Frontcourt signees may bring ultimate versatility to Purdue

When Purdue was recruiting Trey Kaufman-Renn, one of the two outstanding frontcourt prospects who signed with the Boilermakers on Wednesday, he spoke of the appeal of the program's reputation for "position-less" basketball.

Using former Boilermaker Vincent Edwards as a blueprint, Purdue sold Kaufman-Renn on his ability to play multiple positions and multiple roles for the Boilermakers, as It did months earlier with Caleb Furst, who committed months prior.

Now, with both Rivals.com four-star prospects in the fold starting in 2021-2022, Purdue can count on not only the ability the pair of top-50 prospects will provide, but also the versatility and interchangeable nature that could be the most intriguing part of it.

It'll go like this: Furst — 6-foot-10, 230-some pounds but with mobility and skill that belie his size — will play both as a traditional power forward but also a new-age skill-over-size center. Kaufman — 6-9ish and growing — will play on the wing, but also play at the 4, where his ability to play on the perimeter could provide advantages.

The possibilities for multi-faceted lineups that involve both players are many.

"You're striving to play 30 minutes a game," Coach Matt Painter said generally of recruits' ambitions. "And if you can get that from a couple different spots, that really helps you. And I've talked to anybody that's a versatile player about that, because it just makes sense. I think when you can do those things, and you can try to maybe offset some weaknesses, or you can attack some weaknesses in your opponent, because you can go a couple different ways in how you play, it really helps you."

There's precedent at Purdue.

It wasn't all that long ago that the Boilermakers were filthy rich at center, with A.J. Hammons and Isaac Haas, allowing them to fulfill recruiting promises made to Caleb Swanigan by playing him at power forward as a freshman. Swanigan then played mostly center after Hammons departed, but still moved to forward to play alongside Haas at times. All the while, skilled forward Vincent Edwards fit in at both the 3 and 4.

While some lineups did pan out better than others, and trade-offs did come as matchups evolved, Purdue by and large thrived with those frontcourt dynamics.

This personnel will be different than those days, but the same concepts will be explored.

"Those two guys are going to be able to play in multiple scenarios together, but it also depends on other people," Painter said. "They have to come in and earn it and they understand that.

"We're excited about the possibilities our team is going to have with different lineups."

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Painter and his staff locked into Furst when he was a freshman at Blackhawk Christian in Fort Wayne, as the young big man established a name for himself nationally at a very young age.

Purdue was drawn not just to Furst's size, but his ability to run and move, his passing, his shooting and his effort. Over the span of years, its opinion didn't budge.

"I think he's going to be a tremendous player at Purdue," Painter said.

Things will change at Purdue, though.

At Blackhawk, Indiana's Class A champion two seasons ago, Furst often towers over the competition, which is what made his strong play on Nike EYBL circuit last summer playing against older competition so revealing.

Point is, in high school, Furst's most favorable matchups tend to come on the interior, so he doesn't necessarily need to shoot from the perimeter and play all that much away from the basket.

"He can drive the basketball," Painter said. "It's just hard to drive it sometimes when you're the biggest guy on the court and you've got three or four people around you in a high school game. I think you'll see some things start to open up for him (in college)."

Furst showed in grassroots play that he can be very effective in pick-and-roll, such an Integral part of college basketball offense nowadays. During this non-traditional off-season, he emphasized his jump-shooting as an area to hone, knowing pick-and-pop opportunities are there to be cashed in on.

"It's him just continuing to improve knocking down open jumpers, hopefully knocking down threes," Painter said. "When you have size and you can do that, to go along with his ability to drive the ball from the perimeter, post up around the basket and be that all-around player, it helps you."

Whereas Furst might be described as an interior player who can play on the perimeter, Kaufman-Renn has trended toward being more of a perimeter player who can play on the interior. That development really showed up this summer and was central to Purdue's hopes of getting both Furst and Kaufman-Renn, which might have seemed unthinkable once the first shoe dropped since the two were widely considered to play the same position.

But this summer, Kaufman looked markedly quicker and more explosive than he did prior to the pandemic, which he spent working with a speed trainer and improving his body.

"He's just a hard-working guy who loves basketball and is really striving to always find the next thing to improve," Painter said.

Once Kaufman showed that physical progress, and shot threes as well as he did In recent months — looking more aggressive and confident than ever doing so — Purdue's model for this pairing fell into place.

"His ability to move and shoot the basketball and pass the basketball is (important). He's gonna have to be that 3/4 and he's gonna get Into some matchup situations where he's gonna have smaller people on him and at times bigger people. He's able to drive the ball, he can make Intermediate shots and he can make pull-up shots, which a lot of guys who are 6-8 or 6-9 can't."

Just as Furst's most favorable matchups may lie at the 5, Kaufman's may come at the 4, because the higher the number, the better amplified their strengths as players may be. But Painter's always put an onus on productivity over position and explored every avenue possible to get his best five on the floor and his most capable lineups.

There will be adjustments. Both players are bound to find themselves guarding smaller, quicker players at times, and that could present challenges. Furst's size and Purdue's M.O. of doubling the post on defense might make center his most manageable defensive matchup, and his quickness advantage is more pronounced against centers than it might be perimeter-oriented forwards, especially considering how often centers must contain ball-screen penetration. Conversely, Kaufman-Renn's quickness might be put to the test at the 3, which is generally a third guard for most college programs these days.

All that being said, Purdue will build around Furst and Kaufman-Renn in a variety of roles, and as Painter has always done, do what it can to put them In the best positions it can to be productive.

These are two of the most highly regarded frontcourt signees of Painter's tenure at Purdue, and both ideal fits, the coach says, drawing considerable parallels between the two.

"They're both blue-collar, hard-working, selfless, they have a lot of those same qualities," Painter said. "It's an unbelievable recipe for success."

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