Boilermakers Hope to Land Five Star Caleb Swanigan

One thing the Boilermakers have struggled with under Matt Painter is winning recruiting battles with bigger schools. Painter and company are hoping to duck that trend with Fort Wayne native Caleb Swanigan. Purdue has more or less been all in for the 6'8 center from the very beginning and finally extended an offer this month.

Fort Wayne five-star 2015 big man Caleb Swanigan has been offered by #Purdue. Reclassified from 2016.

— GoldandBlack.com (@GoldandBlackcom) May 21, 2014

The five star center was ranked by Rivals as the 13th best player in the class of 2016, though Swanigan has recently reclassified and is now set to graduate a year early and will be a part of the 2015 recruiting class. The Boilermakers join a laundry list of teams extending offers, including other big name programs such as Kansas, Michigan State and UCLA. Also of note is that Duke, Kentucky and Michigan have all shown interest but haven't extended an offer yet. Purdue is considered to be one of the main teams in the running, likely due to location and the time spent on him, though they'll need to make a considerable push if they want to land a potentially explosive replacement for current center A.J. Hammons.

Unfortunately for Purdue, players like Swanigan have seemingly came and went and usually have stayed away from West Lafayette. For whatever reason whenever Painter targets kids with a long offer sheet (that includes plenty of top programs) it becomes a losing battle, with Painter losing out to a high number of prospects. It'll be a particularly difficult pill to swallow if the Boilermakers lose another recruiting battle to Michigan State, which looks like a potential landing point for Swanigan per 247 Sports. Most recently the Boilers lost out on star (and inevitable NBA Draft lottery pick) Gary Harris to the Spartans.

Regardless, with his recent reclassification Swanigan should be a point of emphasis for the Boilermakers 2015 class alongside other top prospect Hyron Edwards.