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McDonald's Caleb Swanigan ended hotly contested and highly scrutinized recruitment by committing to Purdue. VOLUME 25, EX 28 • MAY 21, 2015 Inside | Top 10 stories 5-10 Men's, women's basketball notes 11–14 Football news 17-20 | Douglas retires 21-22 Purdue Wins Landmark Recruiting Battle BY BRIAN NEUBERT BNeubert@GoldandBlack.com W hen one of the most hotly contested, closely scrutinized recruiting tales of the year had finally been fully written, it was Purdue that was the final program standing. Not Michigan State, the school Caleb Swanigan originally committed to. Not Kentucky, or Duke, or Arizona, or any of the other college basketball goliaths that badly wanted the five-star recruit and McDonald's All-American. Purdue got him, adding a significant piece to an already rock- solid team and possibly raising the bar for what it might be capable of in 2015-16. Swanigan's commitment to the Boilermakers, made weeks after a rushed pledge to the Spartans and made official by a simple "#BoilerUp" post on his Twitter account Tuesday, gave Purdue a victory in a recruiting drama its coaches poured all of themselves into. "We weren't planning on committing early, not even early during the spring period," said Roosevelt Barnes, Swanigan's adopted father and the central figure in his son's recruitment. "Our plan all along was to commit around this time or even later. He had reclassified and gone from a 2016 to 2015 so everything was accelerated and so we felt like we really had to take our time, see exactly what all the information was, then make a good, informed decision. "Well, in this day and age, with social media and the pressure of so many people asking kids to make these big life decisions, I just think he felt like he needed to do something (and committed to Michigan State). But once we got back home and sat down and revisited all our goals we had set from the beginning, we just felt like we had to re-evaluate the situation, then make a sound decision based off all of that information." From the outset of recruiting, Barnes promised a "business decision," based on basketball practicalities, totally void of emotion. He's a Purdue alumnus, a former three-sport athlete in West Lafayette, but contrary to popular opinion and flawed assumption, that fact played no role. What did play a role was Painter's plan to use Swanigan as a true power forward as opposed to a center, where he'd have played almost anywhere else. Purdue's existing personnel lined up perfectly as part of that plan. "One of the reasons he'll fit well with Purdue is his versatility. He rebounds. That's what his DNA is: Banging and rebounding," Barnes said. "But I think because of the fact they have (A.J. Hammons) and (Isaac Haas) returning, people will get to see FOOTBALL PREVIEW NEXT: MAILS JULY 1 Up next is our 2015 Purdue Football Preview, a comprehensive look at the Boilermakers heading into the 2015 campaign, that mails on or around July 1. Please allow 10 days for delivery. Over the summer, we will be working on a more frequent and mobile friendly format for Gold and Black Express that will launch the last week of August. After 25 years of publishing, we are grateful for our subscribers and look forward to telling more Purdue stories in the 2015-16 season. GOLDANDBLACK EXPRESS • VOLUME 25, EXPRESS 28 • 1