Butterfly effect: Caleb Swanigan

“The Butterfly Effect” is a limited-run series GoldandBlack.com is rolling out this summer highlighting events that occurred or decisions that were made that rippled out and helped Purdue reach its current level, highlighted by the last season’s Final Four and leading into this much-anticipated coming season.

An example of the Butterfly Effect in this context: Roy Williams leaving Kansas for North Carolina, thus pulling Bill Self from Illinois to Kansas, leading to Bruce Weber getting the Illinois job, and Matt Painter being promoted at Southern Illinois, all just as Purdue’s post-Gene Keady plans had to be made.

Previous editions: David Teague and Carl Landry get hurt | Getting JaJuan Johnson | Throwing AJ Hammons to the fire | Bottoming out in 2014 | Jon Octeus Saves The Day | Decommitments

PART 7: ALL THAT WENT INTO GETTING CALEB SWANIGAN

The biggest recruiting get of the Matt Painter Era to date: Caleb Swanigan, the five-star recruit and McDonald’s All-American who chose Purdue in 2015 over everyone in the country and subsequently was arguably the best player in college basketball as a sophomore.

Long before Swanigan’s story ended tragically with his death in 2022 at the age of 25, he was college basketball’s most amazing story. Though it was far less important than that of his life, Swanigan’s recruiting story was something unto itself, as his landing at Purdue was the end result of numerous pieces falling into place over the span of many years.

For one thing, Swanigan’s adoptive father, Roosevelt Barnes, is a Purdue alumnus. Contrary to popular belief and assumption, at that time, that didn’t matter much if at all. If anyone thought Barnes was going to deliver recruits to his alma mater just because it was his alma mater, those people were mistaken, unaware that two of his own biological sons turned down opportunities to play football at Purdue and a few Fort Wayne area basketball prospects who came into Barnes’ universe went places other than Purdue.

That was the first pillar to this. After getting the Purdue job, Painter recruited a few players from the Blessed IJN grassroots program Barnes was involved with back in those days, one of those recruits being a player named Eshaunte Jones from Fort Wayne North Side. Jones, who’d go on to commit to Indiana, then play at Oregon State, pre-Big Ten Nebraska and finally Northern Kentucky, did not come to Purdue, obviously, but that process did illuminate the honesty in recruiting that Painter has come to be known for. Much of Painter’s messaging in recruiting Jones resonated in years that followed as Jones’ career played out as it did.

No one could have known back then that that credibility would really matter in a high-level recruitment that ultimately came down to trust.

So much more went into it, though.

When Barnes adopted Swanigan, eventually raising easily debunked NCAA curiosities, it was impossible to foresee the 350-plus-pounder from a particularly trying up-bringing being an eventual NBA prospect.

That is how it played out, however, and it was that outcome that drove Swanigan’s eventual decisions, influenced heavily by Barnes, a highly successful agent who’d come up under the wing of industry legend and fellow Purdue alumnus Eugene Parker.

After Swanigan became an elite basketball recruit and reclassified into the 2015 class, it was about the NBA, the priority being an opportunity to play power forward, as opposed to center. The big man was best suited for center, but would have to show the ability to play forward for the benefit of his NBA stock.

It was one of the few times in his tenure that Painter made a truly transactional recruiting approach. Not exclusively transactional, but certainly a pitch that was more about the player’s ambitions than anything.

Swanigan himself was a tough sell. He held it against Purdue that it did not offer him as a freshman. Purdue was the first to see Swanigan’s potential, but didn’t offer a scholarship as early as others did. For a driven, willful, stubborn young man who’d worked himself out of the longest odds imaginable, that translated to, “They didn’t believe in me.” So Swanigan committed to Michigan State, which had offered him early, where he seemed to fit perfectly into the archetype of player the Spartans had won so much with.

But Tom Izzo would have played him at center.

Right around this same time, Purdue’s A.J. Hammons announced he’d be returning for his senior season, to again join then-sophomore Isaac Haas in a timeshare at center. This was a big deal on the Swanigan front.

The two 7-footers both being on the roster made Purdue’s pitch clear as day: “Not only do we not want to play you at center. We can’t play you at center.”

Barnes and by extension Swanigan’s decision-making was based almost entirely on business. Swanigan had committed to the Spartans and was interested in Cal, where the prospect of playing with fellow elite recruits Jaylen Brown and Ivan Rabb for an African-American head coach in Cuonzo Martin was a real draw.

Ultimately, though, the business of playing power forward three hours from Fort Wayne for a coach with a history of truth-telling with Swanigan’s circle won out. Painter then did everything he said he’d do, playing Swanigan exclusively at power forward as a freshman, in some ways to the team’s detriment as standout Vince Edwards was displaced to accommodate Swanigan and some real defensive issues surfaced as Purdue played one of the biggest interior trios probably ever in college basketball.

But in Year 2, Swanigan was truly great. Before Zach Edey, it was difficult to envision anyone at Purdue dominating the way Swanigan did as a sophomore, playing center after Painter’s season-long promise to use him at forward was met.

The ripple effects are probably modest, but Swanigan’s commitment was a splash made in recruiting circles Purdue didn’t often have success in if it ventured into at all. It gave Purdue some added street cred in recruiting, for certain, but it also fortified Purdue’s growing reputation for getting, developing and featuring great big men. Swanigan laid a blueprint for Trevion Williams who also became an All-American at Purdue.

(And all that time Painter spent watching Swanigan play for Indy Heat in the springs and summers, he was also seeing teammate P.J. Thompson, who he wound up offering and signing. Thompson is on Painter’s staff now, contributed to a Final Four run and Braden Smith‘s emergence and figures to be around a long, long time.)

Moving forward, the game has changed. That Purdue won a business decision with an elite player back then, that is instructive to modern times, when all these players have agents now and aspirations for not just their basketball careers but also their short-term earning potential.

Earning trust with agents is critical, and early returns suggest that Painter and his staff’s bona fides in standing by their words, being reliable, open and accountable and such has resonated with various recruits’ representatives. Omer Mayer is a direct result.

Today, Barnes — historically a stead-fast, unemotional, results-driven businessman above all else — is a staunch advocate of Purdue not because he went there, but because its coach did right by him and Swanigan at every turn, stood by his promises and helped produce the outcome sought all along. Swanigan was a first-round pick after his sophomore year.

The end was a tragic one — COVID certainly didn’t help Swanigan’s ability to keep his past at bay and stick in the league — but the Purdue portion of his life was a success story if there ever was one, for all involved.