Matt Painter got a chance to talk about his first portal addition, former South Dakota State big man, Oscar Cluff, who officially signed with Purdue on Thursday when he joined the cast of the Field of 68 show during Final Four festitives this weekend.
It's been a busy first few days for Purdue's roster during the portal.
Brian Waddell was the first to announce his departure to the portal. Waddell had never broken into the rotation on a consistent basis after an early career knee injury. Will Berg was soon to follow, a big who started for Purdue this season, but also fell out of the rotation as much as he played.
Neither move was unexpected and were probably needed for both team and players.
Then the not quite surprises, but definitely disappointments hit.
Both uber athletic, three-point shooting wings and sophomores, Camden Heide and Myles Colvin, both announced they'd be entering the portal.
That creates a hole at the wing position for Painter and the Boilers, but Painter's first priority was securing his center spot.
He did that by grabbing Cluff, one of the best big man available in the portal.
"Obviously when you get into the portal and you're trying to add pieces, and add a physicality," Matt Painter said on the show. Then added how Cluff's addition helps with two of Purdue's biggest weaknesses, "We weren't a great rebounding team. We were able to help ourselves there."
Purdue's big man room will get a boost by the return of freshman Daniel Jacobsen, a 7-4 stretch big that played just one full game before a leg injury took him out for the rest of the year.
But Purdue knew it needed to add some heft and a clear center to secure its front court.
"Trying to solidify our front line," Painter said about the addition.
Painter and Purdue still has work to do in the portal, including keeping its remaining stars. That was something he was asked about in whether Braden Smith was returning for his senior year after becoming a first-team All-American and Big Ten Player of the Year.
Matt Painter's answer was a non-commital one, not really addressing the question, but instead providing some commentary on the problem at hand in college basketball with the portal right now.
"It's the one thing about anything that you go through when it's the same for everybody," Painter said. "And I think you see that now and how everything is set up, everyone is out there. Just think if the NBA had free agency and just had one year contracts... So like we gotta get more guardrails than we have right now. But now Braden Smith has been fabulous."
That's as much as Painter was willing to give away as the portal hangs open for over three weeks still.
