Purdue Basketball: Ryan Cline suspended for season opener
Purdue basketball won’t have the services of one of their key role players in their season opener.
Head coach Matt Painter and the Purdue Boilermakers suspended Ryan Cline on Tuesday for violating team rules. Cline already was forced to sit out a recent exhibition game, but will also miss the team’s closed scrimmage against West Virginia and the season opener against McNeese State.
Since the official announcement of the suspension, more details of the nature of the violation have emerged. Court documents reveal that a Hamilton County Sheriff’s deputy was forced to break the passenger window of a black Lexus in order to remove the unconscious 6’6″ forward from the vehicle.
According to the officer, Cline’s foot had been revving the accelerator while he was unresponsive, and a bag of what the officer believed to be marijuana was found in the center console of the vehicle.
Cline will join his teammate Basil Smotherman on the bench during the season opener. The redshirt junior power forward was also recently suspended for the same amount of time due to an incident involving possession of drug paraphernalia.
Smotherman and Cline are expected to see an increase in playing time this year as Painter attempts to put together a successful run in the ultra-competitive Big Ten.
Cline averaged 3.9 points, 1.3 assists and 1.2 rebounds in 13.6 minutes per game in his first season in West Lafayette. However, he shot 39 percent from beyond the three point line, showing his ability to space the floor.
Having to suspend two of the players that Purdue needs to step up as leaders both on and off the court is without a doubt not the way Painter wanted to begin this year’s campaign. However, the Boilermakers are certainly one of the top four teams in the Big Ten heading into the 2016-17 season.
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