Who is Purdue?
Purdue has been that quality program that is steep in tradition, but rarely could get to the Final Four, and has never won a national title as result. That has made the Boilermakers not get the shine of Indiana.
Purdue has been to the Final Four in 1969, 1980 and now 2024. However, the program has been to the NCAA Tournament 35 times, and pretty regularly since 1983. Purdue has made the Sweet 16 in 14 years.
When it comes to Big Ten success, the league was formed in 1896. Purdue won 13 regular season titles before 1940, and 13 championships in 1969.
The two players most basketball fans consider as Purdue loyalty are guard Rick Mount, small forward Glenn Robinson and now center Zach Edey. Mount is their version of David Thompson, but not for his NBA/ABA success, as he only played in the ABA. Mount was so famous in high school that he was on the cover of Sports Illustrated on Feb. 14, 1966. He was considered the “third” great player of that 1967-70 behind UCLA’s Lew Alcinder and Pete Maravich. He averaged 32.3 points per game and didn’t have the three-point shot.
Glenn “Big Dog” Robinson was a mega-recruit coming out of Gary, Ind., in a great prep class that was the year of the Fab Five at Michigan. Robinson stayed home to attend Purdue, but was an academic non-qualifier his freshman year. He averaged 24.1 points and 9.2 rebounds per game his sophomore year, and then became national player of the year after averaging 30.3 points and 10.1 rebounds a contest in 1993-94.
Robinson became the No. 1 pick in the NBA Draft over Jason Kidd and Grant Hill, and became a two-time all-star with the Milwaukee Bucks. He averaged 20.7 points and 6.1 rebounds per game 11 years.
Now, you have Edey who was lightly recruited coming out of IMG Academy in Bradenton, Fla., in the class of 2020. He is averaging 25.0 points, 12.2 rebounds and 2.2 blocks per game, and is shooting 62.4 percent from the field. He should win the player of the year awards this month.
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Purdue’s big man tradition
Edey has continued the big man tradition that Purdue has had, mostly in the 1980s and now revived the last decade or so. In terms of the past, Purdue had the No. 1 pick in the 1980 NBA Draft to the Golden State Warriors.
Carroll was famous for being part of the trade that sent Kevin McHale and Robert Parrish to the Boston Celtics. He later was traded to the Houston Rockets in the Ralph Sampson trade. He averaged 17.7 points, 9.3 rebounds and 2.8 blocks per game at Purdue from 1976-80.
Carroll was also famous for his nickname “Joe Barely Cares” in the NBA. He made one NBA All-Star team, and averaged 24.1 points and 8.7 rebounds in just his third year in the league in 1982-83. The Warriors were lackluster at that time — Eric “Sleepy” Floyd was the other star — and Carroll got partly blamed for it. He averaged 17.7 points, 7.7 rebound sand 1.6 blocks per game in 705 career games.
After Carroll, Russell Cross was a productive center from 1980-83 and made the NBA. Jim Rowinski and Steve Scheffler were tough guy productive centers.
There was a lull, but Brad Miller was a quality center from 1994-98 for Purdue and had a good NBA career. JaJuan Johnson became an NBA first-round draft pick and he averaged 20.5 points and 8.6 rebounds in 2010-2011 at Purdue.
Where it really picked up is when Purdue took some project big men who really developed well in A.J. Hammons and Isaac Haas.
Hammons averaged double figures all four years and was at 15.0 points, 8.2 rebounds and 2.6 blocks per game his senior year at 2015-16.
Haas averaged 14.7 points and 5.7 rebounds per game his senior year in 2017-18.
The rare mega recruit landed at Purdue to play with Hammons and Haas — the late Caleb “Biggie” Swanigan. He averaged 18.5 points and 12.5 rebounds per game his sophomore year at 2016-17 and turned pro. He landed at Purdue because his mentor was a former Boilermakers football player. California and Michigan State were heavily involved.
Edey also had help with Travion Wiliams, who was a skilled wide-body for the Boilermakers. Mixed in from 2017-20 was 7-3 Matt Haarms of the Netherlands.
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Two overriding themes
Purdue has had two coaches since 1980. Yes, you read that right.
