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What will the move be?
The transfer portal for men’s basketball has opened and closed. No Purdue player who was expected to stay has entered their name. Purdue saw Mason Gillis and Ethan Morton head out the door, but their years at Purdue were numbered already and they graduated and went through senior day festivities. They are only able to continue playing due to the Covid year and Matt Painter knew this was going to happen. That’s why he signed a 6 six player freshman class. However, just five scholarships are available heading into next season. So, what now?
Well, right up front, the first thing I want to say is that I will not be speculating on specific players here, only the ways in which this situation gets resolved. Right now Purdue has 8 players on scholarship that are returning from the National Championship game team: Caleb Furst, Brian Waddell, TKR, Braden Smith, Fletcher Loyer, Will Berg, Camden Heide, Myles Colvin. That’s three returning starters for Purdue and a number of guys poised to have big opportunities at minutes. But that’s 8, an important number here. The NCAA allows just 13 players to be on scholarship in men’s basketball. A bit of quick math here tells me that this means Purdue has five scholarships open. But didn’t I just say that Matt Painter has signed a six man freshman class? Yes, I did say that. And it has the added benefit of being true. Purdue has signed: Jack Benter, Raleigh Burgess, Kanon Catchings, C.J. Cox, Gicarri Harris, and Daniel Jacobsen. So, 8+6=14 and 14>13. Matt Painter has a few options before next season starts.
The first was the one that most of us felt was most likely and that was someone hits the transfer portal in the offseason. That hasn’t happened. It’s not as if we wanted to lose someone, but it’s just the nature of college basketball. Players leave. They look for greener pastures whether that be for a coach they gel with or for more minutes. It’s 2024, we know how this works. With no player entering the transfer portal there are still other ways that a player can leave but they are less likely. Someone could head down a level and transfer later on. That way they would be eligible to play right away. This also seems unlikely.
Next, one of the incoming freshman could not join the team next season. This could happen through a decommitment or heading to prep school. Keep in mind we are not saying that this will happen, I’m just laying out ways that this can happen. Getting out of a signed letter of intent is a bit harder than getting out of a verbal commitment that, quite frankly, isn’t worth the storage it took on the cloud, but it does happen. Next, one of Purdue’s incoming freshman could decide/agree that a year of extra seasoning is what they need and head to prep school. Personally, I’ve always been a bit hazy on how prep schools work because like, what’s the point of them? These are kids who have already graduated high school and who spend a year doing…what exactly? I understand heading to one if there is an academic issue, but that’s not the case for any of these incoming guys and so it’s almost like going to a fifth year of high school just because. I know they can earn college credits at many if not most prep schools but it still takes a lot of sacrifice to be willing to defer everything for one more year. But sacrifice has been so much a part of the Purdue basketball program that it wouldn’t be hugely shocking to see someone do this, but the incoming class is so good I’m not sure who you convince to do this.
The next option is that a scholarship player goes off scholarship and frees one up for an incoming recruit. You’ve seen these stories I’m sure of a player giving up his scholarship to a walk-on who is really deserving and generally has a heartwarming story you’d see on College Gameday maybe narrated by Tom Rinaldi. This happened in 2023 at Eastern Michigan. Much like the above scenario with an incoming player agreeing to go to prep school this would take a huge sacrifice from a current player and their family. Purdue isn’t cheap I don’t care if you’re in state or out of state or international. College is expensive. When my son was born I had a 529 college savings plan opened before he turned a month old and I’ve been saving in it every month for nearly four years now. It would certainly make for an incredible story and could be combined with the next aspect to lessen the blow.
There’s an episode of South Park from years ago about Underpants Gnomes who steal your underwear and then ??? and then profit. That’s basically this solution. Someone gives up their scholarship whether that be a current player or an incoming one…NIL…open scholarship with no pain for anyone at all. Now, how would this work? Would this run afoul of the NCAA or Big Ten in any way? How would you guarantee the funds since technically the school cannot pay the players? These are all good questions that I’m sure people in these positions have answers to, but that I don’t have the expertise for. However, I’m sure it’s been discussed.
So there you have it. Those are the options available to Purdue men’s basketball and head coach Matt Painter. We’ve not heard anything concrete about which way this will go, only rumors from certain people. However, as I stated above since these are about real people with real families and friends I personally won’t be speculating. I’ll let the process play out and trust that a plan is in place, but even if a plan isn’t in place, a solution will present itself in the months ahead as well, it just has to because they numbers are what they are.
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