#15 Purdue 23-7 (13-6) will play host to Wisconsin 21-9 (13-6) on Saturday afternoon.
Purdue won the first matchup of the season at Wisconsin, 89-73. It was one of Purdue’s most convincing performances of the season amidst a 17-1 start to the season. Since then, Purdue has faltered, going just 6-6, including losing three games in Mackey Arena. Those three Big Ten losses combined with the blow out loss to Iowa State gave this Purdue team, which started the season with the best title odds in the country,
the same number of losses Purdue has had at Mackey Arena in the last three seasons combined. In that time, Wisconsin added a win on the road at Illinois after handing Michigan its only conference loss in Ann Arbor to start the year. Can Wisconsin do the unthinkable and give Purdue a fifth loss at Mackey in a season? On senior night? Fletcher Loyer, Trey Kaufman-Renn, and Braden Smith have been around at Purdue for the last four seasons. Kaufman-Renn added another redshirt year, but Smith and Loyer has been front and center, in the starting lineup for the best four year span in the history of Purdue basketball. Kaufman-Renn joined them in the starting lineup in their sophomore season, when the three, led by Zach Edey, made their way to the NCAA Title game.
That is to say, Purdue’s most decorated seniors will be playing a game on Saturday, but this is not a game preview as much as a look back on what the trio has done at Purdue over the last four season.
They thought they might never lose
Braden Smith and Fletcher Loyer didn’t take long to make their mark on Purdue. The two guards and Indiana natives, started the first games of their careers and every game since. For four seasons, Purdue’s triumphs and disappointments have landed squarely on the two guards who were game from the jump.
But their journey didn’t start rocky. Instead, Loyer and Smith helped Edey and Matt Painter stay at the pinnacle of the sport.
Purdue lost an NBA lottery pick in Jaden Ivey and it went out and ripped off 13 straight games. Purdue reached #1 again. Something it would do again the season after, and this season.
When Kaufman-Renn joined Purdue’s starting lineup his sophomore season on the heels of a devastating first round loss, he was part of what Painter said was a necessary addition of more offensive firepower. Kaufman-Renn was cast as a second option, but shined bright when needed before morphing into one of the nation’s most dominant post players the last two seasons.
It was one of the more absurd conversations a college basketball player can have when I asked Fletcher Loyer about his first college loss.
“It stinks,” Loyer said. “It’s your first college loss, one you didn’t want to happen, but knew it probably would eventually come.
For Loyer, the last loss he had experienced happened in high school before that loss to Rutgers, to his starting his point guard, Braden Smith. The guards fate had been tied together for the last half decade.
The dream season that wasn’t.
“I think in the back of our minds, yeah, yeah,” Trey Kaufman-Renn, always the considered interview, admitted that Purdue’s success, in part his and his fellow seniors doing, is also something of a curse. “And people don’t realize it’s hard. We’ve been so successful as seniors in our career, that it’s – when we beat a team it’s ‘oh we should have won.’ When we lose to a team, ‘oh the world’s falling over.‘ It’s a no-win situation.”
Kaufman-Renn, Smith, and Loyer have a chance to leave Purdue as tied with the most winning class in Big Ten history if it wins its last regular season as Purdue Boilermakers.
That pressure might have twisted after four years, but there’s no arguing, the one defining characterstic of this class is that they won.
