ROSEMONT, Unwell. — Purdue stars Braden Smith and Trey Kaufman-Renn walked into the Donald E. Stephens Conference Middle collectively Thursday, each in darkish fits with white shirts, able to sort out what ought to be their remaining Huge Ten Media Day upfront of what’s anticipated to be their final season of school basketball.
They seemed sharp.
They sounded assured.
Within the earlier three seasons, they’ve already helped the Boilermakers win two outright Huge Ten regular-season titles and one Huge Ten Match championship whereas making three straight appearances within the NCAA Match, one in every of which resulted in a visit to the 2024 nationwide title sport. Both may have left Purdue after final season and nonetheless completed their faculty careers with extra wins and accolades than most.
However neither did.
As a result of they are not happy.
In reality, when requested about his expectations for the upcoming season, Kaufman-Renn, an apparent All-American candidate in Purdue’s frontcourt, did not draw back from the concept he needs this to be his finest season but. And on condition that he and Smith, the latter of whom is an apparent nationwide participant of the 12 months candidate in Purdue’s backcourt, have already received convention championships and performed within the title sport of the NCAA Match, there’s actually just one solution to make this their finest season as Boilermakers, and that is by successful the NCAA Match in April for what can be the primary time in program historical past.
NCAA rule giving gamers a fifth 12 months of eligibility might not be accredited in time to assist present seniors
Isaac Trotter
And, sure, that is undoubtedly the aim.
“I bear in mind [former Boilermaker] Sasha [Stefanovic] telling me once I redshirted my first 12 months that you must make your senior 12 months the very best 12 months,” Kaufman-Renn mentioned. “What we having going for us this 12 months, all the nice items, all the nice personalities, I am excited to do it.”
And lots of people consider they’ll.
As we sit right here in early October, now fewer than 4 weeks away from the beginning of the common season, Purdue (+900 in accordance with newest odds at FanDuel) is the favourite within the betting markets to win the 2026 NCAA Match. Furthermore, when my colleague Matt Norlander and I not too long ago requested greater than 100 faculty coaches to inform us which staff they consider would be the sport’s finest this season, the main vote-getter was Purdue.
“The factor that jumps out is, I believe, we’ve among the best, or the finest, frontcourts [and], I believe, we’ve among the best, or the very best, backcourts,” mentioned Purdue coach Matt Painter. “We now have good guys. We now have opponents. We now have that company DNA that the Spurs had [under former coach Gregg Popovich]. It’s totally exhausting to get that in faculty basketball at this time — however we’ve it.”
Undeniably, they do — plus among the best and most-respected coaches within the sport, as evidenced by the outcomes of this 12 months’s Candid Coaches collection. Once more, we polled greater than 100 faculty coaches who informed us that they consider Painter is faculty basketball’s finest X’s and O’s coach and the individual they’d most like their son to spend 4 years with if their son have been a Division I basketball participant.
It is excessive reward, earned.
And among the many causes, sure, there’s an actual probability the Huge Ten’s most-famous streak — zero nationwide championships for any convention members since Michigan State received the 2000 NCAA Match — may finish this season. To be clear, there are different reputable title-contenders all through the league with Michigan, UCLA and Illinois every becoming a member of the Boilermakers within the high 9 of BartTorvik.com’s preseason rankings. However the Huge Ten staff with the very best mixture of expertise, expertise, continuity and training is the one which performs house video games inside Mackey Area, the place a banner that reads “2026 NCAA Match Champions” will cling sometime if Painter, Smith, Kaufman-Renn and everyone else in Purdue’s program are literally capable of accomplish what they are not even making an attempt to cover they so badly wish to get accomplished.
“That is the explanation why I got here again — as a result of I wished to be on [this] staff,” mentioned Smith, the Huge Ten Preseason Participant of the Yr. “We have got a fantastic group to [go and] accomplish one thing like that.”
