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Heady Times for Purdue Basketball As Boilers Start Season No. 1
It’s a season of great expectations for the Purdue men’s basketball team, starting with yet another first for Matt Painter’s program.
Until Monday’s release of the preseason Associated Press Top 25 college basketball poll, no Purdue team had ever began the season ranked No. 1.
The Boilermakers earned 35 of 61 first-place votes to edge the two teams that played in last season’s NCAA title game, with runner-up Houston at No. 2 and reigning champion Florida at No. 3.
“We are obviously excited to get the season going and being ranked No. 1 in the preseason is a great indicator of what we feel this team can accomplish,” Painter told The Associated Press. “But the goal is to be No. 1 at the end of the year. We’re thrilled that people think this highly of our team, but there is a long ways to go and a lot of work to do to reach that goal in April.”
Since 1949, just six other programs have been ranked No. 1 four times over a five-year span: UCLA, Duke, Kentucky, Kansas, North Carolina and Gonzaga.
Hopes haven’t been this high for an elusive NCAA national championship since the 1987-88 season when Gene Keady’s Boilermakers began the season ranked second. Fans are buying into the hype, too. The only game with tickets still available in Mackey Arena is Washington on Jan. 7.
The preseason ranking is the latest milestone achieved under Painter since the 2021-22 season. Purdue had never been ranked No. 1 in any AP poll until that season and it would set a Big Ten record by being ranked No. 1 at some point in three consecutive seasons.
Just like the 1987-88 ranking was based on the return of future Purdue Athletic Hall of Fame members Troy Lewis, Todd Mitchell and Everette Stephens, the foundation of Monday’s honor is the return of All-American point guard Braden Smith, scoring leader Trey Kaufman-Renn and shooting guard Fletcher Loyer.
Ten teams ranked in The Associated Press poll are possible Purdue opponents. Michigan is the highest ranked at No. 7 with Big Ten foes UCLA (12th), Illinois (17th), Michigan State (22nd) and Wisconsin (24th) following behind.
Purdue’s peers also showed their respect before Big Ten Media Days. Smith was the only unanimous selection to the preseason All-Big Ten team. Kaufman-Renn, a first-team All-Big Ten selection as a junior, joins Smith on the preseason team.
If Smith can repeat as the postseason Player of the Year, it would extend Purdue’s Big Ten record to four consecutive Big Ten Players of the Year. Smith is coming off a season that saw him win the Bob Cousy Award as the nation’s top point guard. He has a chance to become the NCAA’s career assists leader, starting 2025-26 with 758. Former Duke star Bobby Hurley set the record of 1,076 in 1993.
More superlatives
Purdue also sits atop the ESPN.com preseason rankings compiled by Jeff Borzello.
“There are very few doubts about Purdue’s offensive potential — the Boilermakers were seventh nationally in offensive efficiency last season and bring back the bulk of that group,” Borzello writes. “The key to their quest for a national championship, however, will come down to defense. They had the worst 2-point defense in the Big Ten last season, a stark drop-off from when Zach Edey was patrolling the paint. If Purdue can shore up its defense, Painter’s team is the title favorite.”
The Athletic’s CJ Moore concurs, listing the Boilermakers and Michigan as national title contenders.
“Any offense with Smith, Loyer and Kaufman-Renn is going to be elite, and it gets even better with the addition of Omer Mayer, a homegrown talent from Tel Aviv in Israel who is one of the best young guards overseas,” Moore writes. “Mayer will be Purdue’s next great point guard after Smith graduates, but he should be able to provide some extra playmaking and scoring next to Smith this season. He’s a big upgrade at the second guard spot for the Boilers, who missed Lance Jones last year.
“The Zach Edey void was also felt last year, but more on defense than offense. Purdue allowed opponents to shoot 55.6 percent from inside the arc, which ranked 332nd nationally. The Boilermakers were also a below-average rebounding team. For both areas, Painter hit the transfer portal and landed a dirty-work center in Oscar Cluff. He was a star at South Dakota State last season, but his role before that, when he was more of a rebounder/defender at Washington State, is more pertinent to what Purdue needed. Washington State had the 26th-best defense in 2023-24 with Cluff as the starting center; he should help Purdue get closer to the 12th-ranked defense it had in Edey’s final year. The return of Daniel Jacobsen, the 7-foot-4 center who fractured his tibia in the second game of the year last season, should also help.
“Painter is one of the best coaches in the game, and this roster fits him perfectly. Star power, experience and a real effort in the offseason to plug the holes. Hard to see this team not being one of the best in the country.”
Gently down the stream
Remember the days when Farm Bureau Insurance sponsored Purdue and Indiana basketball telecasts? The Boilermakers could be found on Lafayette’s WLFI and most of the time on WTTV-Channel 4 in Indianapolis/Bloomington.
Today, a fan’s cable / satellite package isn’t enough if they want to watch their favorite Big Ten team.
Hoping to boost its Peacock streaming service, NBC chose eight Purdue games and five Indiana contests. For the Boilermakers, that’s more national games than awarded to CBS (5), Fox (4) and CBS College Sports (2). Purdue will even appear on ESPN2, when it travels to Alabama. The Big Ten Network gets eight Boilermaker games, including the season opener against Evansville on Nov. 4.
The Peacock games include the Indy Classic against Auburn at 6:30 on Dec. 20. Peacock also snared the Indiana game on Jan. 27 with a 9 p.m. tip. That game won’t be the latest start for Purdue, whose game at UCLA on Jan. 20 will be at 10 p.m.
Oakland (Nov. 7), Marquette (Dec. 13), USC (Jan. 17), Michigan (Feb. 17) and Michigan State (Feb. 26) complete Peacock’s Purdue lineup.
Fox will have the Mackey Arena game against Indiana at 8 p.m. on Feb. 20.
Four of Indiana’s five Peacock games are away from Assembly Hall, starting with the Hoosiers’ trip to Michigan State on Jan. 13 followed a week later at Michigan.
The Purdue home game begins a run of three consecutive Peacock games, with the West Coast trip to UCLA (Jan. 31) and USC (Feb. 3). The game with the Trojans is a 10 p.m. tip.
Thirteen Indiana games will be aired on BTN or its streaming service, Big Ten Plus. Fox and FS1 will showcase Indiana 10 times, including primetime slots against Kansas State (Nov. 25) and Oregon (Feb. 9).
CBS snared three potentially excellent matchups for the Hoosiers against Louisville (Dec. 6), at Illinois (Feb. 15), and against Michigan State (March 1). ESPN is home to the non-conference games against Marquette (Nov. 9) in Chicago and at Kentucky (Dec. 13).
Kenny Thompson is the former sports editor for the Lafayette Journal & Courier and an award-winning journalist. He has covered Purdue athletics for many years.