- Purdue men’s basketball is openly aiming for a national championship this season.
- The Boilermakers are ranked No. 1 in the preseason coaches poll for the first time in program history.
- Key roster additions were made to address weaknesses from last season’s late-season losses.
Many Purdue men’s basketball teams entered the season focused on yet another Big Ten championship.
For this season, you can put those 20 league games in the same pile as everything else. That’s not a reflection of a Big Ten banner meaning less to this team. This group fully recognizes the legacy within reach, and they want to win it all.
‘Obviously our goal is we’re locked in on a national championship,’ Purdue forward Trey Kaufman-Renn said at Big Ten media day Oct. 11. ‘At the same time, every game that we play, we’re trying to win. As (assistant) coach (Brandon) Brantley says, you can never be too greedy with wins.’
Those championship expections don’t seem unrealistic. Purdue starts its campaign atop the USA TODAY Sports preseason men’s basketball coaches poll for the first time in program history. The Boilermakers are also a near-unanimous preseason Big Ten favorite, deemed so by our USA TODAY Network writers,
“It is pretty cool to be a part of Purdue being at the mountaintop of college basketball and in the Big Ten,” senior guard Fletcher Loyer said. “People are going to say whatever before the season. We’ve got to go out and do our job and win games.”
Preseason predictions, though, only represent a theoretical mountaintop. Matt Painter’s team is chasing the tangible mountaintop — the one with a national championship trophy at its summit. Forgoing traditional decorum on such matters, they also speak freely and openly about that goal.
OUTLOOKS: Previewing each team in the preseason Top 25 rankings
Where another team might be self-conscious about embracing those expectations, Boilermakers players speak them out loud matter-of-factly. Shooting for anything else would be selling themselves short.
“It’s important to be able to say your goals and to write down your goals and see your goals every single day,” said point guard Braden Smith, their reigning Big Ten player of the year and the preseason pick to repeat.
“I think it’s a big part of it — visualizing you cutting the nets down, being in the national championship again, being in Indy and winning it.”
Purdue used to favorite status, but knows disappointment of falling short
Purdue defied preseason expectations in its run to a Big Ten championship and No. 1 seed in the tournament in 2022-23. The unofficial preseason media poll predicted a fifth-place finish, with one first-place vote.
The Boilermakers have been the preseason favorite since.
The past two seasons, even with the expectations, the internal drive to disprove the doubters fueled Purdue. The 2024 team resolved itself not to be defined by the previous season’s first-round tournament history loss as No. 1 seed. Last season’s team endeavored to prove it could keep winning at the highest level without Zach Edey.
If worldwide consensus says this Purdue team already is better than everyone, from where does it find that edge?
Perhaps the pursuit of the Big Ten championship can perform that utility. After all, while last season’s team nearly surpassed outside expectations in the postseason, it underperformed its expectations in the league.
They started off on a trajectory to defend their championship, winning seven of their first eight games. After a second-half collapse in a home loss to Ohio State — the last in a six-games-in-16-days stretch — they beat Michigan and Indiana at home to open a four-game winning streak.
Then came a four-game stretch many predicted would define Purdue’s regular season. It did. Road losses at Michigan, Michigan State and Indiana — with Wisconsin shooting the lights out in a win at Mackey Arena in between — ended any real chance of Big Ten title contention.
Purdue finished tied for fourth, four games behind champion Michigan State. The season began with a group of third-year players planning to take their shot at the third leg of an unprecedented four Big Ten championships in four years. By mid-March, that dream had died.
Every roster decision made since then specifically helped offset deficiencies exposed down that stretch.
Need better rebounding to reward defensive stops at places like Michigan and Indiana? Enter Oscar Cluff. Need to protect the rim better when Michigan State’s long scorers start crashing downhill? Here’s a healthy Daniel Jacobsen. Need someone to help Smith reach March with a little more in the tank? May I introduce you to Omer Mayer?
Everyone already believed Purdue had the best returning player in Smith. Across all of those polls, the next-highest vote-getter for preseason player of the year was Kaufman-Renn. Loyer is a fourth-year starter and the top two backcourt reserves — both part-time starters last season — return in C.J. Cox and Gicarri Harris.
“This year, it feels a little bit more meaningful, because of how good and how talented we are and how cohesive the team is,” Kaufman-Renn said. “This year, speaking it out loud, saying it out loud, it hits a little bit different than some previous years.”
The consensus of the college basketball world looks at that roster and sees no obvious glaring weakness. Who are the Boilermakers to disagree? They experienced that dynamic from the inside in a series of intense practices in recent weeks.
However, this group has been through enough to know no one looks back fondly on potential.
“We’ve experienced every up, every down,” Smith said, before catching himself.
“I mean, not every up. We haven’t won the whole thing yet.”
Purdue is used to this position — on the brink of a season with limitless possibility and the wind of their league’s respect at their backs. They want a new experience coming out the other side.
Nathan Baird covers Purdue athletics for the IndyStar, part of the USA TODAY Network.