Category / Basketball

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Going Back To School?

In March, Trey Kaufman-Renn wrapped up his college basketball career, finishing with 1,655 points, averaging 11.3 over his 147 career games across his four seasons with Purdue.  In June, he was selected in the second round of the NBA draft by the Timberwolves and spent the summer playing for their Summer League team. What he has not done, however, is sign a professional contract.

Earlier this week, he filed a lawsuit against the NCAA looking for a sixth season of NCAA eligibility and asking a judge to prevent the NCAA from hindering him from enrolling, practicing or competing for an NCAA program.  The NCAA adopted a new five-year eligibility model in June, effectively replacing the old system that lets athletes play four seasons in a five-year window.  Under this new model, Kaufman-Ren has exhausted his eligibility, having redshirted during the 2021-22 season after suffering a knee injury.  His argument, however, is not simply that he deserves another season because of his injury, but that he is being excluded from a new benefit granted to other athletes.  He is challenging where the NCAA drew the line when it made the transition to its new eligibility structure.

Assuming he is successful, would he return to Purdue?  It doesn’t seem likely, as the team added three front court transfers along with the returning players already under scholarship.  They are also currently sitting with 16 players on their roster, one over the NCAA limit, although three walk-ons are grandfathered in.

How will this all play out?  Only time will tell, and with the 2026-2027 season starting in about two months, there is not a lot of time to get this all resolved.

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What Might Have Been

When I was young, maybe 10 or so, I apparently became enamored with the UCLA Bruin cartoon mascot.  I remember having the light blue t-shirt with the gold lettering and the cartoon bear, probably the only kid in suburban Chicago with such a shirt who had no connection to the school, and had determined that this is where I was going to go for college.  What that actually meant, I’m sure I had no idea, but that was my goal.  Unfortunately, my mom made sure to extinguish those dreams pretty quickly, letting me know in no uncertain terms that it was too far away and there was no way I would be going there.

I mean, what was the harm in letting a young kid dream?  Who even knew if it would have lasted or, if it did, if I would have even gotten in?  Anyway, by the time I hit high school and it was time to start seriously thinking about where I was going to go to school, UCLA never even entered the picture.  I visited four schools, applied to three, and ended up going to the only one outside the Illinois state borders: Purdue University.

Those childhood dreams were a distant memory by the time I graduated and made my first ever trip to California in 1998.  Still, the closest I came to Los Angeles was San Diego until 2014.  I’ve made a number of return trips to LA since then and occasionally thought of maybe adding in a trip to Westwood to at least see the campus, but it never got past that point.  It didn’t seem likely that I would ever see what I had missed out on, and that was ok.

In 2022, however, things changed.  In a surprise announcement, UCLA and USC were going to be joining the Big Ten, which opened up the possibility of heading west for a football or basketball game.  While UCLA football plays at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, nearly 30 miles from campus, Pauley Pavilion was smack dab in the middle of the action.  This past January, with realistic national title contention hopes still alive, Purdue basketball made their first trip to California for conference play.  And I was joining them.

After an early afternoon tour of Dodger Stadium on a Tuesday in late January, we headed west towards the UCLA campus.  After finding an overpriced parking spot, we started walking towards the arena, which is on the campus, passing students, faculty, and buildings along the way.  We were early, so we had the opportunity to just sit and take it all in for a bit, before getting in line for the game.  Decked out in gold and black instead of blue and gold, I was finally in Westwood and 10-year-old me was thrilled!  Sadly, the Bruins outlasted the Boilermakers that night and their souvenir cup game was lacking, but I came home with a John Wooden bobblehead, a legend at both schools, and a 40-year-old itch finally scratched.

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Rolling To The League

For the first time since 2011, Purdue had two players selected in the NBA draft.  Braden Smith, the all-time NCAA assists leader, was selected as the 38th overall pick by the Bulls but was quickly traded to the Pacers.  With the 59th, and penultimate, pick, the Timberwolves selected Trey Kaufman-Renn.  Smith and Kaufman-Renn led Purdue to the national title game in 2024, the Sweet Sixteen in 2025, and the Elite Eight this past March.

Smith broke the Big Ten assists record in January before taking over the all-time NCAA record during the NCAA Tournament.  He finished his Purdue career with 1,932 points and 1,103 assists, averaging 13.0 and 7.4 per game, respectively.  Kaufman-Renn finished his career with 1,655 points, averaging 11.3 over his 147 career games.

