Purdue's message to visitor Tre Singleton centered around 'winning'
During Tre Singleton‘s official visit this past weekend, coaches covered all the requisite topics, but Matt Painter, his coaches and players alike hit on one consistent theme, too.
“Their message was pretty much, ‘If you want to win games, this is the place,'” Singleton said, “because that’s what they’ve been doing for 20 years. If you want to win and be developed at the highest level, that’s what they do.”
This was an important visit for Purdue and Singleton, as it was really his first visit to West Lafayette as a recruit, or at least a priority. He’d only been to team camps before.
Boilermaker coaches were among the many drawn to the 6-foot-7ish, 220-pound Jeffersonville High School forward during his emergent summer, specifically his play at the adidas 3SSB Palmetto Road event in Rock Hill, S.C.
During that evaluation period, Singleton shot the ball very well, from three-point distance and mid-range alike, showcasing his progress and consistency in the area of his game he’d focused on improving.
He’d previously shown himself to be a big and physical, but also agile and skilled, multi-positional prospect, with wing-like ball-handling and passing ability in a power forward’s body. The jump shot would round out the floor-spacing component so many people look for in their frontcourts.
Purdue is recruiting Singleton as a perimeter-oriented 4 man who could also play as a massive wing. Some schools looked at him in July as a potential five-out center.
Now, Singleton will have many options to sort through.
Northwestern was the first high-major school to offer him; near-by Louisville — right across the river from Jeffersonville — offered as soon as that Palmetto Road event concluded. He’s already visited both those schools.
Purdue was third, as Singleton was on campus for the Notre Dame football weekend.
“It went really well,” he said. “I got to see a lot of things I wanted to see about Purdue.
“The main things for me were getting to watch practice and then seeing how the players get along with the coaches off the court as well as on the court.”
He said he still intends to visit Virginia, Clemson, Notre Dame and maybe Xavier.
“It’s just the opportunity to come in and make an impact,” Singleton said of his priorities when sorting through schools.
