Purdue Aims To Confirm Preseason #1 Status

In today’s age of NIL contracts and unbridled transferring among players, enjoying one four-year player, one who stays from his freshman year until he graduates, is a rarity in college basketball.

Purdue has three such mainstays on their 2025-26 roster.

Seniors Trey Kaufman-Renn, Braden Smith, and Fletcher Loyer have played in all 110 career games in which they suited up together, and all three were in the starting lineup for each game spanning the past two seasons.

Such experience and leadership are hard to come by. While head coach Matt Painter knows how lucky he is to have the seniors he has, he also understands that his veterans must show the way for those less seasoned.

“I think anytime you have guys on your team who have had success, they’ve been through these scenarios, which they have,” Painter said. “Not everybody, though. So, from a collective standpoint, we have to act like nobody’s been through this.”

Kaufman-Renn, a first-team All-Big Ten member last season, will be asked to continue his dominance of the frontcourt for one more year. TKR was the only player in the nation to average at least 20 points, six rebounds, and two assists per game in 2024-25.

Smith is the reigning Big Ten Player of the Year and earned first-team All-America honors after his phenomenal junior season. He averaged 15.8 points, 8.7 assists, 4.5 rebounds, and 2.2 steals per game, all while leading the team in minutes played (1,333) and 3-pointers made (83).

Loyer returns for his fourth season after leading the Big Ten and ranking 11th in the country in three-point shooting percentage. He enjoyed his finest season in a Purdue uniform, averaging 13.8 points, 2.1 rebounds, and 1.8 assists per game.

What sets this triumvirate apart and eventually leads to bigger and brighter accomplishments goes beyond the box scores, according to Painter, who brings back an incredible 86% of his team’s scoring from last year.

“All of our guys have sacrificed, whether it was returning guys, incoming guys — if you have a bunch of good players, it’s hard to get them to their value, especially on the free market,” explained Painter. “All of our guys sacrificed, and all of them could have made more money at other places. Their numbers are still good (at Purdue), and our total numbers are really good.”

That sacrifice to better their program works in more ways than one. Not only do Boilermaker fans get to enjoy these three stars for one more season, but that unselfishness to stay in West Lafayette led to Painter and his staff hauling in an impressive array of talent through the transfer portal.

Purdue’s Transfers Set To Contribute Immediately

By bypassing bags of cash elsewhere, the Purdue seniors showed the cream of the transfer crop that being a Boilermaker is truly a destination spot in college basketball.

Via the transfer portal in the off-season, Purdue lost guard Myles Colvin to Wake Forest and forward Cam Heide to Texas. While their contributions were significant last season, the incoming transfers who are set to call West Lafayette home are sure to lessen that blow.

Big man Oscar Cluff comes over from South Dakota State, where all he did in 2024-25 was earn first-team All-Summit League honors.

Omer Mayer, a 19-year-old swingman from Israel, has wowed fans and opponents alike on the world’s stage at the 2025 19U FIBA World Cup tournament over the summer. He ranked second among all players by averaging over 20 points per game.

The biggest “newcomer” is 7-foot-4 Daniel Jacobsen, who returns to full health after breaking his leg in the first minutes of his second collegiate game. After sitting out the remainder of Purdue’s season, Jacobsen has put on upwards of 30 pounds of muscle and is ready to test the Big Ten waters as a sophomore.

End Of Purdue Rant: Boilermakers Embracing The Target On Their Back

This year’s Purdue Boilermakers have two ways to think of their early-season accolades.

One way to view it is to expect and dread every team’s best effort and wear the proverbial bullseye on their back tentatively and cautiously, to play not to lose instead of to win. Pressure often gets the best of younger teams because they have not been battle-tested.

Painter knows his team will crave the alpha dog status, acknowledging that the attention from the national media is beneficial for the health of the program.

“I think it (the top ranking) is a good thing. You’ve worked hard to be in a really good position. I think it helps you more from an attention standpoint, a recruiting standpoint, and your program getting noticed, which you always want,” Painter said.

He also knows that being #1 does not automatically win games, but the reason they are #1 is because of their experience and leadership.

“I think that’s where your focus has to be: being mature enough to know you still have to do your job, you can’t let your teammates down, you have to stay connected,” commented Painter.

With the “Big Three” and the transfer treasure trove he garnered, Painter realizes that this could be a magical year for Purdue basketball.