment in the 2021 class, standout Fort Wayne big man Caleb Furst from Blackhawk Christian. The 6-foot-8 power forward committed to Purdue in early March and recently moved up to No. 1 in the state of Indiana in the 247Sports composite rankings after Evansville Reitz's Khristian Lander reclassfied into the Class of 2020 and signed with Indiana.

Ingram visited Purdue in late February and saw the Boilermakers' victory over Indiana. "The Purdue visit was great. That atmosphere is tough to match, and I love their plan for my future," he said after the visit. "They think I can come in and make an impact right away, and fill a role that they have not had."

He has also visited North Carolina, Stanford and Texas Tech.

Ingram appeared on a high school recruiting podcast earlier this week and talked a lot about his recruiting and what might come next. Here's what he had to say:

— on his top-10 list:

• "I felt kind of relieved now that I know I'm getting down to the point where I'm ready to commit. I want to be 100 percent committed with no second thoughts. 

— why education matters so much:

• "Education is a big thing, but now that all 10 schools meet my requirements for education, I can look forward to the basketball stuff.

— on what will be most important in evaluating schools:

• "The big thing will be roster, and the ability to play early, often and through my mistakes.

— on staying in shape

• "The main thing I take away is I never realized how good Michael Jordan and Scottie (Pippen) and Dennis Rodman were. Just watching them play is kind of baffling to me.'' 

— on his favorite animal at the zoo:

• "Crocodiles and alligators. There's something about how they can disappear underwater and then come out of nowhere and kill somebody. We were in Jamaica on a little family trip, and this guy on a safari ride just put on some gear and jumped right in the water. I could never do that.''

Harrison Ingram is a five-star recruit from Dallas who has Purdue in his top 10.

Here's the entire 14-minute interview with Paul Biancardi, ESPN's national director of high school recruiting, and Zain Motani. CLICK HERE