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Watering Down The Tournament

In an effort to line their pockets at the cost of exciting competition, the NCAA is planning to expand both the men’s and women’s basketball tournaments from 64 to 76 teams starting next year.  Effectively replacing the First Four, an additional eight at-large teams will join the fray, with the initial round of twelve games playing Tuesday and Wednesday following Selection Sunday and the winners slotting into the familiar brackets that we all know and love.

The makeup of the twelve games will be split 50/50.  The first half will be comprised of all 16-seeds and half of the 15-seeds.  The other half of the games will be a mix, depending on the quality of the teams in the field, comprised of 11-seeds, all 12-seeds and, potentially a game that will feed a 13-seed for the first round that follows on Thursday or Friday.

Along with expanded brackets comes expanded advertising partnerships to make the whole thing worthwhile.  Beer and alcohol companies, who have not been allowed to advertise during the tournament previously, are expected to be added to the fold and drive the financial aspects of this expansion.  Gambling-related advertisements are still expected to be banned.

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2025-2026 Final Standings

Purdue’s men’s basketball season came to an end on Sunday, falling to Arizona in the Elite Eight.  It was a disappointing, but appropriate, end for a team ranked #1 in the pre-season and expected to compete for a national title but struggled throughout the conference schedule.  While home tickets remained hard to come by this season, I did manage to see six games in five arenas across four states, thanks to a January trip out west to California, a Valentine’s Day visit to Iowa City, and the Big Ten Tournament here at the United Center, tied for the greatest number of games I’ve attended in a single season while adding both the Galen Center and Pauley Pavilion to my collection.

2026 Team Records – Men

TeamName Won Loss Winning Pctg
UCLA Bruins 1 0 1.000
Purdue Boilermakers 5 1 0.833
USC Trojans 0 1 0.000
Penn State Nittany Lions 0 1 0.000
Northwestern Wildcats 0 1 0.000
Nebraska Cornhuskers 0 1 0.000
Iowa Hawkeyes 0 1 0.000
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How Sweet It Is

The Sweet Sixteen kicks off today following an opening weekend light on upsets and heavy on top seeds, although I did manage to lose my champion pick.  Three of my Final Four picks are still intact, which is better than usual.

A disappointing showing from the Big Ten in this region, leading to two of my three misses.

Purdue heads to its third straight Sweet Sixteen, which ties its longest streak in program history and is their seventh trip in the last nine years.

Continue reading →

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And I Would (Once Again) Walk 500 More

This past November, Matt Painter notched the 500th victory of his coaching career against Akron.  In yesterday’s victory over Miami in the NCAA Tournament, he scored his 500th victory at Purdue, where he replaced Gene Keady in 2005.  Painter becomes the fourth coach in Big Ten history to reach the 500-win plateau, joining Tom Izzo, Bobby Knight, and Keady.

Keady ended his time on the Boilermaker bench with 512 victories, meaning that Painter, barring any freak occurrences, should pass his mentor early next season.  Painter will look to add to his total on Thursday, when Purdue faces Texas in the Sweet Sixteen.

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Standing Alone Atop The Mountain

On November 8, 2022, about eight minutes into his first game as a freshman, Braden Smith passed the ball to Trey Kaufman-Renn, who scored and gave Smith his first career assist.  Last night, about eight minutes into the first game of the NCAA Tournament as a senior, Braden Smith passed the ball to Trey Kaufman-Renn, who scored and gave Smith his record-breaking 1,077th career assist.  The play moved Smith past Duke’s Bobby Hurley for the NCAA’s career assists record; one Hurley had held since 1993.  Smith finished the game with eight assists, giving him 1,083 for his career.  He will attempt to add on to that total tomorrow as Purdue takes on Miami in the round of 32.

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Put On Your Dancing Shoes

The nation’s attention turns to the college hoops scene for the next few weeks as the NCAA tournament kicks off later today.  I’m not in any pools this year, so most of these selections have no ultimate bearing on my life, aside from personal pride.  With the Final Four and the Championship taking place just down the road in Indianapolis, I may have to expend a not-insignificant amount of money should a certain school from West Lafayette manage to make it that far.  So, without further ado, let’s take a look at this year’s selections.

Maybe it is personal bias, but I am expecting big things from the two Big Ten teams in this bracket, including one making their way to the Final Four.

Purdue followed up a disappointing end to the regular season with a spirited run through the Big Ten Tournament to capture the championship.  Are they fixed?  Well, I hope so since I have them coming out of this region and heading to Indy. Continue reading →