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VOLUME 26, ISSUE 2 45 I t was August of 2013 and Caleb Swanigan earned a tryout for USA Basketball's 16-and-Under World Championships team. Then just a sophomore at Homestead High School in Fort Wayne, Swanigan traveled to Colorado Springs for the team's training camp and got cut. "I think when he first came there, the level of compe- tition was a little bit of a shock to the system in a sense," said Eric Flannery, the coach at St. Edward High School in Ohio and an assistant coach for Team USA that year. "He battled and did what he had to do, but there just seemed to be a few guys who were ahead of him. I think a lot of that was about confidence and understanding how good he was." Getting sent home may have triggered something in Swanigan. He was invited again a year later, given a chance to vie for a roster spot on USA Basketball's 17-and-Under team. He made it, then helped the U.S. to a gold medal, then another in 2015 at the 19-year-old level. (Swanigan reclassified in high school, skipping right over his junior year at Homestead and the 18-year-old lev- el of international competition.) "He came back that next year (in 2014)," Flannery said, "and you could tell he was in better shape, more focused and had more belief in himself he could compete with those guys. "It wasn't necessarily that his skill set was all that much better; it was just about how confident and com- petitive he was. You hate to use the word 'beast' but he was kind of in beast mode, pushing people around in the post." Swanigan's career arc has been highlighted by such anecdotes, ex- amples of him setting his mind to something and not just accomplish- ing goals, but smashing them. This summer, after the McDonald's All-American enrolled at Purdue, he ran a mile time of 6:08 during sum- mer conditioning, shortly after arriv- ing on campus following his Team USA stint. In response, coaches set an ambi- tious, shall we say, standard of 5:45 for him to shoot for, figuring it might not be such a bad thing for him to fail at something if that's how it turned out. He ran a 5:41. It's that work ethic that immediately endeared Swan- igan, universally known as "Biggie," to his new team- mates. "Biggie is a guy you see four or five times throughout the day working hard, whether it's in the weight room, on the court, in the training room, getting treatment, what- ever," senior Rapheal Davis said this summer. "He car- ries himself like a professional basketball player already being a freshman. "That was huge for our guys to see him doing that coming in, with all the hype he had. For him to work as hard as he does, a lot of guys come from high school thinking they don't have to work as hard, that things will get handed to them. Biggie carries himself phenomenal- ly in my eyes. He works hard, carries himself well off the court, cares about Purdue basketball, cares about win- ning, it's all he cares about. … He wants to be at the front. You can't lead from the back and he knows that." Swanigan's transformation over the years has been a dramatic one. When he was a high school freshman, he stood 6-foot- 5 and weighed approximately 350. Whatever he was then, he's the opposite now. "He's relentless, a coach's dream," said Josh Bonho- tal, Purdue's sports performance coach. "He's going to do anything and everything you tell him to do. Anything where you say, 'This is going to make you better,' he's QUITE A RÉSUMÉ Caleb Swanigan comes to Purdue as the most decorated recruit in school history. Yes, Glenn Robinson and Rick Mount are among those who might have ranked higher by some measures, but in these changing times — when so much "decorating" of recruits is being done — Swanigan is peerless in school history. His notable feats to date: • 2015 Indiana Class 4A state championship (Fort Wayne Homestead) • Gold medal — 2015 FIBA 19-and-Under World Championships (USA Basketball) • 2015 McDonald's All-American • 2015 Indiana Mr. Basketball • Gold medal — 2013 FIBA 17-and-Under World Championships (USA Basketball) • Recruiting national rankings: ESPN — No. 9; Scout.com — No. 13; Rivals.com — No. 19