College Basketball Analyst Places High Expectations on Purdue for 2025-26 Season
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With the returning talent paired with the offseason additions, Purdue has emerged as one of the top contenders to win the national championship at the end of the 2025-26 college basketball season. It feels like a real opportunity for the Boilermakers to return to the Final Four for a second time in three years.
Purdue returns 86% of its offensive production from last season, highlighted by seniors Braden Smith, Fletcher Loyer, and Trey Kaufman-Renn. The Boilers also bring back guards Gicarri Harris and CJ Cox and will get 7-foot-4 center Daniel Jacobsen back from injury.
The Boilermakers also landed Oscar Cluff and Liam Murphy via the transfer portal, and added Antione West Jr. and Omer Mayer via the 2025 recruiting class.
On paper, Purdue has all the pieces to make a deep NCAA Tournament run. And, for Field of 68 analyst Rob Dauster, it's championship or bust in West Lafayette.
"They're entering the season as the preseason No. 1 team in the country, according to the Field of 68. At a minimum, a consensus top-three team in America," Dauster said. "It's national title or bust for Purdue this year. This is the year they're going to go out there and have a chance to be able to win it."
Dauster isn't the only college basketball analyst who believes that, either.
Rothstein calls in 'Final Four or bust' year for Purdue
Jon Rothstein, one of the top reporters and analysts in college basketball, agrees with Dauster's assessment. Earlier this summer, Rothstein called the 2025-26 campaign a "Final Four or bust" season for Purdue.
"It feels like a Final Four or bust type of year for Purdue, and I don't see how that sentiment can be argued," Rothstein said. "If you're Purdue, you have done the ultimate thing in retention, you have been able to retain almost 90% of your scoring from a team that came within inches of beating Houston in the Sweet 16 last March.
"Purdue returns 86% of its scoring, which includes National Player of the Year candidate Braden Smith, and also Fletcher Loyer, and Trey Kaufman-Renn. Those three players ... were all starters when Purdue went to the National Championship Game with Zach Edey in 2024 and lost to UConn."
The Boilers finished off last season with a 24-12 record, reaching the Sweet 16 round of the NCAA Tournament.
"CJ Cox, Gicarri Harris, also Purdue is going to get Daniel Jacobsen (back) ... and they're going to add Oscar Cluff, a transfer big man from South Dakota State. So, the Purdue team that we saw last year, lose in the Sweet 16 to Houston, is going to bring back four starters, and it's going to add major reinforcements in Jacobsen and Cluff.
"To me, Purdue is the No. 1 team entering the 2025-26 college basketball season."
Will this be the year Matt Painter and the Boilermakers cut down the nets?
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Dustin Schutte is the publisher of Purdue Boilermakers on SI and has spent more than a decade working in sports journalism. His career began in 2013, when he covered Big Ten football. He remained in that role for eight years before working at On SI to cover the Boilermakers. Dustin graduated from Manchester University in Indiana in 2010, where he played for the men's tennis team.
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