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Local recruit and top Northwestern target Nojel Eastern announced his commitment and signed his National Letter of Intent to Purdue this afternoon.
Congratulations to Nojel Eastern on signing his National Letter of Intent to get his education and play basketball at Purdue University!!! pic.twitter.com/hdMcIY0bId
— Evanston Athletics (@ETHSports) November 16, 2016
Northwestern failed to crack Eastern’s top five, which was Ohio State, Michigan State, Seton Hall, DePaul, and of course Purdue.
The consensus four-star recruit was the final guard of the 2017 class to hold a Northwestern offer. He was ranked the 3rd best player in Illinois and No. 69 in the nation by 247 Sports.
Living in Evanston, Eastern attended plenty of Northwestern games, and was one of his earlier offers back in October, 2015. In 2014, Eastern was a member of the U16 USA team, but a broken ankle in 2015 kept him out out of the live July recruiting period, and hurt his chances of making the U17 roster.
Eastern recovered swiftly from the injury, leading Evanston High School to a conference championship in 2015-16. As a 6-foot-6 point guard, Eastern figures to be a tough matchup for teams throughout the country.
As for next steps for Northwestern, there is not a single player currently holding a Northwestern offer for the class of 2017, which now has two scholarship spots available with Johnnie Vassar’s release from athletic scholarship. Vassar has since brought a lawsuit against the university and the NCAA.