Matt Painter Confirms Purdue Will Be Active in Transfer Portal at Season's End

INDIANAPOLIS — All throughout the college basketball season, Purdue has been praised as a program that continues to thrive on high school recruiting and development in an era that depends so heavily on the transfer portal. While that will always be Matt Painter's top option, the coach of the Boilermakers confirmed that he and his staff will be looking to add some transfer pieces during the offseason.

Earlier this week, a graphic of each Sweet 16 team's starting lineup went viral. The image highlighted where every player began their college basketball career, and Purdue was the only school that didn't have any transfers on in the starting rotation.

Asked about that specific graphic during his March Madness press conference on Thursday, Painter talked about the recruiting process in West Lafayette. He also revealed that the Boilers are looking to add some guys from the portal once the season concludes.

"We've just stayed the same path as we have before — we've taken transfers before, even though we've taken two people out of the portal in four years. That's probably the fewest amount in the country," Painter said. "But we still took someone out of the portal who was a big piece for us in going to the Final Four in Lance Jones.

"And, we're going to get a guy or two here in the portal in the spring. It's just kind of the way, in terms of how you recruit and how you go about things."

Purdue has just one senior on its roster this year, forward Caleb Furst. Whether or not Painter is simply looking to replace a departing senior or if he knows others are entering the portal remains unknown.

Even with the Boilermakers jumping into the transfer portal, it doesn't seem like that will be Purdue's primary way of building a roster. However, Painter did admit that, in today's climate, it's not easy to keep everyone on the team happy.

"Probably the fact that we've been able to keep guys sometimes kind of blows your mind, because it's hard," Painter said. "If you have 13 guys on scholarship and to keep everyone happy, (that's hard).

"It'll be interesting to see where we go from here, though. There's no doubt we're going to use the portal, we're just probably not going to use it as much as everybody else."

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