Purdue season preview: Four double-digit scorers are gone

Where last season ended

Purdue finished 30-9 overall and 13-7 in the Big Ten, sixth in the conference. Sports-Reference lists the Boilermakers as Big Ten tournament champions. In the NCAA Tournament, Purdue beat Queens, Miami (FL) and Texas, then lost the West Regional final to Arizona, which won 79-64. Matt Painter coached the team.

Who is gone

Four players who averaged double-digit points are not on the 2026-27 roster. Braden Smith averaged 14.3 points and 8.8 assists. Trey Kaufman-Renn averaged 14.2 points and 8.3 rebounds. Fletcher Loyer averaged 14.1 points. Oscar Cluff averaged 10.6 points and 7.5 rebounds. Liam Murphy and Aaron Fine also do not appear on the 2026-27 roster. The averages come from Sports-Reference. The sources give no reasons for any departure, so this article gives none.

Who is back

C.J. Cox, a junior guard, returns with the highest scoring average among Purdue's returners: 8.5 points per game in 2025-26. Daniel Jacobsen, a junior center listed at 7-4, averaged 5.5 points and 3.0 rebounds. Omer Mayer, a sophomore guard, averaged 5.5 points. Gicarri Harris (junior guard, 4.6 points) and Jack Benter (sophomore guard, 4.4 points) also return. Sam King (redshirt senior forward), Jack Lusk (senior guard), Jace Rayl (senior guard) and Raleigh Burgess (redshirt sophomore forward) are on the 2026-27 roster too.

Who is new

Caden Pierce, a senior forward, transferred from Princeton. Enzo Shahrvin, a senior forward, lists Paris Basketball as his previous club.

The freshman class is listed below.

Incoming freshmen

Purdue adds four first-year players, and the official roster lists all four. Jamyn Sondrup signed in April but is deferring to the 2028-29 season, so he is not counted.

• Luke Ertel, guard, 6-2, from Mount Vernon High School, Mount Vernon, Ind. No. 38 in 247Sports national rank and No. 48 in ESPN's final 2026 rankings. He is the highest-ranked of the four in both services.
• Jacob Webber, guard, 6-6, from La Lumiere School, Kearney, Neb. No. 64 in 247Sports and No. 72 in ESPN.
• Rivers Knight, forward, 6-10, from La Lumiere School, Durham, N.C. No. 188 in 247Sports.
• Sinan Huan, center, 7-1, from Georgetown Prep, Beijing, China. No. 66 in 247Sports and No. 71 in ESPN.

The number to know

Offensive rating measures points scored per 100 possessions. Purdue's offensive rating in 2025-26 was 124.8, second of 365 teams on Sports-Reference's table, across 39 games. The figure shows how efficiently the offense scored. It does not show which players will produce that output, and it does not measure defense. Purdue's defensive rating was 107.8, which ranked 214th.

Questions for this season

Can the offense keep its efficiency without Smith and Kaufman-Renn? Those two averaged 28.5 points per game combined in 2025-26.

Does Cox become the primary scorer? His 8.5 points per game were the highest among the returners, so a larger role would be a real test.

Does the defense improve? It ranked 214th in defensive rating, the weakest number on the page next to the offense.

Our early read

Tournament team (5th-9th) is our call. The offense ranked second in 2025-26, and Purdue keeps Jacobsen, Cox and Mayer. The loss of four double-digit scorers is larger than the returning production. The Columbus Dispatch preseason media poll ranked Purdue sixth, which fits this tier. We project the Boilermakers fifth.