Lee Rose took Purdue to the 1980 Final Four and then left for South Florida in a strained move. That led to hiring Gene Keady from Western Kentucky, and he coached from 1980-2005. Keady went to the NCAA Tournament 17 times and to the Elite Eight twice (1993-94 and 1999-00).
Keady went 512-270 overall and 265-169 in the Big Ten under Keady, with four outright Big Ten titles, and he finished tied for first twice. His battles with Indiana coach Bobby Knight were legendary, and Keady never backed down to the ultimate bully.
Keady also engineered for one of his former players to become “coach in waiting.” Painter went 25-5 at Southern Illinois in his first year in 2003-04, reaching the NCAA Tournament. In a unprecedented move in retrospect, he became Keady’s assistant coach once again in 2004-05. He took over in 2005-0 and has been rock steady every since.
Painter had a dalliance with the Missouri job in March 2011, but has never considered leaving the Boilermakers otherwise. Painter and Purdue went 29-6 last year and was upset by Fairleigh Dickinson last year in the NCAA Tournament, naturally making him the butt of jokes. Like Virginia coach Tony Bennett, he was pure class in handling losing to a No. 16 seed, and is now in the Final Four a year later.
Painter also hasn’t had a whiff of scandal, and other than a NCAA dust-up in 1996 due to then assistant coach Frank Kendrick, the program has been as clean as any in college basketball.
The other overriding theme to go along with coaching stability is that Purdue had always been one break or maybe one more key player away from breaking through.
That started in 1988 when Purdue went 29-4 and lost to coach Lon Kruger and star player Mitch Richmond and Kansas State in the Sweet 16. Purdue had the “big three” of Todd Mitchell, Troy Lewis and Everette Stephens and Mevin McCants anchored the paint. That team finished third in the final
The Associated Press poll.
The next great team was in 1993-94 with Robinson and Cuonzo Martin, but they lost to Duke in the Elite Eight. Purdue went 29-5 and finished third in the AP poll once again. Only three players averaged more than 5.4 points per game, so it was very dependent on Robinson and Martin.
The 1997-98 team was good with future NBA players Brian Cardinal and Brad Miller, along with star college guard Chad Austin. Stanford knocked them out in the Sweet 16 and the team finished 28-8.
The 2007-08 squad had four freshmen that played traveling team together and rejuvenated Purdue — E’Twaun Moore, Robbie Hummel, JaJuan Johnson and Scott Martin. Martin later transferred to Notre Dame. Purdue could never get that one more star recruit to join them and Hummel battled injuries.
Swanigan, Haas, Vince Edwards and Carsen Edwards put together a great squad in 2016-17. That team went 27-8 and reached the Sweet 16, falling to Kansas. That group had a epic multi-year run and the 2018-19 team lost a spirited battle in the Elite Eight to Virginia, which went on to win the national title.
Purdue had a two-year window with star guard Jaden Ivey, but he got too good, too fast and turned pro. His sophomore year, NC State played Purdue down to the wire in 2020-21. The Boilermakers went 29-8 and reached the Sweet 16 before getting shocked by Saint Peter’s.
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Where does Purdue recruit?
Purdue is pretty consistent about landing players that are probably around 5-6 hours drive of West Lafayette, Ind. They have landed a few McDonald’s All-American’s here and there, but they have been a “coach them up” program.
What has helped them is during times where Indiana is either trying to recruit nationally or going through coaching issues. Seven of the current players are from Indiana, and two more are coming in the class of 2025. The quintessential Purdue recruit is Braden Smith, who is the starting sophomore point guard. Purdue jumped on him early and it has worked out well.
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Another aspect that helps Purdue is if the state of Indiana has multiple good players at the same position, and that guarantees that the Boilermakers and Hoosier usually get a good in-state player.
The current roster has seven four-stars in starting power forward Trey Kaufman-Renn and starting wing Fletcher Loyer, and reserves Ethan Morton, Camden Heide, Caleb Furst, Myles Colvin and Mason Gillis.
Purdue also doesn’t use the portal much, with Southern Illinois wing Lance Jones the lone transfer. Jones has started for the Boilermakers. You might have to go back to Colorado State guard Jon Octeus in 2013-14 as the last contributing transfer.
