The staff roundtable this week is all about who will be the first five players who step onto the floor for Purdue basketball this season. This is obviously set to be a very special season with expectations that are through the roof, but it’s on the players and the coaching staff to meet those high expectations. Getting to the Final Four and beyond is no easy task, but Purdue has the players and the coaches that I believe can get it done. So this week, I asked everyone to predict the starting lineup
for this year’s squad.
Ledman:
Obviously there are three players set in stone: Braden Smith, TKR, Fletcher Loyer. There seems to be little question that those three will be in the starting lineup barring some sort of injury (knock on Travis Kelce). For the other guard position I’m inclined to lean toward CJ Cox who saw great improvement throughout last year while shooting the ball very well. The last spot is the center position and obviously comes down to either Oscar Cluff or Daniel Jacobsen. Will Painter go with the guy who he thought was good enough to start last year before an injury derailed his season or will he go with the old veteran who can rebound the ball like nobody’s business. I think that Oscar Cluff will get the nod but I don’t have strong feelings about it. Purdue needs rebounding and interior defense and Cluff has proven to be able to do both of those things very well.
Kyle:
1. Braden Smith
2. Omer Mayer
3. Fletcher Loyer
4. TKR
5. Oscar Cluff
A weakness of the 2024 team was rebounding. Enter Oscar Cluff who was one of the best rebounding big men in the country last season.
Purdue didnt go and get him to not start him, right? His rebounding should make an Immediate Impact for the Boilers who want to fix that problem.
The big three return and obviously start, with Braden Smith, TKR and Fletch. They are Purdue’s best three players and have been mainstays in the starting 5 during their entire tenure at Purdue.
Mayer I think ends up being too good to not start. He can also alleviate some of the stress put on Smith, as he is a natural ball handler as well. He is college ready and will make an Immediate Impact. CJ Cox did nothing wrong to not start, its just that Mayer is a future pro.
Ryan:
Braden Smith
CJ Cox
Fletcher Loyer
Trey Kaufman-Renn
Oscar CluffBraden Smith, Fletcher Loyer, and Trey Kaufman-Renn are locks. I think Oscar Cluff starts at the 5 over Daniel Jacobsen due to experience and to let Jacobsen ease into the season considering he only has 1 game + 1 minute of actual action. As for the last member of the backcourt, I will go with CJ Cox. CJ had the spot for the majority of last season and while I think he will be the first person to rotate out during games, I think he gets the start. This lineup may not be the same throughout the season either. Jacobsen or Omer Mayer may force the hand of Matt Painter by playing lights out. We have consistently said for a while that Purdue is loaded with talent but I’m not sure Matt Painter has had a team this deep before. Every position goes 2-3-4 players deep and we do not envy Matt Painter’s task of assigning minutes to a room full of guys who can all help the team win.
Drew:
I’m going off script. I wrote about this over the summer, but never put my marker down on the starting lineup.
I do this with the caveot that I think these are the starters for the opening game, not the closing game. Purdue has options and any number of players could step up and stake their claim to a spot during the season.
PG: Braden (set in stone)
SG: Gicarri Harris
SF: Fletcher Loyer (set in stone)
PF: TKR (set in stone)
C: Oscar Cliff
Harris gives Purdue the perimeter defender that starting Braden and Fletcher require. Neither of those guys are on the court to lock someone up.
Harris flashed that ability late in the season and was often on the court late in games once his shot returned from the dead. Remember, he was the starter at the beginning of last season as well, for the same reasons I listed above.
Cluff gets the nod because he’s a known quality. I watched Jacobson play for team USA this summer and he was getting helped off the floor at the end of most possessions. When someone got into his legs, he toppled over.
Oscar, on the other hand, spends a good bit of time offering a hand up to a defender or rebounder he sentenced to the floor. Purdue’s fatal flaw last season was rebounding. Cluff was one of the best rebounders the country last season. He brings toughness to an otherwise skill/finesse team.
One last note: This isn’t my prediction for the five players who receive the most minutes. Painter has the ability to mix and match lineups depending on how he wants to attack a given team. I’m interested to see what that looks like because I can’t remember that being an option before during his tenure with the Boilermakers.
Travis:
We know that Smith-Loyer-TKR will be starting, as they have now started over 100 games together. Having that luxury in today’s college basketball landscape is almost unheard of. To have three four-year players that have started together their entire careers is honestly something we may never see again in a power conference, but it is the way that Matt Painter builds a program. He wants to get old and stay old, and as a result, Purdue has consistency that few teams can match.
As for the other spots, that is a little harder to say. I think Oscar Cluff gets the start in the middle, but Daniel Jacobsen was starting there last season before his injury. TKR played the five for a lot of last season, but he has also been quite successful at the four in his career. He started there his first two seasons when Purdue had some guy named Zach Edey at the 5, who had a career of some note in college. I can see Cluff getting the nod because he was brought in as a transfer to start, but if Jacobsen is the real deal he can get it too.
That leaves the three spot. Smith and Loyer are the backcourt, but who gets the three? CJ Cox had it for most of last season and that continuity can only add to the main trio. Gicarri Harris can also get a look here as he has experience. Omer Mayer might be too good to keep off the floor, especially if he can play off ball while being the lead guard when Smith needs a breather. Jack Benter reportedly had a good redshirt year and summer and could challenge here, while transfer Liam Murphy at 6’8″ could have a field day shooting wide open threes in the Purdue offense.
Honestly, Purdue has an absolute embarrassment of riches right now. It is a team that can legitimately go 9-10 players deep without a major dropoff in quality, and if the chemistry comes along, it will be every bit as good as people expect. It has three guys that have started together for four years, plus experienced players back from last season. I will go with the starting five of PG Smith, SG Loyer, SF Mayer, PF TKR, and C Cluff. Jacobsen, Cox, Harris, Benter, and Murphy will all get to play significant minutes too, with Raleigh Burgess and Antoine West each possibly redshirting because I don’t see minutes for them on a team this loaded. I know coach Painter likes to stick with one set of starters against whoever, but this whole lineup gives him the flexibility to start whoever he wants alongside Smith-Loyer-TKR depending on matchups. If Purdue wants to go small we have seen it can be very successful with TKR in the middle and someone like Murphy at the four. Just thinking about what this team can do this year is making me dizzy, because it might be a more complete team than the Final Four run from two years ago. Smith as a scorer and distributor makes them so lethal. Painter can mix and match lineups so much this team could be legitimately frightening for about 95% of college basketball.
