Retention has been a huge key to Purdue's success in recent seasons. Even with the popularity of the transfer portal and student-athletes having free movement across the country, coach Matt Painter has assembled a roster of players who have decided to spend their entire careers in West Lafayette.
It starts with Braden Smith, Fletcher Loyer and Trey Kaufman-Renn all returning for the 2025-26 season. All three are multi-year starters and have hopes of bringing another Big Ten title and a potential national championship back to Purdue.
As if their collective decision to return wasn't enough, the Boilermakers also bring back key freshmen CJ Cox, Gicarri Harris, Raleigh Burgess and Daniel Jacobsen. It provides Painter and his staff with a solid foundation entering another college basketball season.
College basketball analyst Jon Rothstein recently sang the praises of Purdue and its ability to retain players, especially such key contributors on an annual basis.
"Purdue is set to return 86% of its scoring from last season's team that went to the Sweet 16 and lost to Houston in the final seconds," Rothstein said. "Three of the Boilers' starters from a year ago — Braden Smith, Fletcher Loyer and Trey Kaufman-Renn — not only started last season, but also started two years ago when Purdue lost in the National Championship Game. That is unheard of from a retention perspective in college basketball.
"There are only five players in college basketball that are set to return next year that were All-Americans last year — two of them are on Purdue's roster, Braden Smith and Trey Kaufman-Renn."
The Boilers did see four players enter the transfer portal during the offseason — Brian Waddell, Will Berg, Camden Heide and Myles Colvin. Purdue was quick to restock its shelves, though, landing 6-foot-11 center Oscar Cluff and 6-foot-7 wing Liam Murphy via the transfer portal.
Additionally, Purdue landed top-150 recruits Omer Mayer and Antione West Jr. as members of the 2025 recruiting class. Those additions, along with the talent returning, has propelled the Boilermakers into the catbird seat in college basketball.
It could create a favorable path to a national championship, too.
"If Purdue is the No. 1 seed in the Midwest (Region) ... the path for Purdue, with the best retention that we're going to see in the sport, will be St. Louis to Chicago and back to Indianapolis at Lucas Oil Stadium for a chance to win a national championship and play in a Final Four in its home state," Rothstein said.
The combination of Smith, Loyer and Kaufman-Renn have already won two Big Ten regular season championships, a Big Ten Tournament title, played in the National Championship Game and have reached the NCAA Tournament all three seasons. They'd love to bring even more hardware back to West Lafayette in their final year at Purdue.
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