Matt Painter and Purdue are entering a new era following the departure of a core of stars that included 2025 Big Ten Player of the Year Braden Smith.
And while most powerhouse programs start the season against a cupcake opponent, Purdue is jumping right into the fire with a season-opening matchup against No. 15 Gonzaga in the Hall of Fame Series on Nov. 2 in Las Vegas.
Purdue’s most significant returnee is C.J. Cox, who averaged 8.5 points per game in 39 starts for the Boilermakers last season. Omer Mayer and Daniel Jacobsen, who each averaged 5.5 points per game off the bench last season, are expected to be full-time starters this season.
Purdue also landed former Princeton wing Caden Pierce, who averaged a career-high 16.6 points per game in 2023-24 en route to Ivy League Player of the Year honors. Gicarri Harris joined those four players as starters in last week’s scrimmage against Ball State, but Painter believes he has an abundance of players who could find themselves in the lineup this season.
“You kind of see with our team, there’s not a lot of separation,” Painter said. “Most of the time when you sub, there’s big separation on teams. There’s just not (with us). There’s a reason why guys start. Maybe they’ve played better, they’re a little bit older … I thought we had nine guys that deserve to start.”
Although Purdue is going into this season with a fair amount of uncertainty on the roster, the Boilermakers came in at sixth in the annual Big Ten preseason media poll. Purdue captured the Big Ten tournament title from eventual NCAA champion Michigan in an 80-72 upset this past March and made an Elite Eight run before bowing out against Arizona.
Gonzaga also is entering a new era, as its opener will serve as its first regular-season contest as a member of the new-look Pac-12 Conference. Mark Few and company said farewell to the West Coast Conference with the program’s 12th conference tournament title in 14 seasons before the Bulldogs fell to No. 11 seed Texas in a Round of 32 upset.
The Bulldogs’ most important returnee is Braden Huff, who averaged a career-high 17.8 points and 5.6 rebounds per game last season. Few did the lion’s share of his roster-building through the transfer portal this season, landing Xaivian Lee from Florida, Chauncey Wiggins from Florida State and Massamba Diop from Arizona State.
Gonzaga also brought in Izan Almansa from Real Madrid, and he impressed with 14 points on 6-of-9 shooting in the Bulldogs’ exhibition loss to Arkansas on Saturday just a day after being ruled eligible.
“I think he’s a dude who’s pretty quiet, but you can see the excitement on his face when he got the news,” Few said of Almansa. “We were all super excited for him. I mean, that’s a big gift for us. He was huge (against Arkansas), and I expect that from him all season. For him to be eligible is great, it’s going to be really good for us.”
