Purdue Basketball Offseason Homework: Oscar Cluff

The big man from down under brings his talents to Purdue by way of Washington State and South Dakota State. How would we like to see him improve from previous stints?

Purdue Basketball Offseason Homework: Oscar Cluff

Usually during these offseason homework assignments, we have at least seen the players play for Purdue and have a full season (or more) to see what they can improve on. This week, we may not have footage of Oscar Cluff in a Boilermaker uniform, but we still have two seasons worth of basketball to look at. Let’s start with some background though.

Coming all the way from Queensland, Australia, Oscar Cluff is a 6-11 center that first landed in the NJCAA at Cochise College in Arizona. The NCJAA is the national governing body for college athletics spanning 2 years. After two seasons at Cochise, Cluff headed to the PNW to play at Washington State while it was apart of a full PAC 12. Oscar played in all 35 games for the Cougars for his junior season, including 23 starts. He averaged 20.3 minutes, 7.0 points, 4.4 rebounds, 1.2 assists, and 0.9 blocks per game while shooting 53.8% from the field and essentially splitting the starting role with fellow 6-11 big, Rueben Chinyelu. Cluff was 5th in terms of both scoring and rebounding on a team that would finish 2nd in the PAC 12 and make the second round of the NCAA Tournament before losing to 2-seed Iowa State.

Following his season in Pullman, Cluff hit the transfer portal once more and took his talents to South Dakota State to become a Jackrabbit. Oscar would play in 30 games for South Dakota State, all of them starts, and turn in an impressive season. In 27.7 minutes per game, Cluff averaged 17.6 points, 12.3 rebounds, 2.8 assists, 0.8 blocks, and 63.4 % shooting. He was the second leading rebounder per game in the nation and had the best defensive rebounding rate. Now, could his rise in play be attributed to a “big fish – little pond” scenario going from the Pac 12 to the Summit League? Perhaps, but looking at some of Cluff’s game footage, he appears to have nice footwork and use his size decently. Take a look at some highlights put together by Joe Jackson of the Feed the Post channel. Also, if you’re not already following Joe on Twitter (X) and Substack, he provides excellent Big Ten basketball content and coverage, so give him a follow.

Following his season at South Dakota State, Oscar Cluff decided to enter the transfer portal one more time and committed to Purdue, where he should be one of the two centers, keeping Trey Kaufmann-Renn at his natural 4 position. So what do we want to see Oscar do to contribute to the Boilermakers. He obviously brings in experience to the team but here are three skillsets that should be on display when he plays for the Boilermakers:

Rebounding

I said it earlier that Cluff was the nation’s second leading rebounder per game last season and that will be the most helpful skill to bring to the team. The second leading rebounder on Purdue last season was 6-0 Braden Smith and leading rebounder, Trey Kaufman-Renn, grabbed 6.5 boards per game. Oscar Cluff grabbed nearly twice as many rebounds per game last year, and if he can even come close to the number with Purdue, that’s immense value added. Purdue also allowed 9.8 offensive rebounds per game last year, so taking away those extra possessions is the cherry on top.

Rim Protection

Due to the Daniel Jacobsen injury, rim protection was a problem last year. Of course, Purdue had been quite spoiled in years prior with the likes of Hammons, Haarms, Haas, and Edey floating near the rim, but it was simply a problem last season. Cluff should be able to help as he has shown capabilities of being a protector at the rim and using his size to block, if not alter, shot attempts. We don’t foresee Cluff and Jacobsen on the court together often but the vast majority of the time, there should be someone on the court to provide that size down low that Purdue is accustomed to.

Depth / Longevity / Conditioning

This one goes in tandem with the return of Daniel Jacobsen but Purdue will go from having 0 true centers to play meaningful minutes to 2 this year. What this means is more often than not, Trek Kaufman-Renn will not need to play the 5 and with Jacobsen or Cluff on the court, teams might have to think twice before doubling Trey in the post, his favorite spot. It stands to reason to work towards your best players’ skillsets and Cluff could help achieve that. Besides, we know how much Braden Smith likes the pick and roll action and Oscar Cluff has good enough footwork to make that Smith dump down lethal similar to Zach Edey and Trey in years past. One last note on Cluff’s skills is that he has played a good chunk of minutes in games consistently. Playing nearly 28 minutes per game last year show that he can stay out on the court when you need him in case someone else gets in foul trouble. And speaking of foul trouble, Cluff was hit or miss with fouls at South Dakota State. 18 times, Cluff had 2 or fewer fouls in a game while 8 times, he had 4 or more. Only one of those 8 did he foul out though, so you have to think he know how not to foul if need be. But if Cluff can consistently stick to less fouls, he can stay in the game longer and help the team even more.

Welcoming in new players can be tricky as we don’t always know how they will fit into a squad. This year though, Oscar Cluff looks to fit in nicely and help fill a position that had its fair share of issues for Purdue last year. All we can do now is wait to see Oscar Cluff in action.