“I told our team yesterday like, I don’t play Fletcher Loyer more than the other guys because I like him more than you guys. I play him because he’s more productive than you guys. He’s more intelligent than you guys. He actually speaks. He actually talks. He actually takes what the coaches give him and takes it to our team. Not to say other people don’t do that on our team, but we have some guys that just stay in their little lane and stay in their little world, and you can’t do that… Hey man this is my passion and this is my time and this is what I put it in and damnit it matters. And I’m not gonna sit here and play ten minutes when I’m more talented than somebody else. It doesn’t have to do with you being more talented, it’s about you being more productive.You’re more talented to me but I get more shit done than you, you’ve got to play me. It’s not a talent world, it’s a production world.” – Matt Painter, 2024-25
“We expect to win every game. That’s the culture we’ve built here.” – Trey Kaufman-Renn, 2024-25
“Once Braden came back from injury that summer, and he just started dominating. He was killing. You just saw what potential he had and what he could do and open up for this offense. Then you see him down on the floor,and make great plays defensively. Just the ability to make everyone better. So I knew right away he was gonna start once he started playing.” – Fletcher Loyer, 2024
“What’s been constant through the years is the best players get the most shit.” – Matt Painter, 2026
The last time Purdue played Wisconsin, in Wisconsin, Braden Smith did the unthinkable for an undersized guard from central Indiana – he set the all-time Big Ten assist record.
Now, as he prepares for the last regular season, Smith has eclipsed 1,000 career assists and sits tied at fourth all time with 1,009 assists. He’s 21 assists behind Ed Cota for third place, 29 assists behind Chris Corchiani for second, and 67 assists away from Bobby Hurley’s all-time record while at Duke at 1,076.
Purdue has one regular season game left, and is likely to play Thursday in the Big Ten Tournament. That could mean Purdue plays Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday if it were to advance to the Big Ten Championship.
Smith is averaging 8.7 assists per game. Smith likely needs somewhere between 6 to 9 games to get to Hurley’s record.
Which means Purdue will have to do what Smith, Kaufman-Renn, and Loyer’s careers have been defined by if Smith is going to set the all-time record: win.
Reinforcements
Oscar Cluff was done with basketball.
Cluff, an Australian who had spent his college career bouncing around, playing at Washington State and South Dakota State, found himself working in a factory back down under.
That metaphor for putting in work and doing blue collar work sells itself for the big man that has anchored Purdue’s starting lineup. Cluff has been a menace on the offensive glass, and stabilized a defense that has struggled with him on the bench.
Cluff’s future is still murky. With the constant court cases and the grey zone that is eligibility now, it’s possible this won’t be the last of Cluff in a Purdue uniform. They are actively working to get Cluff another year of eligibility.
But if not, Cluff’s hard work, good demeanor, and physicality helped Purdue get off to its 17-1 start where it has overwhelmed at times on the glass. After struggling on the glass all last season, Purdue is a top twenty defensive rebounding team this season.
Cluff was joined in the portal by Liam Murphy who has received rave reviews character and work in practice.
Murphy was dealt a tough hand, coming to Purdue still recovering from a shoulder injury that allowed Jack Benter to get most the minutes at the four in the summer. Benter’s versatility allowed him to take the off the bench four spot and with a roster of shooters, Murphy’s ability to stretch the floor hasn’t been needed.
Final season filled with loss but not lost
For all the promise and wins that Smith, Loyer, and Kaufman-Renn’s career started with, their first year ended with ultimate tragedy.
As Purdue’s senior season feels fated for similar disappointment it’s important to remember that this class has already helped rewrite an entire program’s destiny.
Purdue has a different definition in large part thanks to Braden Smith, Fletcher Loyer, and Trey Kaufman-Renn who were all ready for a moment that should have been too big for them. Purdue crashed through to the Final Four and then further to the NCAA Title game.
All the greats behind them, Glenn Robinson, Robbie Hummel, Jaden Ivey, Brad Miller, PJ Thompson, Brian Cardinal, The Three Amigos, E’Twaun Moore, JaJuan Johnson, Ryan Cline, Dakota Mathias… they all added to the definition of what being a Boilermaker is.
Smith, Loyer, and Kaufman-Renn added Final Four nets, and stayed true to a mantra built by Gene Keady.
Leave Purdue better than you found it.
For the last time, Mackey Arena will get a chance to cheer for three seniors who bucked the entire sport of college basketball and chose to stay.
It’ll be loud. It’ll be special. It’ll be magic. One last time.
