Purdue basketball starts the 2026-27 season outside the AP Top 25 for the first time in 79 weeks after losing its top four scorers. Here’s who steps up for Matt Painter, the games worth circling, and what to expect from the retooled Boilermakers.
For the first time since the 2021-22 season, Purdue will tip off a season without Braden Smith running the show.
The Westfield native left West Lafayette as college basketball’s all-time assists leader, and he didn’t leave alone. Fletcher Loyer, Trey Kaufman-Renn, and Oscar Cluff are gone too, taking 65% of last season’s scoring with them. The result is a Purdue team that opened the season outside the AP Top 25, ending a 79-week run in the poll, good enough for the longest in program history.
That doesn’t mean Matt Painter is starting from scratch. The Boilermakers won their first two exhibitions by a combined 62 points, and the Delta High School graduate begins his 22nd season 12 wins away from passing Gene Keady for the most in school history.
Still, Painter admitted at Big Ten Media Days that he doesn’t know exactly what this team is yet. “Who are we when we face adversity?” Painter said. “I think once that happens, we will start to form an identity.”
What Purdue Lost From a 30-Win Season
Last year’s team started No. 1 in the country and finished one win short of playing in a Final Four in Indianapolis. Purdue went 30-9, won the Big Ten Tournament as a No. 7 seed by beating Michigan 80-72 in the title game, then beat Queens University (NC), Miami, and Texas before No. 1 Arizona ended the run 79-64 in the Elite Eight.
Smith, Loyer, and Kaufman-Renn won 117 games together, the most by a senior class in program history, along with two Big Ten regular-season titles, two Big Ten Tournament titles, and a trip to the national championship game in 2024. Smith, 2022 Indiana Mr. Basketball, finished with an NCAA-record 1,103 assists, Loyer left with a school-record 309 three-pointers made, and Kaufman-Renn is now fighting for a sixth year of eligibility while also transferring to Kansas.
Who Steps Up?
Purdue returns just 34.6% of its scoring and only 41 starts, tied for fewest of the Painter era. Even so, Painter expects a real fight for playing time.
“There’s going to be an argument as to who we start,” Painter said at media days. “Usually, it’s not that much of an argument. This is going to be an argument.”
The keys go to sophomore Omer Mayer, who backed up Smith last season and averaged 5.5 points. He’ll be Purdue’s first new starting point guard in four years. Mayer’s time in West Lafayette so far has been highlighted by a career-high 18 points against Indiana in Mackey last February. Junior C.J. Cox started all 39 games last season and his experience will be heavily relied on with this younger group. Cox shot 37.3% from three and went 5-of-6 from deep in the exhibition opener against Ball State.
Then there’s redshirt freshman Antione West Jr., who may have the highest ceiling on the roster. The four-star guard from Toledo, Ohio redshirted last season, then led Purdue with 13.3 points per game on its 4-0 summer trip to Canada, shooting 60% from the field and 50% from three with three steals per game. “He’s a good two-way player. He’s not just an offensive player,” Painter said this summer.
Up front, 7-foot-4 junior Daniel Jacobsen takes on a bigger role after averaging 5.5 points and 1.2 blocks on 64.6% shooting. Painter likes where Jacobsen’s post game is headed. “If you can play from five feet and you’re 7-foot and you’ve got a jump hook, you’re going to be okay,” he said.
Two newcomers add some strength around him. Caden Pierce, the 2023-24 Ivy League Player of the Year at Princeton and brother of Colts wide receiver Alec Pierce, averaged 16.6 points and 9.2 rebounds that season and redshirted last season to save his final year of eligibility and graduate with his degree in Economics. Enzo Shahrvin, a French forward who played professionally in Paris, was cleared by the NCAA this fall. “He’s about as fast of a big dude as I’ve ever been around,” Painter said.
There’s plenty of Indiana talent on this roster, too. Luke Ertel, 2026 Indiana Mr. Basketball, averaged 24.5 points, 9.9 rebounds, and 6.6 assists as a senior and led Mount Vernon (Fortville) to the Class 4A state title. Sophomore Jack Benter of Brownstown scored 2,550 career points in high school, placing him 11th in state history, and shot 40.9% from three last season, the best mark by a freshman in the Big Ten last season. Sharpshooter Jacob Webber and his prep school teammate Rivers Knight both came out of La Lumiere in La Porte.
Games to Circle
Purdue won’t ease into things. The Boilermakers open the regular season on Nov. 2 against No. 15 Gonzaga at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, a team they’ve beaten in all three meetings since 2022. Nine games come against preseason AP Top 25 teams, including a Dec. 5 trip to No. 18 Iowa State. Purdue also plays Oklahoma on Thanksgiving Day in Fort Myers.
If Purdue wins its first 12 games, Painter would pass Keady when No. 8 Tennessee visits Mackey on Dec. 11.
Big Ten play opens at home against Iowa on Dec. 1. January is the toughest stretch, with road games at No. 3 Illinois, No. 16 Michigan, and No. 6 Michigan State.
Here are the dates Hoosier State fans will want to mark:
- Nov. 6: vs. Valparaiso (Mackey Arena)
- Dec. 19: vs. Colorado, Indy Classic (Gainbridge Fieldhouse)
- Feb. 16: at Indiana (Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall)
- March 5: vs. Indiana (Mackey Arena)
- March 9-14: Big Ten Tournament (Gainbridge Fieldhouse)
The Indy Classic doubles as a family reunion, with Jacobsen facing his younger brother Eric, a Colorado freshman, in a doubleheader that also features Butler taking on Georgia Tech. Then there’s the rivalry. Indiana won 72-67 in Bloomington last season before Purdue answered with a 93-64 rout at Mackey. This year, the Boilermakers close the regular season against the Hoosiers at home, with the Big Ten Tournament tipping off days later in Indianapolis.
What to Expect From Purdue Basketball This Season
Purdue was picked sixth in an unofficial Big Ten media poll, behind Illinois, Michigan State, Michigan, UCLA, and Nebraska, and no Boilermaker made the preseason All-Big Ten team for the first time since 2014-15. Indiana was picked ninth.
The Boilermakers don’t seem to mind. “If we’re going to be underestimated, we might as well go out there and prove people wrong,” Jacobsen said at media days.
Painter has been here before. In the five seasons Purdue has brought back less than 40% of its starters under him, it has gone 118-55 and won two Big Ten regular-season titles. After a 13-7 Big Ten record last year, he wants more from the regular season.
“Let’s be better in conference play,” Painter said. “Let’s try to give ourselves a better seed.”
Purdue has made 11 straight NCAA Tournaments, and stretching that to 12 is the baseline expectation. Guard depth is the strength. Mayer, Cox, West, Gicarri Harris, and Ertel give Matt Painter more guards than he has minutes for. That depth should steal a few games Purdue isn’t supposed to win, and with this much inexperience, it will probably drop a few it shouldn’t, too. How far past it this team goes depends on how quickly this new team can gel together and adapt to the Purdue system.
The 79-week streak is over. The Boilermakers get their first chance to start a new one against Gonzaga on the first Monday of November.
