Oscar Cluff’s Houston Rockets deal crowns Cochise basketball rise

Oscar Cluff’s next stop is Houston, where the Rockets signed the former Cochise College big man as an undrafted free agent and put him on track for the 2026 NBA Summer League in Las Vegas, which begins July 3. The deal is not a guaranteed regular-season roster spot.

That climb started with a junior-college run that made Cluff one of the most productive post players in NJCAA basketball. He came to Cochise from Queensland, Australia and spent two seasons with the Apaches from 2021 to 2023, helping them win 58 games and the 2022 NJCAA Region 1 championship. By the end of that stretch, he had earned NJCAA Second Team All-America honors as a sophomore.

Cluff averaged 12.0 points per game as a freshman and jumped to 18.2 points and 9.8 rebounds as a sophomore, while shooting 74.8 percent from the field. He finished with 473 points, 46 blocks and 2.3 assists in 2022-23.

Washington State was his first power-conference stop. Cluff joined a Cougars team that won 25 games and reached the 2024 NCAA Tournament. At South Dakota State in 2024-25, he averaged 17.6 points, 12.3 rebounds and 2.8 assists while posting 22 double-doubles. The Jackrabbits named him Summit League Newcomer of the Year, First Team All-Summit League and an All-Defensive Team selection, and he led the league in rebounds while ranking among the national leaders in double-doubles and field-goal percentage.

Cluff committed to Purdue on April 4, 2025. On3 ranked him the No. 1 transfer in the country. He started all 39 games in 2025-26, averaged 10.6 points, 7.5 rebounds and 1.8 assists, and shot 68.3 percent from the field, the second-best single-season mark in Purdue history. He was named MVP of the Baha Mar Championship after averaging 13.0 points and 11.0 rebounds in wins over Memphis and Texas Tech, made the Big Ten All-Tournament Team and the NCAA All-West Regional team, and was one of 10 Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Award semifinalists on Feb. 6.