It was announced early Thursday evening that former UConn forward Marcus White will transfer to Purdue. White, a sophomore, will enroll at Purdue and be on campus to start the second semester next week. Purdue associate head coach Matt Painter was thrilled about landing White; who he feels can help the team right away. White will be eligible to play in late December of this year, after sitting out through the first semester of next season. Painter spoke with the media Thursday evening about the impact of landing White.

"He had a very productive true freshman year," said Painter. "He just did a great job rebounding the basketball during the Big East season. We're very fortunate to get someone to help our frontline after the first 7-8-9 games next year. We're just looking to get him into the fold and start to work with him, learning our system and then getting him ready for next year after the first semester ends."

White will be eligible to play the second half of next season, starting at the end of the first semester in December 2005, and then he will have one year of eligibility left beginning with the 2006 season. Although Purdue has some pretty good post players coming back next year, the door is wide open for White as a senior.

"We have a lot of guys coming back...," said Painter. "So he understands that, but he attended a game and he was able to evaluate things for himself and he feels confident that he can step right in and get major minutes. He also understands that his senior year he's going to be the only frontcourt player on our roster (as of now). So I told him he'll play as many minutes as he earns."

Painter says he appreciates the experience and skills that White will bring to the team, assets not easy to find in younger first year post players.

"We are estatic that we were able to land someone that can give us an immediate impact on our frontline," said Painter. "It's close to impossible to sign high school big guys that can play in this league and make an impact. We think that he can make that impact and be one of the best frontline players in the Big 10."

Head coach Gene Keady and the entire Purdue coaching staff feel that White will make an immediate impact by challenging Purdue's post players in practice for the next two semesters before he becomes eligible to play.

"There's no question about it," said Painter.

Painter also expressed that he heard nothing but good things about White when he asked around and said that he understood Marcus' dilemma at UConn. He feels White will be a great fit at Purdue.

"Everybody said take him," said Painter. "He's a great kid, he's a great student, he's a hard worker. There wasn't a person we contacted that didn't say the same things about him."

"You don't want to take somebody else's problem," continued Painter. "And the problem with him at UConn was minutes. He had 3 or 4 pro's in front of him, guys that are very talented that are going to have great careers. Marcus White was good enough to play in the Big East and be a very productive player...but he just had some horses in front of him and it just got to be a numbers game. He wanted to go somewhere where he was needed, I think it was a perfect match."

Stay tuned to Inside Stuff for an update with Marcus White next week from the Purdue campus.

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