Tag: Caleb Swanigan

Caleb Swanigan leads Purdue past Notre Dame in 2016 Crossroads Classic

RIP to a terrific player.

The basketball world is stunned by the news that former Purdue All-American and NBA player Caleb Swanigan is dead at 25. In two seasons with the Boilermakers, Swanigan averaged 19.7 points and 10.4 rebounds a game. He was a 2017 first-round selection of the Portland Trail Blazers and played 65 games for them over three seasons. He also was a Sacramento King for 10 games in between.

Swanigan played one game against Notre Dame. That occurred during the 2016 edition of the now-defunct Crossroads Classic in Indianapolis. Facing an Irish team that was coming off back-to-back Elite Eights, Swanigan was the straw that stirred the Boilermakers that day as he had a game-high 26 points to go with 10 rebounds in an 86-81 win. Meanwhile, the Irish got 23 points from [autotag]Bonzie Colson[/autotag] and 22 from [autotag]Matt Farrell[/autotag].

Our thoughts and prayers go to the Swanigan family during this difficult time. He might only have faced the Irish once, but his mark on basketball in Indiana never will be forgotten.

Basketball world mourns Caleb Swanigan, who unexpectedly died at 25 years old

Rest in Peace, Caleb Swanigan.

It’s never an easy thing to deal with death, but it’s especially tough to do so when it just doesn’t feel like it was the person’s time to go.

That’s how everyone seems to feel about former Purdue Boilermaker star Caleb Swanigan. News broke Tuesday that the former Trail Blazers draft pick died at 25 years old.

It’s unclear exactly what happened with Swanigan. Purdue’s Men’s basketball team was the first to announce the on Twitter.

They didn’t announce any further details on what happened. It came out of nowhere. Absolutely no one was expecting this, and just about everyone was devastated because of it.

Swanigan was picked by the Trail Blazers in 2017 and had a three-year NBA stint that he split between Portland and the Sacramento Kings. Before that, he played his basketball at Purdue, where he was a consensus All-American and also named Big Ten Player of the Year in 2017.

He was Indiana’s Mr. Basketball in 2015, which is a huge honor only bestowed to some of the best talents we’ve seen come out of the state.

This was simply heartbreaking for a lot of people. So many folks had so many good things to say about Swanigan as both a former teammate and a friend.