Four summers ago, three Indiana natives came to West Lafayette with what seemed like lofty expectations.Small guards from Westfield and Fort Wayne said their goal was to win a National Title. A Sellersburg big man was just removing his redshirt.
It wasn’t laughable because Braden Smith and Fletcher Loyer weren’t credible threats. Both guards started their first game as Boilers and every one since then for the last three seasons. But this was Purdue, a school, that despite considering basketball one of its greatest exports, hadn’t made its way back to the Final Four in nearly half a century.
Smith and Loyer did not have the pedigree that suggested they would change the landscape of college basketball. Ditto for Trey Kaufman-Renn who needed a redshirt, and two years as an understudy to fully flourish at Purdue.But now the three players, seniors, stare a fourth and final season at Purdue in the face. Smith, Loyer, and Kaufman-Renn have done a lot at Purdue. They’ve lost as a #1 seed in the NCAA Tournament as freshmen before taking Purdue all the way to the National Title game the next season. Smith and Kaufman-Renn enter the season as All-Americans despite their recruiting rankings. The trio has had a hand in redefining what Purdue Basketball means to the college basketball world.And now when they say the goal is to win a National Title, no one is laughing. Vegas, in fact, is listening and nodding its head.Purdue is the betting favorite to win the National Title on the backs of what Braden Smith, Fletcher Loyer, and Trey Kaufman-Renn have built in their tenure at Purdue. Now the seniors get to go for a final Swan Song that ends with a Final Four in their back yard, just sixty miles south of Mackey Arena and Purdue University in Indianapolis, Indiana.Now we know the path that Matt Painter and his three seniors will have to conquer to set itself for a return trip to the Final Four and its third Big Ten title in the last four seasons bolstered by one of the most talented rosters in Purdue history.
Oh yeah, and I’m back at Hammer and Rails. I’ll be with you from the first game to the last.So let’s take a look at Purdue’s schedule that was announced today:
Purdue once again will boast one of the nation’s toughest non-conference schedules with marquee matchup after marquee matchup that starts off with a non-conference game at Kentucky on October 24th:
Oct. 24th @Kentucky (Exhibition)
Oct. 29th UIndy (Exhibition)
Then the season starts in earnest.
Then Purdue will travel to the Bahamas.
Nov.21st Texas Tech/ Wake Forest
Nov. 28th Eastern Illinois
Purdue’s early Big Ten schedule will broken up by hosting likely top-ten Iowa State.Dec. 2nd @Rutgers
Dec. 20th Auburn (Indianapolis, IN)
Purdue will then enter the Big Ten slate in earnest after the turn of the New Year.
Which means that Purdue’s seniors’ regular season journey will end where it started, in front of a sold out Mackey Arena.
Hammer and Rails will be with you every step of the way. It’s good to be back.
