Northwestern offered three-star athlete Duke Olges on Thursday. The question is, what took them so long?

Olges seemed like a slam dunk from the outset. He comes from Winnetka (Ill.) New Trier, just a few miles up the road from Northwestern’s campus in Evanston, and has been to “countless Northwestern games” in his life, he says. He’s 6-foot-5 and 260 pounds with the athleticism to play a variety of positions. Grades weren’t an issue – his 25 offers include four from Ivy League schools. Former New Trier teammate Brian Kaiser signed with the Wildcats in February to top things off.

But to understand why the Wildcats didn’t extend an offer earlier requires a bit of history – and more than 40 pounds of weight gain over less than a year.