More: Painter on suspensions

Purdue sophomore Ryan Cline's suspension has been extended to cover the first four games of the regular season, Matt Painter announced Friday morning.

Cline had originally been suspended for Purdue's two exhibition events, plus the season opener against McNeese State. He will now also miss games against Villanova, Georgia State, and the opener in Cancun against Utah State.

He was arrested during the summer and faces a charge of marijuana possession. According to the probable cause affidavit, Cline was found by police unresponsive in his running car on the morning of June 27. The responding officer shattered a window to access the vehicle, fearing a medical crisis.

"As we've said before, our guys are held to a high standard of conduct off the court," Painter said in a statement Friday morning. "After some additional meetings and information gathering over the last week, we've decided that Ryan will sit out the first six contests of the season for a violation of team rules. We are not going to discuss specifics and will handle other items internally, but feel this is the best course of action for our program and everyone involved."

Cline has continued to practice with the team.

Basil Smotherman opens the season suspended, too, for the three-game duration that has been standard for Painter in recent years.

"It is unfortunate," Painter said after Tuesday night's exhibition against Southern Indiana. "You want guys to flourish and take this opportunity and springboard into not just having a great career but having a great life. This is an unbelievable advantage you have on other people, having this opportunity. But there has to be some order. There just does. Sometimes these things can be a little bit of a blessing in disguise where guys have a little bit of a public humiliation. Sometimes it's something you'd rather not do, you'd rather just handle some things (privately), but it gets to a point where it's what you're going to do. If they can learn from it and be better that's what you want. You don’t want it to be as much a punishment as it is a consequence and now you learn from it, grow from it and you don't make that mistake anymore. That's our hope."

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