Young Boilers Show Promise In Exhibition Romp

Matt Painter’s Purdue Boilermakers are reloading this season, and if last night’s exhibition game is any indication, his program will be a force to be reckoned with once again this season.

No, I’m not drinking the Kool-Aid after the 102-57 dress rehearsal win, but to think this team won’t finish among the Big Ten’s top five or possibly contend for league title is crazy.

Yes, Purdue Nation is still reeling after enduring a “disappointing” 29-8 2021-22 season that saw Purdue advance to another Sweet 16, the program’s fourth such appearance in the last five years (not counting 2019-20 NCAA Tournament that was canceled due to COVID).

Gone from that team are NBA Lottery pick Jaden Ivey and dominant big man Trevion Williams, along with three guards, including Eric Hunter who graduated and left to play another year at Butler.

Ivey, Williams and Co. helped Purdue earn a first-ever No. 1 ranking last season. It was short-lived, however, as a few days later the Boilermakers fell thanks to a halfcourt heave by Rutgers Ron Harper Jr.

That was one of four last-second Big Ten losses Purdue endured and a big reason why the preseason conference favorites settled for a 14-6 league mark (good for third place) in Painter’s 17 seasons at the helm in West Lafayette.

At last month’s Big Ten Media Days in Minneapolis, Painter pretty much called last season a disappointment, pointing out that his team underperformed based on its high talent level. Losing to underdog St. Peter’s in your quest to reach the Final Four – something Purdue has failed to do since 1980 – will prompt such comments.

Making matters even worse for Boilermaker fans was the fact that national runner up North Carolina was a team Purdue beat earlier in the season.

This year’s Boilermaker bunch is youthful and inexperienced to say the least.

There are seven newcomers, including 7-foot-2 Will Berg, who will redshirt this season after breaking his hand and having surgery.

Last night the other six newbies made their Mackey Arena debut before a sellout crowd.

Two of them started – Braden Smith and Fletcher Loyer. The two guards finished first and second, respectively, in last year’s voting for Indiana Mr. Basketball.

Smith is a hardnosed, in-your-face type of player, who will remind Purdue fans of Chris Kramer.

Although Smith took home Mr. Basketball honors a year ago, Painter was miffed how he wasn’t rated among the top 75 players in the country as a high school senior. In fact, the Boilermaker boss told the media in Minneapolis that they, too, will be questioning where Smith was ranked after the first month of this season.

Painter loves Smith’s passing ability and the fact that he takes good care of the basketball. There is a reason Gonzaga, Villanova, Oregon and Indiana were highly all interested in Smith before he committed to Purdue.

At 6-4, Loyer can really shoot it. He was named Indiana’s Gatorade Player-of-the-Year following his senior season. He scored over 2,100 points in high school and set his school’s single-season scoring record with 726 at Fort Wayne Homestead, while making 73 triples and a school-best 179 free throws.

The other true freshman is Camden Heide out of Minnesota. He’s an athletic 6-7 and very well could redshirt since he’s a little behind after only playing in three games at prep school last year due to injury and being banged up over the summer.

There are a pair of players coming off of redshirts as well.

Trey Kaufman-Renn at 6-9 is without question one to keep an eye on. He’s going to be a very good player at Purdue. He was quite the recruiting get for Painter, considering he prepped at Silver Creek High School in southern Indiana. Kaufman-Renn finished runner up in Indiana’s Mr. Basketball voting to Purdue sophomore Caleb Furst.

I was most impressed with Kaufman-Renn last night (15 points, six rebounds, 6-of-7 from the field). He can score in a variety of ways, from distance and around the basket and seems to have a nose for the ball in the rebounding department. He is a very versatile, athletic player that will be a nightmare for opponents to match up with.

The other redshirt freshman is Brian Waddell, the son of former Purdue standout Matt Waddell. At 6-8, Brian is much taller than his father, but it’s scary how much the two resemble one another on the hardwood. Brian even wears his dad’s old No. 11.

Waddell is a big guard, who could provide some solid minutes off the bench. I guarantee you his basketball IQ is off the charts … after all, that’s in his DNA.

The other newcomer is Utah transfer David Jenkins Jr., and he’s a good one.

He’s that physical ball handler Purdue so desperately needed last year and he can fill it up from the outside.

Jenkins had a good debut last night scoring a dozen points and will need to be as consistent going forward if Purdue is to make a lot of noise in ’22-23. He’s the team’s lone senior and no doubt passes the eyeball test.

Of course there are familiar faces like 7-4 monster Zach Edey, who was unstoppable as one would figure against Division II Truman State out of Missouri. Edey did whatever he wanted time and again, finishing with a game-high 23 points and adding seven rebounds, two assists and two blocks in just 16 minutes of action. He was 8-of-9 from the field. Edey was a man amongst boys, but we will be saying that a lot this season.

Expect Edey to play like a man on a mission … not so much to increase his NBA Draft stock necessarily, but because he feels slighted after not being a consensus preseason All-Big Ten first-team pick or really being seriously considered for preseason conference player-of-the-year accolades.

There’s no doubt the Toronto Tower will get plenty of pub as the season moves along. Even today he was named to the NABC Preseason Player-of-the-Year Watch List.

Without question, Edey will be counted on heavily but so, too, will be veterans Brandon Newman, who scored 13 points in the exhibition.

I’m still amazed Newman stayed at Purdue after enduring way too much time on the bench a year ago. It’s a good thing he didn’t enter the transfer portal.

I strongly believe he’s Purdue’s X factor. If Newman has a breakout season, look out. He showed what kind of a player he can be in last year’s Big Ten Tournament, but he’s just scratched the surface, and I know he’s put countless of hours in working on his game.

Don’t forget about Mason Gillis either.

The New Castle native is just as important.

He does so many little things, many of which don’t show up in the box score, too.

Purdue will need his outside shooting this year, not to mention his rebounding prowess.

Edey, Gillis, Kaufman-Renn and Furst give Purdue an extremely deep and talented front court.

Furst had 11 points and six rebounds against Truman State.

The glue guy on this team is Ethan Morton, a player Painter can play at a variety of positions.

The Boilermakers weren’t very good defensively last year and if that’s going to change this time around look for Morton to be the catalyst.

Edey, Morton, Jenkins, Loyer and Smith started against Truman State, but don’t put too much credence in that.

Statistically what jumped out last night was Purdue only committed four turnovers, the first coming at the 6:48 mark of the second half. The Boilermakers must take better care of the basketball, which is something that killed them last season.

They also must improve from the foul line. Last night they hit 12-of-19 freebies.

So don’t put much if any stock in the exhibition game. The real fun begins Tuesday when the season officially opens for Purdue with a home title against Milwaukee, a team that finished 10-22 last season, including 8-14 in Conference USA.

Before playing in Phil Knight’s Legacy tournament later this month – that features West Virginia, Gonzaga, Duke, Xavier, and Florida among others – the Boilermakers have home dates against Milwaukee, Austin Peay and Marquette.

No doubt we will have a much better read on Painter’s Boilermakers, who also face Florida State in Tallahassee Nov. 30, by the end of the month.

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